To celebrate the release of a new album from Violet, we'd like to take a moment to look back on the development of an oft-neglected genre: Dark Wave.

An offshoot of the New Wave movement throughout Germany and the UK in the late '70s-'80s, Dark Wave involves macabre, fantastic, sorrowful, and generally "dark" themes, and as such is generally associated with traditional Gothic culture.

Das Ich is one of the main figures in German Dark Wave; formed in 1989, the band combined industrial, carnival, and burlesque imagery, the electronic samples of the '80s, and symphonic orchestration to create a new aesthetic that reinvented the idea of Goth for the 1990s.

At the same time, the collision of Synthpop and Goth had led to the formation of more well-known bands like The Cure, Gary Numan, Bauhaus, and Joy Division -- whose association with Dark Wave was fragmentary, but brought many similar trends to a wider audience.

In 1999, Violet arrived on the scene, bringing with them a much more serious notion of "retro": their music revolves around the themes of Dark Wave but involves medieval instruments and symbology, and they've dubbed their style "Medieval Trip Pop".

The Book of Eden was conceived as the soundtrack to a book of the same name by Kai Meyer:

Twenty rhythmical and atmospheric tracks acoustically illustrate the story of Favola, Aelvin, Albertus Magnus and Libuse: the musicians of Violet lead the listener through adventurous and abysmal scenes to the sounds of the dulcimer, the bagpipe and the violin -- all with a healthy dose of electronical sounds. Hellish shawms, silvery harpsichords and mystical female vocals complete this vision. [Gothtronic.com]

These electronic sounds are not '80s synths but crisp, spacious production and effects -- which, combined with antiquated instruments and trip-hop drumming, make for a unique and unsettling experience.

To go even deeper into Violet's dark, ornate world, take a look at their clip for Der Nigromant :