Tulpa by Charmaine Lee

Tulpa is the most ambitious album yet from New York–based vocalist and electronics artist Charmaine Lee, following her acclaimed debut KNVF (Erratum Musical, 2021). Where earlier works explored sculptural delicacy, Tulpa arrives with immediacy and intensity, unflinching in its integration of raw human voice and processing, dissolving boundaries between organic and synthetic sound.

Inspired by the physicality and futurism of ’70s rock and the esoteric edges of tube amplification, Lee channels that energy into a densely layered and tactile listening experience—at once timelessly analog and futuristically digital.

Produced by Randall Dunn and recorded at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY, Tulpa embraces spatialized sound through the splitting of Lee’s signal across vintage tube amplifiers and direct input. The result is a spectrum of feedback, color, and dimensional shifts, moving fluidly from microscopic detail to expansive complexity while maintaining visceral clarity.

The title, drawn from Tibetan mysticism, refers to a being or object conjured through thought and imagination—mirroring Lee’s own practice, where sound becomes both material and illusion, embodied and ephemeral. Closing with a meditative duo featuring Ned Rothenberg on bass clarinet, Tulpa nods to Noh theatre while opening onto new horizons of Lee’s artistic evolution.

As her first solo release on Kou Records, the New York–based label she founded in 2025, Tulpa also inaugurates a curatorial vision dedicated to artists who are uncompromising in craft and curiosity.

Charmaine Lee is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Charmaine uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice.

Image by Ebru Yildiz

charmainelee.com