Violet

A crucial part of the Lisbon dance scene, Violet (Inês Borges Coutinho) co-founded online station Rádio Quântica and queer-friendly party mina, in addition to running the Naive label. As an artist and DJ, she produces and spins tracks ranging from dreamy breakbeat techno to ecstatic acid house. After releasing several EPs throughout the 2010s, she made her full-length debut in 2019 with the experimental, reflective Bed of Roses.

Coutinho participated in the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona in 2008, and started releasing digital EPs in 2012. She also founded the female rap duo A.M.O.R., who released their full-length debut, Infinity, in 2013. The same year, she moved to London with her partner, Marco Rodrigues (aka <a href="spotify:artist:5iHhqWHlTz7xcTro2US2ol">Photonz</a>), in order to escape Portugal's shattered economy. The two co-founded Rádio Quântica as a sort of Lisbon-centric equivalent to stations like NTS Radio, and Violet continued releasing tracks and establishing her name as a DJ. By 2017, the two had moved back to Lisbon, where they helped launch mina, a rave collective dedicated to LGBTQ causes.

Violet debuted her Naive label with an EP titled Togetherness, and a collaboration with Bleid, Badness EP, was its second release in 2018. Lisbon's Paraíso released Violet's New Visions EP in 2019, and her debut full-length was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dark+Entries%22">Dark Entries</a> later in the year. Intended as a diary of memories from her youth, Bed of Roses explores themes of self-forgiveness and hope. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi