11/04/2022
Thank you for this beautiful review of
Violet Nox new record “Eris Wakes.” 💜💛
I came across the American, Boston-based group Violet Nox through the innovative label Reverb Worship and its sublabel Sleep FUSE. They initially bring a rather experimental xenogamy of drones, industrial, post-punk and ambient, immersing it in a 4AD-like veneer. After their debut Nebula (2017), the mini albums Twin Flame (2018), Future Fast (2020) and Whispering Galaxy (2021) appear successively. As the years go by, they are heading more towards a kind of cosmic ambient, where also more vocals are used. The latter more as an instrument, whereby it is also often wordless. They grew from a quartet in the beginning to a sextet, which besides the two core members Dez DeCarlo (synthesizers, guitar, vocals, grainy/robot effects, lyrics) and Andrew Abrahamson (machines) consists of Alexis Desjardins (guitar, saxophone, piano, thumb piano), Fen Rotstein (vocals, turntables, samples), Noell Dorsey (vocals, lyrics) and Karen Zanes (vocals, lyrics). Now they are back with yet another mini album, Eris Wakes, which consists of 5 tracks of a total of 26 minutes long and is wrapped in a beautiful cover design by Jeff Bartell. They pick up where they left off last time and add soft beats, post-punk and shoegaze elements to their ambient sound. The vocals once again play an ethereal, wordless role, but can also be heard verbatim on a regular basis, as for example in the magnificent "Magnetar". They still evoke memories of music from the past like This Mortal Coil, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Black Tape For A Blue Girl and Sleeping Dogs Wake, but also references like The Knife, Indian Jewelry and Orbital pass by. Actually, you could say that Violet Nox just created their own music category. In today's music landscape, that is not only impressive, it is also of a profound beauty.