The Violet Hour's Debut

The debut from the Baltimore duo The Violet Hour originally birthed in 2007. However, it is seeing the light of day this month. The disc is set to release via Creative Capitalism on September 19th.

It would have been a real shame if this one never made it out to welcoming ears, as it's one of the more beautiful local releases I've heard so far this year.

The Violet Hour is Andriana Pateris and Beth Varden, both sharing vocal and musical contributions on this 7 song album. The end result an aurally mesmerizing trip into deep minds via white clouds and open space, a scene that's hand-painted on the cover art.

No drums necessary, each of these tracks builds from calm reserve into expansive sonics using repetitive guitar chords that grow in layers. One of the highlights of bands like Wye Oak is their ability bring a song up and down so elegantly, but The Violet Hour does all this without the accompanying noise.

This album is a steady grower, perfect for late nights or with a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning. Each song possesses blissfully hypnotic moments, most of which require increased listens to unlock. There is a plethora of deep psychedelics, drenched in swirling transcedence. My personal favorite has been "XXXVI". This is a track that lifts you high enough that you might not come down, perfect as an album's closing number.

With production by Rob Girardi, the sound is quite clean, particularly on the vocals. I highly recommend picking this one up, and you can do so at the album release party. The Violet Hour are playing a joint release show with Sri Aurobindo at the Metro Gallery on September 19th. Sri Aurobindo are releasing a disc of their own that night, and I'll have thoughts on that next week as I'm still digesting it's magnitude.