Sadness pervades Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn Silence in a world full of noiseas integral to the record's beauty as ghosts are to the tone of a gothic novel. The air between Richard's soulful, conversational lyrics and Jean's austere piano is charged, stretched like a wire. Silence is louder than noise. we feel strongly the absence, an imprint left behind by the loss.
This austerity is a departure for the duo, whose 2022 Pigments incorporated saxophones, autotune and looping synths for long bowed compositions. Here, Richard and Zahn have moved from universe to snow globe, downsizing the instruments and vocal bounty. Where Pigments soar, Quiet it is therefore quiet—impressions delivered like elegies. Richard and Zahn are willing to play with space here, where notes are often bounded by echoing silences and moments of suspension are as meaningful as Richard's confessionals.
There's a clear line between these unsettlingly intimate songs and the personal grief that informed them. Richard grew up in New Orleans, a city that brings its own violent past to anyone who wants to book a walking tour. Ghosts are woven into the appeal of the area. She got her big break on MTV Making the Banda reality TV vehicle produced by the band Danity Kane in 2005. During this time, she claims she was assaulted and abused by Diddy. In the intervening years, between releasing six solo albums as an indie R&B artist, her musician father was diagnosed with cancer and her cousin Cisco was fatally shot seven times. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Zahn wrote the tunes after a breakup, using an unconventionally tuned piano in a New York studio.
These tragedies are revealed, discussed with minimal allusion Quiet. “Traditions,” a wistful and charming ode to family, combines Richards' love for her relatives with Zahn's meandering piano. The record is most haunting when we feel closer to these memories, like glimpses into the past: the way Richards' mother leaves a brick in front of the door, a voodoo practice. the way her brother wears a certain pair of shoes to lend luck to the Saints.
On the moving “Life in Numbers,” sonorous piano chords give way to Richard's near-whisper. Is it prayer or possession? We feel as if we are there with her, perceiving the reality. “Twice the number of texts I sent Cisco before he got shot,” he wails into the mic at the end of the song, before Zahn's fingers dance over the keys, running through the same few plaintive notes.
