Silvae by Violet Nox

"In ancient myths, the forest was considered a place of transition – between humans and gods, sleep and wakefulness, sound and silence. This liminal space also seems to live on in the strangely psychedelic-poppy electronic music of Violet Nox. Her new album “Silvae,” named after the Latin word for “forests,” opens up such an imaginary grove of sounds, in which stars, living beings, andMachines enter into a secret dialogue, creating a structure in which one can quickly get lost as in a labyrinthine thicket, yet ultimately find many wondrous things.

The very first minutes of the album hint that Violet Nox have created something multifaceted. The Boston-based trio – Dez DeCarlo, Andrew Abrahamson (both primarily responsible for synths and other electronics) and singer Noell Dorsey – unfolds on their eighth full-length album, following a masterful interpretation of Roky Erickson's "Stand for the Fire Demon ," a dense web of electronic structures, pulsating rhythms, and ethereal vocals that is simultaneously hypnotic, unsettling, and possesses a unique beauty.

“Spectre,” the over seven-minute-long opener, begins with shimmering rhythms and nocturnal synth waves before Dorsey’s voice makes its presence felt—initially half-veiled by the dense, overgrown instrumental details, until it soars to unexpected heights. The music remains in constant motion, and despite the gentle melodies of the synths, an underlying tension builds. Here, as throughout the rest of the album, the voice occasionally achieves that otherworldly intensity one associates with Lisa Gerrard, also mentioned in the liner notes; in fact, at certain points on the album, I was even reminded of her Dead Can Dance bandmate Brendan Perry and his vocal performance in “The Carnival is Over.”

In “Wanderlust” and “Whisper,” whose sonic and linguistic details repeatedly evoke the liminal atmosphere of sacred groves and similarly enchanted places, tremulous, sometimes nostalgic electronic textures combine with driving rhythms and vocal accents reminiscent of 1970s films. “Serenade,” with its vocals sounding as if through a tinted pane, takes this tendency further, becoming more techno-oriented, with pulsating structures that oscillate between understatement and drama. “Arcturus,” which begins with a barely intelligible loudspeaker announcement, turns out to be—apart from the humming sound, which could also be a human voice—an instrumental piece, contrasting ecstatic rhythms with orchestral synth pads. The album concludes with “Meniscus”, which, with its clear, present vocals and epic undertones, bridges the gap to earlier, somewhat more clearly structured works by the trio.

Which brings us to a particular point: Thanks to numerous sound and rhythmic details that consistently allow for a subtle and seemingly deliberate sense of derangement, and also occasionally possess a slightly brittle quality, the tracks on “Silvae” are somewhat less immediately catchy than earlier works. But it is precisely this elusive quality that constitutes the special appeal of the new album. Those who manage to penetrate this layer and penetrate to the heart of the music, to the temple amidst the seemingly impenetrable, will be rewarded with a strangely nocturnal, almost ethereal beauty that only gradually reveals itself. Behind the surface, which is always subtly unsettled, a finely tuned interplay of rhythm, melody, and atmosphere unfolds, possessing a unique and captivating allure."
https://africanpaper.com/2025/11/01/violet-nox-silvae/


"Building new worlds, futuristic landscapes and intergalactic safe havens in the wake of vapour trails of laconic, hypnotizing new age psy-trance mysticism, Violet Nox once more embrace Gaia, Greek mythological etymology, astrology and science-fiction/fact on their latest album, the poetically entitled Silvae.

The Boston, Massachusetts trio of synthesists and electronic crafters Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson, and airy searching siren vocalist and caller Noell Dorsey occupy a dreamy ethereal plane that fits somewhere between Richard H. Kirk’s Sandoz, Vangelis, Lisa Gerrard, Banco de Gaia and ecological revering dance music – though that trio has expanded its ranks, indeed very pliable, over the course of the last decade.

On their eighth album together (released via the highly prolific and influential North American label Somewherecold Records) the topics of identity, androgyny, resolution, self-discovery, self-love and resistance are lifted towards the stars, pumped and projected through the veils of ambience, trance, dub, EDM, rave, electro-pop, cold wave, techno and more. The trio dreamingly, and in the moment, explore new textures, dynamics and atmospheres, and perhaps, produce their finest work to date: certainly, in places, the sound is more electronic-pop, with vague traces of New Order, Propaganda’s Claudia Brücken and 808 State – their sort of melodica like flutiness especially.

With references, title wise and lyrically to ancient Greek named guardian stars (“Arcturus”, brightest star in the Boötes constellation, notable for its seemingly red colouring, and observed, described by Ptolemy and Chaucer) and the ghostly visages of deep space to the “crescent” shaped cartilage of the knee (“Meniscus”), the album’s themes explore protection, recovery and pain (both physical and mental). Through the beckoning, the near operatic at times scaling, and drifted vocals of Dorsey they find relief, a second chance, in an astrosphere of near organic and sophisticated synthesizer and electronic apparatus plug-ins, effects, pads and keys. And sounds at any one time like a merger between Tangerine Dream, LFO and Massive Attack.

Whether it’s journeying into the subconscious or leaving for celestial rendezvous, Violet Nox turns the vaporous into an electronic art form that’s simultaneously yearning and mysterious, cinematic and ready for the dance floor. Fizzing with techy sophistication and escapism, the American electronic group continue to map out fresh cerebral sonic visions on their new, and again, possibly best album yet."

https://monolithcocktail.com/2025/10/20/the-digest-for-october-2025-new-music-the-social-playlist-and-archives/
~Dominic

"Violet Nox, the Boston-based electronic trio, returns with their eighth album, “Silvae”, via Somewherecold Records.

Bridging prismatic facets of ambience, trance, dub, EDM, rave, electro-pop, cold wave and techno into a surreal, entrancing, and vivid genre-bending whole, the six-track collection is an imaginative and transformative sonic landscape shaped by Dez DeCarlo’s intricate synthetic frameworks, layered effects, and evolving iterations, and Andrew Abrahamson’s fusion of textured synths, samples, and clock-driven machines, where Noell Dorsey’s hauntingly organic vocals usher listeners through the thought-provoking environs, with her evocative lyricism, emotional depth and introspection.

The opener “Spectre” slowly builds a haunting in-between realm where passionate articulations discuss grades of awareness amidst a keen symmetry of hypnotic and animating textures. A fleeting flute-like ending stirs the listener into the reverberating, atmospheric, edgy pads of “Wanderlust,” scattered by nervous knocks, sparse sharp hits, grim gurgling bottom loops, and a glowing, desolate string wandering, to engulf soulful vocal harmonies whilst pondering unreachable heights.

The droning, pulsating reiterations of “Whisper” evoke a sense of disruption and off-kilterness using a glassy and buzzing array of synth and clocked machines around desperate vocals, wearily travelling down a road of inspiration, dreams, and desire.

Revolving around a sneakingly nagging low end, “Serenade” bridges the second part of the sonic journey, shifting into an obsessive, sinister mood to probe memory and the inner spark, submerging layered expressions, but for moments of crystalline lucidity, with an assault of disconnected jarred frequencies, seamlessly ensued by the busy percussive instrumental number “Arcturus”, blending brisk, stabbing melodies with muffled, bouncy tribal patterns, indecipherable voice clips, and expanding lonesome synthetic horizons, to slow things down with the soul-stirring, evocative cosmic close “Meniscus” that finds the traveler waiting in uncertainty, behind an ocean, before a final, high, quivering cry.

“Silvae” is a sensorial journey, a delicate interplay of light and shadow, clarity and mystique, fantasy and reality wrapped in a cinematographic aesthetic, to conjure up both nostalgia and contemplation. It invites full immersion, stimulating the body, mind, and soul with a finely tuned balance of universal consciousness and infinite imagination."

https://www.whitelight-whiteheat.com/wl-wh-review-violet-nox-balance-universal-consciousness-and-infinite-imagination-in-silvae-somewherecold-records-aumega-project/
~Catherine Gillette


Building new worlds, futuristic landscapes and intergalactic safe havens in the wake of vapour trails of laconic, hypnotizing new age psy-trance mysticism, Violet Nox once more embrace Gaia, Greek mythological etymology, astrology and science-fiction/fact on their latest album, the poetic Silvae.

The Boston, Massachusetts trio of synthesists and electronic crafters Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson, and airy searching siren vocalist and caller Noell Dorsey occupy a dreamy ethereal plane that fits somewhere between Richard H. Kirk’s Sandoz, Vangelis, Claudia Brücken, Lisa Gerrard, Banco de Gaia and ecological revering dance music.

On their eighth album together (released via the highly prolific and influential North American label Somewherecold Records) the topics of identity, androgyny, resolution, self-discovery, self-love and resistance are lifted towards the stars, pumped and projected through the veils of ambience, trance, dub, EDM, rave, electro-pop, cold wave and techno.

Whether it’s journeying into the subconscious or leaving for celestial rendezvous, Violet Nox turns the vaporous into an electronic art form that’s simultaneously yearning and mysterious, cinematic and ready for the dance floor. Fizzing with techy sophistication and escapism, the American electronic group continues to map out a fresh cerebral sonic vision.

With their reputation growing all the while as they gather attention and plaudits from the blogosphere (making the Monolith Cocktail’s choice & favourite choice albums lists on numerous occasions), radio and press, and work across various multimedia spaces (from museums to galleries), the trio dreamingly, and in the moment, explore new textures, dynamics and atmospheres.

https://linktr.ee/VioletNox