Dawn Richard, Spencer Zahn - Quiet in a World Full of Noise (2024) [Hi-Res]

Few contemporary artists defy convention like Dawn Richard, who has gone from being a member of Danity Kane—the girl group assembled by Sean Combs on the MTV reality show Making the Band—to a prolific career of music that has been categorized as electronic, ambient, dance, R&B, pop and soul. She is a shapeshifter who can sound like a dance diva when collaborating with DJs Coco & Breezy, a nu-soul wonder with Gianni Lee, or an avant-garde art-popper with Kimbra. But her collaborations with neoclassical composer Spencer Zachn are the most surprising. The duo's third record, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, is a story in blood-and-guts vulnerability and atmospheric beauty. Like its acclaimed predecessor Pigments, the album delves into ambient experimentalism, effortlessly marrying soul, chamber jazz and avant-garde R&B. The contrasts can be illuminating. There is a brightness to Zahn's music on the title track, the piano like sunshine amidst the velvet fog of Richard's voice. She often uses her tool like a feather brush ("Stains," "Breath Out"). But speak-singing about her Creole and Haitian heritage on the spritely "Traditions," Richard finds a surprising rasp. She proves as agile as Ella Fitzgerald on "The Dancer," a smoky, theatrical number with fleet piano and strings like a Greek chorus. "You danced with the devil and lost your way," Richard repeats, trying out different ways of singing the line—low, fiery, sultry. She treats "Diets" like a workout, taking her delivery to unexpected places with inflection, frequency, breath, punctuation as she warns, "I shook my habits/ I got rid of all the bullshit … I drop my fake friends like I drop calories." Richard is not the only one doing cardio. On wild "Moments for Stillness," the music swells like an elite athlete's lungs—Brian Senti's strings reaching a fever pitch—before a collective exhale. It's all over in two minutes. "To Remove" is like the ambient sound of god light. And "Ocean Past" employs deep, deep bass notes not heard elsewhere in the record, making the song sound bottomless. Both Zahn and Richard have spoken of the heartbreak that poured out when writing this record (his romantic, hers familial), and "Life in Numbers" is, largely, a countdown of devastation—her pain layered over his. "Nine times I was told 'I love you' by someone who didn't love me back/ Eight times I tried to hurt myself just to make this feel normal," she speaks over Zahn's unsettled piano, which is tuned to the room rather than standard pitch. "One time is all I need to tell myself, it's OK, girl, you can cry now," Richard says, her words drifting off until it's just piano filling the space like a cloud. © Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1 Stains
2 Quiet in a World Full of Noise
3 Traditions
4 Diets
5 Stay
6 Life in Numbers
7 Moments for Stillness
8 The Dancer
9 Breath Out
10 To Remove
11 Ocean Past
12 Try