Biography
French-born Charlotte moved to London in 1995 after growing up in a small town in Pays de la Loire. She had a brief spell in a band there, but found that in London, “music is just so much more a part of the culture, unconsciously here, music comes to you. ”
In ‘97, two years after she arrived, she recorded a duet with Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins, a single, “In My Place” - a Robert Mitchum cover. Le Volume Courbe - it means “the volume curve” - is the name of a sculpture by an old friend in France, called Marcel Marionneau. “When I was a teenager, I’d loved this sculpture, and when I needed a band name it suddenly hit me. The beauty is, it can mean so many different things. I also dream of converting the waves of the curves on an electrocardiogram machine, from someone in a coma, into music - I’m still looking into the practicalities of that.”
Settling in England, Charlotte began composing and making tracks, receiving vital encouragement from musicians like Hope Sandoval, Kevin Shields, David Roback and Colm O’Ciosoig, all of whom contributed to her debut album, most of which was recorded at home. “Kevin and Hope were very important to that project. They were the first artists that I respected to say I should make it happen, and I trusted their opinion. These people gave me confidence.” in 2001, a single - “Harmony” - with Alan McGee’s Poptones label ensued; giving Charlotte the opportunity to craft slowly but surely her distinctive material, a breathless band apart.
In 2005 her first album “I Killed My Best Friend”, on the Honest Jon’s label, was “a punk record, but not rock”, named after the first song she ever wrote. Inspired by the do-your-own-thing ethos of Nico, Yoko Ono, The Ramones, she crafted a curious, quirky, bittersweet mix of melancholy and mischief. “If you sometimes don’t know exactly what you’re doing, then it’s automatically original.
Since the first album, Le Volume Courbe have supported My Bloody Valentine at the legendary Roundhouse shows of 2008 and popped up subversively in some unlikely places. The “Freight Train” single emerged in 2007, and graced the soundtrack of high-profile Channel 4 TV drama Skins. Other tracks to feature in films include “I Killed My Best Friend” in the Lindy Heymann film “Kicks”, and “I Love The Living You”, which scored the final scenes of the Nick Moran film “The Kid”. LVC also contributed a track to the Roky Erickson tribute album “The Psychedelic Sounds of the Sonic Cathedral”.
From 2007 to 2013 Charlotte started playing live with her friends and band : Mel Draisey, Theodore Hall, Chris Mackin, Wildcat, Lascelle Gordon and Barney Slater who all contributed to the “Theodaurus Rex” EP in 2011 and album “I Wish Dee Dee Ramone was here with me” released in 2015.
Charlotte once studied film and photography – the EP “Theodaurus Rex” and the second album’s cover used an image by a 1920s Belgian surrealist artist, Paul Nouge – and is a fan of Cocteau, Polanski, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Joanna Hogg. Seeing Viv Albertine in Hogg’s Exhibition, she was prompted to read Albertine’s book and “totally fell in love with this woman! It was so brave. The attitude is incredible. She’s really real. I like women who do their own thing.”
In 2017, Charlotte contributed vocals to the Noel Gallagher’s high flying birds track “It’s a Beautiful World”. She also performed in the Noel Gallagher videos “Holy Mountain” and “Beautiful World”. In 2018 and 2019 she joined the Noel Gallagher world tour and performed on the scissors during “She Taught Me How To Fly” and featured in “Black Star Dancing” and “This is The Place” videos.
In 2019 her track “Born to lie” featured in Killing Eve (Serie 2 Episode 6) and also featured on the Killing Eve compilation.
Spotify has just voted her track “Rusty” from her second album one of the best tracks of the last decade and selected it for their 00 compilation.
After a cancer diagnostic last year Charlotte felt the urge to produce and release music this year “it became like a vital thing” and produced the B side “MRI song” and “Planet Ping Pong” during her chemotherapy treatment.
The cover artwork is by English artist and friend John Stezaker who will be producing the three covers as a triptych to unify the EP’s as the third album.
After 25 years in London she moved to Brighton a few days before lockdown.
The originality of her music shares something with outsider art: naïve, primitive, primal, rather than following the standard rules. Unique, radical and rich with personality, Le Volume Courbe’s playful, powerful songs of innocence and intrigue are, once heard, not easily forgotten.