WL//WH Review VIOLET NOX
Photo by Alexis Desjardins
Violet Nox is an Electronic Ambient duo from Boston, Massachusetts led by Dez DeCarlo (synth, guitar, vocals, granular/robotic effects and lyrics) and Andrew Abrahamson (synthesis and clocked machines,), who illuminate the outer dimensions of Dark Experimental/Psychedelic/Ambient sounds along with collaborators Alexis Desjardins (saxophone, piano, guitar, kalimba) Fen Rotstein (vocals, sampling, digital turntables), Noell Dorsey (vocals and lyrics,) and Karen Zanes (vocals and lyrics).
The project’s latest immersive aural hallucinatory 5-track fourth album, “Eris Wakes”, blends the organic sentience of guitar, saxophone, piano, and native instrumentation with the other-worldly mental ambience of synthetic assortments, synthesizers, effect pedals, clocked machines, robotic effects, and digital turntables, to carry the minimal yet dynamic atmospherics of vocal, lyrical interpretations into dreamy visualizations, transformative emotions, and cathartic releases from the vast, unexplored subliminal dwellings of the human mind.
The mesmerising opening “Spaceport 5” sneaks into a sci-fi poem about transformation to ebb and flow in cool heady dilations, amid a dual vocality of celestial whispers and vocoder-infused whirrs, emerging fragile and ghostlike within rolling, hypnotic beats, in-coming warm tones, and stellar sonic zips and zaps to open the depth defying excursion into new cosmic territories of change.
“Eris” builds anticipation with a more prominent vocal urgency whilst light mesmeric beats and tinny drips drive anxious moods through ominous synth swells and poignant undulating bass tones to drone in sentient vibrations of fear amid nervous guitar splinter expansions as primal waves of exotic frequencies, taking the listener deeper into a subconscious suspension of surreal thought.
The shimmering and hypnotizing “Bellatrix” evokes upbeat vibes of manifesting dreams, shifting dark to light with a misty dawning sky of ecstatic visions flowing into soft heart-beating palpitations and low croaking repetitions, radiant echoing reverberations, dramatic keyboard melodies and comforting vocalizations to clear nocturnal shadows of doubt with dawning sunrays of hope.
Swishing and sizzling, “Magnetar” enters the transcendent arena of levelling up with intention, caution, and curiosity to etch mercurial moods through smoothly crispy percussive patterns, swirling spatial effects, and whirring frequencies around stripped down vocals of breathless agony and ecstasy.
“Ghost Star” enshrouds the cathartic listening experience of “Eris Wakes” in a bewitching fusion of 32 GB warbling ecstasies and sparkling distorted guitar slivers, amid brittle pinpoint beats, icy bright whirling synth constellations, and rising energies to invoke eternal from the lost and lonely plague of disconnected despair.
Written during the worldwide pandemic in 2021, “Eris Wakes” represents the current rebellious transitional unstable times we are in. Eris is the Goddess warrior of discord and chaos, a dwarf planet, the Star Child, the trans-Neptunian object. Her energy flowed freely through Violet Nox during the creation of this album to harness an uninhibited depth of psychic reflections and hidden shadows from which the essence of “Eris Wakes” tunes and harmonizes.
Violet Nox‘s 5-track album, “Eris Wakes”, is out now, digitally, co-released through Infinity Vine Records (US) and Aumega Project (Germany). A limited run of CDs will be available from Infinity Vine Records.
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