Valebol is Chicago’s new superduo featuring drummer Daniel Villarreal (Dos Santos) and multi-instrumentalist Vivian McConnell (V.V. Lightbody) on vocals, synthesizer, and flute. Pronounced VAH-LAY-BOL, this project is a true expression of musical joy, deep Chicago talent, and collaboration. Furnishing their translingual express-pop, Valebol invites everyone to dive down and discover a feeling. Maybe it’s finding an oyster on your maiden scuba dive and discovering it contains a kaleidoscopic disco pearl vibrating to polyrhythms from a forgotten cassette tape. Maybe it was buried in 1983, maybe the club is still open. Either way, opening your new Polly Pocket sized seashell contains an iconic duo.
Villarreal’s Panamá collides with V.V.’s midwest in this surprising collaboration. Tiny heroes that traded monochrome structures for a kaleidoscopic panoply of patterns, tropical tonality blossoming throughout each song—yet compact enough to put in your pocket as you buzz across arbitrary borders.
In 2021, Valebol received Chicago’s DCASE Esteemed Artist Award and is in the process of recording their debut album with Elliot Bergman (NOMO, Wild Belle). They performed at Millennium Park with Jamila Woods this summer for the 60th Anniversary of the Recording Academy Chicago Chapter.