Rave-Now Available from Innova
Frank Oteri, American Music Center, described “Rave” as “equal parts Messiaen and prog rock, if you can imagine such a co-mingling” and further says “Violette’s new sound world is simultaneously restless and strangely comforting” and “music that is as new as it is romantic.”
Piano Sonatas 1 & 7
In case anyone's been wondering, writing a three-hour piano sonata is one way to get my attention. --Kyle Gann (Village Voice)
Piano Sonatas Vol 2
It's possible to view the sequence of Violette's sonatas as one extremely long piece. Everything in his music grows out of something that preceded it or anticipates something that will follow. It lives at the point of paradox -- organized with mathematical precision, it sounds improvised; it develops complex ideas through minimalist repetitions. It traverses a wide universe of techniques, styles, and dynamics, clamorous sounds and shuddering silences, but its cumulative effect is unified, mystical, and ecstatic (the composer was once a monk). Some of the music is not pretty; if Violette is going to stare into the abyss, he is going to tell us what he sees there. The pounding rhythms are inexorable; there are influences and indirect quotations. His music often sounds like other music, but nothing else sounds or functions like it, which is a definition of originality. The composer's relationship to the piano is visceral, even violent -- as carnal as his music is spiritual. --Richard Dyer (Boston Globe)
The Death of the Hired Man
Solo Flights
“Andrew Violette's highly virtuoso Two Sonatinas, performed by the composer himself with transcendental strength, find their inspiration in the polyphonic cathedrals of Busoni and Sorabji. Try imagining Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica fragmented and played fast-forward, add hints of habanera rhythm "à la Sorabji" in the Sonatina No. 2, and you'll get an idea of what to expect.” – Luca Sabbatini