‘Seasons’ is the latest album to see the light of day by courtesy of Nonviolenze, a musician who is also a poet and a painter. The lead single from the upcoming album – ‘Green’ – aims to bring this background in visual art and metrical songwriting to the forefront of his musical output as a creative. Available to buy and stream everywhere on July 27th, ‘Seasons’ has been mixed and mastered by Grammy award-winning engineer Jorge Santos and it has been designed with the aim of replicating the intricate layering and careful editing of a sculpture in musical form in mind.
Nonviolenze is really the solo music project of Indian-born composer and singer-songwriter Shri Baratan, who hails from India originally, but he currently finds his footing in Houston, Texas. A multidisciplinary artist, he still enjoys recording music as much as writing poetry and painting pictures. With each of his three art practices informing one another, Baratan continually creates a nourishing body of work which may be easy to find yourself lost within. As for ‘Seasons’ – his upcoming full-length LP – he has allowed sonic layers to take center stage, especially with the lead single ‘Green’. Building the single cut upon layered vocals, world music instrumentation and abstract lyricism – the album is being teased as a varied kaleidoscope of progressive rhythms and calls to mind his vibrant – although not too busy – paintings that you can see on his website.
Having released numerous singles between 2012 to 2019, and a unique acoustic-electric debut album in 2020, Baratan is hoping to reach some new audiences with the follow-up album, 2022’s ‘Seasons’. Growing up in India, the elusive artist grew a cult following as the lead vocalist of the better-known band Dawn Sterling, before expanding his horizons and pivoting towards the rock opera stage. He has even turned to musical theater, which has seen him performing for the cause of world peace concerts. Commenting on the origins of ‘Seasons’, he says, “Seasons is a tribute to the Paternal sun, Mother Earth and the four offspring’s – Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring.”
Starting off with the therapeutic sound of waves crashing and a tide on a beach creeping in – a sound that is layered to capture the same soothing effect as the likes of electronic producers Hannah Peal or Julianna Barwick may do – Baratan gets ‘Green’ off to a subtle start as sparse guitar patterns and ambient, calming Synth stabs dot their way around the scattered structure of the lead track. There’s a lot of well-paced space between the vocals and instrumentation, where the refreshing Sitar melodies and whimsical Bass arrangements are constantly developing new elements for the track as soon as you finally get a grasp on where Baratan is going, creating an unpredictable yet well-contained piece of music that evokes a classic and soulful feel. Another key quality is Baratan’s husky vocals that echo influences like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Father John Misty in their alternative folk-esque delivery and his low-pitched croon manages to create a very masculine traditional Rock ‘N’ Roll element to the sound, which is another highlight. Overall, while it takes a minute to propetly get going and it lacks focus in a few key places – at times feeling like it’s not really being one thing nor the other to this music-loving writer – there’s clearly a lot of ambition and good will on display, and ‘Seasons’ is an album that should not be missed because it is sounding like it is going to be a very unique, calming and distinctive release.
Words by Jacob Braybrooke
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