Colorfully, Collectively Versatile

Azerbaijan  |  Experimental

Do you ever listen to artists that refuse to conform to any specific genre? Ones that can bend and break boundaries of genres at the snap of their fingers? It’s probably not very often that you come across musicians quite like that.

While there are several musicians and bands out there holding claim to the “experimental” genre, I find few appealing to my ears due to them being SO FAR OUTSIDE THE BOX… my ears, my mind just can’t tolerate their music usually. But, Violet Cold? He’s a whole other animal.

INTRO/HISTORY/BACKGROUND

FACTS:

• Formed in 2013
  
• A one-man band
• Not a whole lot is known about the artist himself… just bits and pieces
• 7 albums out to date, not including two instrumental versions
• Spreads across the most unlikely of genres, from pretty, instrumental/classical stuff to post-rock to metal

Violet Cold is the brainchild of one Emin Guliyev, a self-trained, DIY musician from Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku. When I say “DIY”, I mean it to the very core, down to the mixing and mastering. He plays every instrument and even growls out the vocals (when necessary). Other than one interview I could find online, Emin appears to keep to himself, rather than stir up controversy or put forth any sort of image that would draw away from his music. And I think that is probably due to a few things, but I would guess that the emotion one can find within his music would be a pretty big reason for him to not want to overshadow his compositions.

THE MUSIC

He has released an album every year since 2014, and this year? Well, he released a trilogy. YEP. YOU HEARD ME. A TRILOGY. And it’s pretty epic. It’s instrumental and super gorgeous. But, we’ll get to that later. The year 2014 saw his first release, Lilu, an 8-song album that is all sorts of ambient and chill af. The fact that this was his debut is astounding solely due to how good it sounds. You’d never know this dude flew by the seat of his pants and just figured things out as he went along. It’s insane. In short, Lilu has all the makings for a soundtrack of an indie film with no dialogue, that is expressed only in the emotions… the expressions of the actors. There are so many emotions and Emin seems to capture them all, throughout all 8 songs.

Then comes Desperate Dreams. You’ve never heard an album quite like this before.

It starts out all pretty piano-like and then thrusts you into this like, random 80’s electropop metalgaze (shoegaze-metal) universe that well, I’ve never heard of in my whole damn 31 years of existence. The mixture is so insane! Growling, eroded vocals, drums that are going nuts and synths. YEP. SYNTHESIZERS. The tempo goes from 0 to 60 in under 3 minutes after the dramatic piano intro and then there’s no going back for you. You’ll either be overwhelmed by being thrown to the crazy tempo wolves or you’ll sit there and just appreciate the immensely impressive and different music that was created. It’s not until you reach the outro at the end that you’ll be able to catch your breath again.

Magic Night arrived to listeners’ ears early on in 2016, and features run times of past 5 minutes (some past 7!) on the majority of the songs. It’s as though he took Black Metal and mixed it with Symphonic Metal and then mixed it further with Post Rock goodness. The drums be crazy on this one, and are probably the most “metal” thing found in the music overall. Oh, and there’s no vocals on this one whatsoever. The last 3 tracks on this one are very epic and end the album in such a flawless way that it’s hard to describe. You’re just have to take a listen yourself. (Tracks 7-9, Silver Moon Pt. 1, Silver Moon Pt. 2, and Last Day on Earth)

2017 saw the release of Anomie, one of his more talked about records and one that is lightyears heavier than all his other records to date. There’s a bunch of growling, of which you cannot make out the words, along with very interesting, attention-keeping dynamics. Like, for instance, in the title track Anomie where he goes from drumming like a crazy person to a complete drop off where it opens up to an almost spiritual experience, one that is ethereal where there is nothing but a gleaming noise at first. Then, a low horn sound pops in and then a tribal drum and then more of a middle eastern, higher-pitched horn can be heard in spatterings. And then you enter into a lighter, more post-rock atmosphere. IT’S INSANE… THE TRANSITIONS ARE CRUCIAL… AND HE MAKES IT LOOK SO EASY. It soon goes back into the metal flavors, mixing it with an eastern flair as a combo deal and you couldn’t be happier with the end result. If you think that that’s a fluke track, then don’t kid yourself. The other 5 songs on it are just as good and dynamic.

 

And then there were THREE. Well, a trilogy, really. Sommermorgen, Pt. I: Innocence, Sommermorgen, Pt. II: Joy, and Sommermorgan, Pt. III: Nostalgia, all dropped on June 1 of this year, and contain a totality of 28 songs throughout the volumes. While the feelings of post-rock are still evident here, it is for the most part, a tamer, softer and more gentle side of the composer and is really perfect for a night in, sipping on cocoa (or wine) and reading a good book. The perfect ambience if you like a little bit of rock in your instrumental regimen. Each song, carefully crafted, seems to just blend in with the next and so on and so forth and feature beautiful song titles in both German and English: Luftschloss (Castle in the Air), Nur Die Sonne Ware Zeuge (Only the Sun Was Witness) and Ein Hauch Von Ewigkeit (A Breath of Eternity). Well, most of the titles are pretty anyway… there is one called Penguins Commit Suicide (No, I’m not kidding). Each part of the trilogy, each chapter, seems fitting to it’s title, Innocence, Joy and Nostalgia. The third part, Nostalgia feels like an ending of life in the most cinematic of ways, with just a bit of melancholy thrown in and a bit more rock to it’s ambience, which felt quite fitting to the final chapter.

OH… AND I DIDN’T EVEN MENTION THE HUGE AMOUNT OF SINGLES HE’S RELEASED EITHER. Singles in genres of jazz and even his experimentation with the electronic universe. Whoops. No time for that, unfortunately. But Spotify should have most of them on hand if you so dare to check them out.

It’s hard to do Emin’s music justice when using words, so it’s best just to give it a listen and see if his experimental stuff is anything you desire more of. Because, according to Echoes and Dust, he has a WHOLE LOT MORE MUSIC TO COME.

 

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