The mesmerizing alt-folk songs of Amsterdam-based singer-songwriter VanWyck are sometimes sparse and intimate, sometimes darkly overpowering. With her warm, earthy voice, rich lyrics and enchanting melodies, she weaves a tapestry of stories. Stories about everyday struggling women, or mythical ones that roam our history. About a drowning girl, a whispering garbageman, a raging goddess or a lost alcoholic. With every listen, more layers to her songs present themselves. “I need songwriting to make sense of things, to find words for things, to search the corners of my mind that can’t be reached in other ways. It’s also the thing I enjoy most, this playing with melodies and words, this mysterious twisting and threading. This thing that cannot be pinned down, but is just there somehow, at your fingertips.” With five albums out to international acclaim VanWyck’s intriguing body of work has drawn comparisons with Leonard Cohen, Natalie Merchant and PJ Harvey. But it’s when she’s performing live on stage with her band that a whole new captivating register to her music opens up: “Performing is the sincerest kind of exchange with the audience. It creates a sort of synergy, you’re elevated together.”