Violetta Parisini

Violetta Parisini 'I used to have nothing to lose but now I have you' (A)

Violetta Parisini’s new album will be released on April 25, 2025, on her own label Else Musik (distributed by Broken Silence). It is an idiosyncratic work, radically subjective, uncompromisingly tender, and unmistakably critical of society. For the creation process, the musician retreated alone to her own studio, writing, arranging, recording, and producing until everything that needed to be said was said. Only then were Peter Rom (guitar), Hanibal Scheutz (bass), Sixtus Preiss for sound design and mixing, and finally Maximilian Walch for mastering brought in.

The result is a velvety sound with built-in surprises. Layers of voices and choirs, sometimes barely distinguishable from a synth, gently played piano—sometimes recorded live together with the lead voice, sometimes cut and distorted—shape the album’s sound. Guitar and bass, known from Violetta’s trio live concerts for their finely interwoven sound, appear in some songs. The album is anchored in the present by Sixtus Preiss’s sound design, which sharpens edges and widens the spaces.

Thematically, the songs revolve around motherhood as both an intimate and political topic. Everything in life has two sides, but never do these seem as contradictory as in becoming a parent. From the greatest fear to the greatest love and back again in just three seconds—this shakes the soul well; in addition, a daily routine adjusted to completely changed needs must be reinvented. Around it all is a heap of clichés and expectations of the new role. One’s self-image can shatter into a thousand pieces. Violetta Parisini takes us on the journey of reassembling ourselves, singing about fear and inner conflict, the overwhelming love for this new “you,” and finally the strength inside us that helps us find our own way beyond clichés and good advice.

There are songs about resting and wanting to disappear briefly (“I just,” “no need”), about boundless love for a small being whose life you are now responsible for, which is equally frightening and blissful (“I used to have nothing to lose but now I have you”). But also about the impossibility and unwillingness to meet society’s expectations of a “good mother” (“bad mother”). This includes emancipation from well-meaning advice (“your advice”). Yes, new paths are tested (“tea with sugar”), tenderly trodden. And the fear of not surviving it all (“now”) is finally overcome: “now is the time, and this is the place, this life is mine, and I'm gonna stay.” “I used to have nothing to lose but now I have you” leads musically and emotionally to furious highs and dark lows, yet ends as perhaps the most loving and reconciliatory of her works so far.

Program and cast

Violetta Parisini: vocals
Peter Rom: guitar
Hanibal Scheutz: bass