Fay Victor at Ibeam Brooklyn

When Fay Victor found herself struggling to break into New York City’s jazz scene in the ‘90s, the singer and composer took a gamble on moving to Amsterdam to hone her voice and develop her improvisational instincts. By day, she’d ride her bike to the library and pick up albums and sheet music to play on her piano at home. During nights, she immersed herself in the city’s vivid avant-garde music clubs and venues—a move that transformed Victor from a straight ahead jazz singer into a daring vocal improviser. Over 20 years later, Victor has revisited these Amsterdam compositions for Barn Songs, her tenth album as a bandleader. Recording alongside cellist Marika Hughes and alto saxophonist Darius Jones, the experimental project came to fruition in a tumble-down barn Hughes owns in the northern foothills of the bucolic Catskills Mountains. The trio turned the building into an organic recording compound for three days, complete with passings birds and squirrels adding naturalistic ambience to the mix. Remarkably, the songs Victor wrote while living another life in another country reveal themselves to be prescient commentary on the modern way we live today....

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When Fay Victor found herself struggling to break into New York City’s jazz scene in the ‘90s, the singer and composer took a gamble on moving to Amsterdam to hone her voice and develop her improvisational instincts. By day, she’d ride her bike to the library and pick up albums and sheet music to play on her piano at home. During nights, she immersed herself in the city’s vivid avant-garde music clubs and venues—a move that transformed Victor from a straight ahead jazz singer into a daring vocal improviser. Over 20 years later, Victor has revisited these Amsterdam compositions for Barn Songs, her tenth album as a bandleader. Recording alongside cellist Marika Hughes and alto saxophonist Darius Jones, the experimental project came to fruition in a tumble-down barn Hughes owns in the northern foothills of the bucolic Catskills Mountains. The trio turned the building into an organic recording compound for three days, complete with passings birds and squirrels adding naturalistic ambience to the mix. Remarkably, the songs Victor wrote while living another life in another country reveal themselves to be prescient commentary on the modern way we live today.

Victor first began thinking about revisiting her Amsterdam work in 2015, when she was once again living in New York City and holding a monthly residency at 55 Bar in Manhattan’s West Village. Jones and Hughes would play at the sessions, which evolved into Barn Songs. The idea of songs having the potential to change and grow is one that Victor came to embrace throughout the process. "The songs are like children,” says Victor, who also wrote two new compositions (“Talk Talk,” “Dream State”) for the album. “Songs take on a life of their own and go in ways you had no idea. When my husband [Jochem van Dijk] and I first wrote these songs, it was one life and idea. All these years later, things have erupted out of them I'd have never foreseen."

Victor points to "Nico" as the most radically transformed composition. On 2004's Lazy Old Sun album, Victor trills against a heady backing of scratchy guitar and rolling double bass. Updated for Barn Songs, “Nico” opens with Victor's gospel-infused scatting over wavering sax and undulating cello. The interplay and appreciation of open musical spaces between Victor’s voice and the instruments conjures an elegiac tone: The lyrics, which are relayed in Dutch, pay tribute to a friend's father who'd take his horse-drawn wagon into town on Sundays and offer rides to local children.

The theme of seeking out human companionship and compassion repeats through Barn Songs. Victor wrote the bluesy "Sometimes" when text messaging began to take off. The lyrics lament an "information overload" and “dealing with the trivial things that take up meaningful hours in my day.” These sentiments resonate even more tellingly in today’s social media era. "It's the sense the world is changing and can you keep up?" explains Victor.

The intimate and humanistic heart of Barn Songs is encapsulated most tenderly by “Last Night’s Dinner.” Victor sketches a warm scene about cooking chicken stew and callaloo for friends and enjoying long conversations. The song was composed as a plea against "faceless communication.” This new take prompts memories of simpler times with simpler pleasures—and Barn Songs settles as a reminder that sometimes life’s humblest moments are the most treasured ones.

The theme of seeking out human companionship and compassion repeats through Barn Songs. Victor wrote the bluesy "Sometimes" when text messaging began to take off. The lyrics lament an "information overload" and “dealing with the trivial things that take up meaningful hours in my day.” These sentiments resonate even more tellingly in today’s social media era. "It's the sense the world is changing and can you keep up?" explains Victor.

The intimate and humanistic heart of Barn Songs is encapsulated most tenderly by “Last Night’s Dinner.” Victor sketches a warm scene about cooking chicken stew and callaloo for friends and enjoying long conversations. The song was composed as a plea against "faceless communication.” This new take prompts memories of simpler times with simpler pleasures—and Barn Songs settles as a reminder that sometimes life’s humblest moments are the most treasured ones.

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