- Violet's sometimes jungly, sometimes ambient album is a symphony for everyday tasks like reading, taking the bus and cleaning the house.
- A healthy routine can be the difference between a good day and a bad one, and even the smallest unexpected change can throw a wrench into things. In Violet's case, a bad fall after a gig in late 2018 left her with a broken leg, plenty of canceled gigs and a scrambled equilibrium even before the time-altering pandemic began. (In a display of remarkable tenacity, she eventually ended up performing her sets in a wheelchair.) You can imagine just how badly her daily routine had been compromised. "I miss doing house stuff," she told DJ Mag in an interview shortly after the incident—house as in home, not the genre, although probably that too. Her latest album Transparências is both an ode to and soundtrack of sorts for the "mundane activities" that we take for granted.
Transparências is an introspective work of musique concréte that energizes its surroundings with raw spirit and purpose. Each track is labeled and intentionally composed to supplement a specific chore, pleasure or necessity. At times the music feels like darkly tinted ambient inspired by composers like Delia Derbyshire and Wendy Carlos, while at other moments it's jazz interwoven with jungle. Violet's willingness to play around with different influences and genres gives each track on Transparências its own vibe, though the LP is held together by a dreamy, spaced-out ambience.
The layers of juxtaposing sounds on Transparências represent how each quotidian activity has the potential to evoke different feelings depending on when, where and how it unfolds. Take "Musica para andar de transportes" ("music for public transport")—it kicks off with slow, rhythmic industrial percussion, only to hurry into some frantic synths and brash horns, like the start of rush hour on a subway. On "Música para acordar" ("music to wake up to"), pillars of synth rise and fall until the track's energy plateaus, embodying that early morning state of flux.
The careful rhythmic interplay and the ways in which purpose informs texture on Transparências are testament to the fact Violet isn't trying to merely represent tasks like reading and dancing through sound. Instead, she's trying to make us more mindful of how we do them. "Música para adormecer" ("music for sleeping") is the most naturalistic moment on the album, laced with the sounds of birds chirping and a delicate pulse that could double as binaural beats. From the title, you might expect "Música para ler" ("music for reading") to be similarly docile, and that's how it begins, at least. It's a freeform jazzy cloud of sound that eventually detonates into rattling drums and raw tension, like an epiphany unfolding or the major plot point of a novel being revealed.
Soundtracks are typically reserved for significant moments in a film or TV show. Transparências is more like a score for daily life, staking the claim that there can be spiritual significance in everyday acts. Each track is intricately layered yet straightforward with intent, and the LP moves with purpose and as well as a sense of adventure from start to finish. Violet acknowledges not only the importance of daily tasks, but also the value of appreciating them—even the healthiest routine, after all, can lead to autopilot or boredom. These lush and dynamic soundscapes offer a solution to this predicament by challenging us to be more immersed in our daily lives and reconnect what we feel with what we do.
Tracklist01. Música para acordar
02. Música para ler feat. Phoebe
03. Música para contemplar a natureza
04. Música para limpar e arrumar feat. BLEID
05. Música para fazer arte
06. Música para andar de transportes
07. Música para cantar no banho
08. Música para passear o cão à noite
09. Música para dançar
10. Música para adormecer