- On the duo's emotional collaboration, sombre piano compositions and spacious landscapes form the bedrock of attempts to look inward.
- Dawn Richard has a lot to process. In September, she filed a lawsuit against her former boss, the rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, accusing him of sexual assault and battery, dating back to her time in the defunct girl group Danity Kane. Richard's accusations followed an explosive 2023 lawsuit Diddy's former girlfriend Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura filed against Combs that set into motion his arrest for sex trafficking and racketeering charges. As more disturbing accusations rise to the surface, many have begun to question the full scale of trauma that artists in Diddy's vicinity experienced.
But the fractured, traumatic memories from her long music career are only a small thread in the wider tapestry of life events she has been reflecting on lately. The full breadth of her reflections on family, loss, love and what it means to heal, are explored in her latest album with multi-instrumentalist and neoclassical composer Spencer Zahn. The duo's second album together, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, overflows with eerie piano compositions, paced so slowly at times it has (likely the intended) effect of blocking out the world. It's also the most emotionally naked we see the pair, as Richard's restrained, whispered vocals tug at the heartstrings more than once.
Richard began her career making late-'00s hip-hop and R&B, later re-emerging as a solo artist on a mission to breach the boundaries of R&B, first on her 2013 debut album Goldenheart, which drew on elements of electro pop and alternative R&B, and later on her critically acclaimed albums of dance floor ready R&B New Breed and Second Line. The East Coast-raised Zahn has spent years perfecting a unique blend of instrumental jazz, classical and ambient pop, heard first on his debut solo album, People of the Dawn, which merged pulsating acoustic bass with experimental electronica. Since then, he has gone on to release a number of instrumental albums: the piano-centric Pale Horizon and First Flight, an improvisational rock record.
The two artists may seem like an unlikely pair at first glance, but the grand expanses of Zahn's compositions allow Richard to feed into the experimental urges she has exhibited throughout her career. Conversely, in Richard, Zahn has a dextrous and well-trained voice, able to express the underlying emotional core of his instrumental compositions. The duo first tested their working relationship on 2022's Pigments, a glittering dive into the icy pools of stripped-down chamber music and experimental avant-garde R&B. While Pigments often washed Richard's vocals in heavy reverb or lacquered them over dominant acoustics, Quiet in a World Full of Noise revolves around the vast space it gives Richard's voice. The soundscapes are roomy and hushed, allowing Richard to whisper her most intimate thoughts—conveying heartbreak, regret, longing and wistfulness to whisper—straight into our ears.
Quiet in a World Full of Noise began when Zahn, following a difficult break-up, composed a collection of palatial piano compositions in upstate New York. The instrumental foundation of piano, stirring string sections, sweeping synthesisers and ever-present whirring drone, closely reflected the emotional journey Richard embarked on, too. On "Life in Numbers," over a delicate, repetitive piano performance, Richard unravels her life's heart-breaking moments: the loss of her cousin Cisco to gun violence, her father's cancer diagnosis, the many times she signed her life away in the music industry. Elsewhere, over a slow and deliberate piano composition, "Stains" sees Richard compare the fallout of a toxic relationship to that of red wine spilt on a pure, white dress: "Your love stains / It doesn't fade."
While Zahn and Richard make use of the orchestra where needed, the record, even at its most grandiose, relies on the piano's minimalism, leaving as much room for Richard's vulnerable lyrics to seep through as possible. Softer, more private moments, such as the title track, feature only Zahn's sparse, atmospheric piano, which rises to crescendo as Richard makes the decision to find stillness in a frantic world. Instrumental pieces are utilised for dramatic pauses in her narrative, like "Moments for Stillness," where the Budapest Film Orchestra's chorus of whirling violins add both fantastical splendour and spine-chilling dread to Richard's airy melisma.
While the album could be taken as a purely sombre listen at first, the rituals and personal practices that we perform to get through life also feature prominently. On "Traditions," she covers the mirror when it rains, lays a brick by the front door and wears her lucky Saints shoes on game day, paying homage to the rituals her New Orleans family performs. On the empowering "Diets," Richard drops fake friends and considers the benefits of self-care.
Quiet in a World Full of Noise covers new lyrical ground for both artists, telling a confessional story of generational trauma ultimately grounded in the anticipation of healing. Throughout the album's darkest passages we're struck by a sense of possibility: that everything Richard has endured, fought for and overcome has merely allowed space for beautiful new beginnings. This assurance comes to a head on the closing track, "Try." Led by a blipping piccolo trumpet that evokes the unexpected warmth of a sunrise on a crisp May morning, Richard takes one last exhale: "It takes a lot to hope these days / But I'm gonna try."
トラックリスト01. Stains
02. Quiet in a World Full of Noise
03. Traditions
04. Diets
05. Stay
06. Life in Numbers
07. Moments for Stillness
08. The Dancer
09. Breath Out
10. To Remove
11. Ocean Past
12. Try