Skyward Invalid

Everything about Julianna Barwick’s music is just right. Mostly comprised of loops of her searing distant voice, its occasionally joined by clunky yet perfectly on-form piano, and quiet guitar. It all sounds very considered and ponderous, but it’s finely-tuned and precise. Like a more melodic Grouper, Barwick confronts you with this wall of atmospherics she painstakingly builds around herself, all cooing vocal arrangements that are all her own, and slowly progressing harmonies. There’s a reason she was picked to play this year’s Gorilla vs. Bear festival, and has been lauded all over the internet to the point where she’s broken through that radar of bands you distantly hear about to become an artist you can’t not listen to.

Her serene melodies spiral skyward, sounding like they’re possibly never going to reach their full intensity, always holding something back, but also feeling like they’re constantly on breaking point. It makes you want to hear more. Like a weirdly seductive cacophony of harmless tones intricately melting together. The “sculptress of sounds”, as she is sometimes called, says her churchgoing upbringing in rural Louisiana contributed to her choral-style music, and it does hint at a gospel sound too (particularly in ‘Bode’).

Barwick’s longest release to date (after her Florine EP and 25-minute Sanguine LP), Magic Place, came out on February 21 on Asthmatic Kitty – buy it here.

Julianna Barwick- The Magic Place: MP3

Julianna Barwick- Website

 

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Brooklyn, Louisiana, New York, U.S.A
1 Comment