Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nicole Laurenne returns as Black Viiolet with “Dark Blue,” a dusky, jazz-soaked full-length on Adrenalin Fix Music (France). The record leans into smoky lounge, neo-soul, and trip-hop textures, pulling from the lineage of Portishead, Amy Winehouse, and Nina Simone while carving a mood entirely her own. Fans who know Nicole from the high-voltage world of The Darts will recognize the same instinct and intensity here, but “Dark Blue” moves in a different direction, built from late-night keys, brass shadows, and a songwriter’s eye for detail.
This album sits in that liminal space where jazz, noir pop, and trip-hop overlap, but the real engine is Nicole. Her writing, her arranging, her ability to take the tension of long months on the road and turn it into something soft, bruised, and unmistakably hers. It is a record full of late-night light, small scars, little mercies, and the quiet ache of wanting someone who is always a few thousand miles away.
