Hours of the Whale

Charley Marie’s debut album, Hours of the Whale, is a reflection on the transience of life — a meditation on how we, as humans, are merely part of nature and its impermanence. The recurring image of a stranded whale serves as a metaphorical thread throughout the work. With genre-defying arrangements featuring clarinet, strings, and guitar, the music drifts between folk-pop and chamber music, creating an idiosyncratic dream world that feels almost like a musical audiobook.

Drawing from classical chamber music, singer-songwriter Charley Marie crafts distinctive folk songs. Her tender voice, scenographic lyrics, and refined arrangements with guitar, strings, and clarinet are her signature. She studied at the Utrecht Conservatory's Musician 3.0 programme, where she discovered the classical idiom as a new source of inspiration and blended it with influences from artists such as Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell.