Julianna Barwick

new album "The Magic Place" is streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/13/133621452/first-listen-julianna-barwick-the-magic-place

it actually has some instrumentation on it instead of just vocal loops, but sounds pretty similar to her other stuff

I think she has been compared to Grouper on other ILX threads to listen if you like Grouper

she basically does layers of (wordless?) reverby vocal loops that end up sounding really dreamy and amazing

there's a really great bootleg of her playing in brooklyn a few years ago, floating around, doing things that i don't recognise from either of the EPs. more guitarry, and yeah maybe grouper-esque, although way lighter.

curious to hear the record; i think seeing that it's on asthmatic kitty somehow lessened my anticipation of it, as if it'd come out all cloying and sweet.

Thanks for posting this! This is #1 on my anticipated albums for 2011.

I need to hear this.

Can't stop thinking of USMILEAMBIENT.mp3 though.

THIS IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE

the title song is beautiful. angelic, even

Can't stop thinking of USMILEAMBIENT.mp3 though.

A feature, not a bug. Sunlight, Heaven sounds a lot like Eno to me too.

I had a Barwick epiphany the other day listening to prizewinning. This is a fucking amazing album.

Diplo described it as sounding like "carebears making love" but don't let that put you off, this is far more nuanced, intersting and striking than that horrible metaphor suggests

"carebears making love"

Squishy.

i think seeing that it's on asthmatic kitty somehow lessened my anticipation of it, as if it'd come out all cloying and sweet.

yes-- starting to get into this one, though... i see the grouper thing but not nearly as dark & swampy, more in the clouds.

Okay, this album is fantastic.

I see the Grouper comparison, but this is making think of Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares too.

This is still brilliant, I thought there would be a bit more excitement around this. It makes me think of specific moments of the last Stars Of The Lid album, but whereas that sounded a little bit "movie soundtrack moment" this seems so much less clinical and considered in its approach. "Cloak" might be the best thing I've heard all year, with vocal loops sounding like they're falling down a well only to be pulled back up by a rich piano melody.

i've enjoyed this album the couple times i've streamed online (NPR and someplace else) but this is the kinda record that really cries out to be heard in CD quality on proper headphones. need to pick up a retail copy...

So this is still amazing

Possibly still my favourite JB song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBkTZb8WHMg

Holy shit, this album is really something else. Completely slept on this (until it came up in the "related artists" links from the Colin Stetson album that placed in the EOY list)

This is some serious old school 4AD Bulgarian Voices / Dead Can Dance style atmospherics, completely stunning.

Yes, yes it is!

I want to know what kind of reverb she uses, or if she just records everything inside the dreaming spire of an ornate medieval cathedral made entirely from ice crystals and unicorn horn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzkVhqGDIY

^ You can peak at some of her set-up here

also bonus points for Sting - Bring On The Night t-shirt

I love how GarageBand has become, like, the new 4-track for the generation below mine. All those bedroom weirdoes who used to record 4AD style baroque stuff in their bedrooms on wonky old Yamaha MT100-IIs are now doing the same thing in GarageBand, there's something reassuring about that, the technology gets better but the bedroom innovation stays the same.

It also makes sense that she learned to sing in a church auditorium - that completely makes sense with the kind of reverb that she uses.

LOL @ Greenpoint, though. I think I've walked past that block when I used to live near there, but perhaps most of that part of Brooklyn looks alike.

good old sp404. looks like she's just using it for effects? it does have a surprisingly nice reverb.

is 'prizewinning' the only song with drums on the record?

could be wrong, but i think so. certainly the most overt use of drums is on that one song

Vow does a similar trick of introducing another instrument halfway through when that (upright?) bass comes in

It's shit like this that makes me wish I hadn't sold my Boss RC pedal :-( :-(

omg this album

it's like sitting on your own in a deserted cathedral and hearing a choir practice in the distance, with added strange effects

so devotional and rapt

Yes! The devotional aspect spot on. Every time I hear it, it completely captivates me.

needs more rhythm

Nah I like that it's SAW II not SAW85-92. Rhythm would be a distraction.

oh hey: http://juliannabarwick.bandcamp.com/album/matrimony-remixes

diplo :((((((((((((((((((((((((

yeah uh no

Yeah, I don't know about those remixes, at all. Especially Prizewinning, which is just such a devastatingly amazing tune, really felt like - why bother? I guess based on Prizewinning, I wouldn't mind if she added more drums to her work. But the beats on those remixes just seem really grafted on in an unnecessary way.

diplol

(of course he has a co-producer)

I don't think any other music this year has put such vivid images in my head. Sorry if this sounds really corny but mostly I picture cold rural meadows early in the morning with the sun breaking through the mist,or there's other songs where it sounds like the voices of ghosts on top the mountains with the wind just whistling over the boulders and through the shredded prayer flags, and then there's those parts where the voices keep rolling on and on like waves breaking just off the beach, and then again there's that whole african choral vibe and I dunno - it's good music for just letting your mind wander around in and I kind of think that too many beats would distract from that.

This is a nice performance btw though not much of a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY3pg1hQ7Xs

One thing that the album reminds me of a bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VozZoFLsQQI

I think what I was trying to get at with my gibbering is that for such bedroom music, it really evokes big wide open spaces.

I was saying more, "made in a bedroom" rather than "it sounds like a bedroom" - because it really doesn't sound like a bedroom. It's that immense reverb that gives it that sweeping sense of space, cathedrals, halls, echoing mountaintops. It's weird seeing her making music in such a tiny enclosed room, because it sounds so designed for huge, sweeping spaces.

Oh yeah, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all.

Seeing her do her thing live is incredible: like, it's not just a triumph of craft but a triumph of vision, her ability to harmonise with and work loops based on her own voice, to make something that sounds so fully-formed and evocative and rich.

Beautiful. Had it in all last night while cooking a fish curry. Just purely wonderful.

Anyone else enjoying the Ombre album? "A modern avant pop masterpiece" says your man in The Wire, probably an overstatement but it is very pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EMSW5fPDpI

She released a new song! Don't know how to embed yet so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFBXBfx7o5c

Good stuff

This is nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTuxswB_Rew

New album out soon...going to see her in London on Tuesday, will hopefully be a good time.

Live show was amazing last time around - managed to make a dingy little basement bar sound like a cathedral.

She's so good live. Just beautiful

coming to chicago in sept!

Anyone interested in going to the London show on Tuesday? I might have a spare ticket or two.

holy heck, that new song is beautiful. i don't know what is is about those voices singing the high notes but they seemed pitched specifically to set off my blub reflex

ach, that music is to my lachrymal glands what limes are to my saliva ducts. anyway, well done on making an old man cry. good job

aiiee, patten is the support act in london, which seems like a weird one but fuck, i do love patten

dog latin, are you going to this yourself? FAP?

yeah i'm def going - won tickets through work but don't have anyone who can make it so would be good to meet up.

Cool - maybe I can ILXmail you to arrange something?

yeah dog latin at gee mail dot com

Really enjoyed this! Also fun to meet up with a dog latin.

Someone has put the whole show up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wty4q9xerzI

Oh cool. Yeah, nice to meet you seandalai - I'll let you know if ever I'm in Cambridge.

new album is pretty lovely

this is one is pretty special
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4SejXgvCc

saw her open for the flaming lips, here in new jersey. she was great, but the crowd were really disrespectful and there were some sound issues at the start. but apart from that, she was amazing.

super fast shipping. would do business with again a+++

The Magic Place > Nepenthe. "Pyrrhic" is... interesting. The rest is really good though.

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/207297220/first-listen-julianna-barwick-nepenthe

new one sounds like julianna barwick

Nepenthe is truly fantastic.

Heard it once, another ravishing listen imo.

Listened last night, liked. Don't really remember much about it cause of insomnia pain & booze but it made enough of an impression that it'll go into rotation.

ja this is good

Kinda surprised there isn't more talk about it.

The last ~minute or so of "The Harbinger" is so beautiful that it basically makes me never want to listen to music again.

The cat noises in Pyrrhic, though.

>Kinda surprised there isn't more talk about it.

me too. Beautiful album.

But Florine definitely won me.

Saw her live at the Southbank Centre a few months ago, and I was quite surprised by how laid-back and friendly and, well, goofy she was! Because her music suggests some shy, ethereal being, but she was funny and warm. Lex told me she had a new album out this year, but I still haven't managed to hear it; must make more of an effort to.

She seemed goofy (in a good way) in this interview too http://www.popmatters.com/feature/175284-unknown-discoveries-an-interview-with-julianna-barwick/

love her & nepenthe. easily one of my 2013 favorites (though, yeah, i still prefer the magic placce). perhaps the absence of discussion is due to the abstract nature of her music. we mention the evocative beauty in general terms, but everything past that is personal, inchoate.

Enya??

more like Julianna Beerwick

http://www.dogfish.com/community/blogfish/members/justin-williams/dogfish-collaborates-with-musician-julianna-barwick-to-celebrate-completion-of-18-mon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXnB6zzXLKw

new one is really good, definitely preferring it to nepenthe. very cocteau twins i think?

Nobody is ever going to be surprised by a Julianna Barwick album but this is pretty sweet on a first listen

I wasn't feeling this one as much. Obviously she uses technology to make her music but this one doesn't feel as organic or natural as the last two. Still an 8/10 and probably better than a lot of stuff I'll hear this year

New one has beautiful moments. And I think it can grow on me more

it's obviously got a lot less of the earthy folk vibe, but i think it's quite reminiscent of the le mystere des voix bulgares records

I've not really engaged much with her before but the new one is amazing.

New one's pretty great. After having my hopes raised by the return of the Magic Place font.

God, this is gorgeous stuff. "Oh, Memory" with Mary Lattimore's harp and the strings on "Safe" are particularly sublime. The title track, too, is one to get lost in.

Today I learned that Ninja Tune still exists.

I've been deeply enjoying this new one

some parts of this are as lovely as ever but it has a widescreen cinematic quality that does a lot less for me. Listening to The Magic Place felt like stumbling into something intimate and private despite its gargantuan sound, whereas a lot of this just sounds like big soundtrack music

The first three songs on Healing Is a Miracle have stayed with me all year. They will pop up on random playlists and everything around me just shuts down. I particularly love the mix of light and heavy textures on this one. The bass can be enveloping.

Enya??

and what's wrong with that

the album is nice and I really needed it last year

and probably this year

yeah, this was a major record for me last year -- definitely a top favorite

I always enjoy a new album, but to be honest it gets hard to tell them apart.

Turns out that what I really needed was JB + ~~~~flute vibes~~~~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APlC8ldtD2s

The three collaborations on this one (especially Oh Memory w/ Mary Lattimore) + the fulsome lower register made this one stand out from the rest of her catalog for me. Probably still reach for Nepenthe most of the time, though.

Healing is a Miracle has crept up as probably my favorite record from 2020, as Indexed notes when a track from it comes on the whole world seems to red shift into prehistory. The adjacency to Grouper, so close but also so different, makes me think of the future as a catalog with no gaps.

Somehow I never got around to Healing is a Miracle, or maybe I wasn't paying enough attention for it to resonate with me, but listening to it today it is bowling me over. Magic Place is the one that I hold close to my heart, and the usual Julianna Barwick stuff on Healing is totally on par with that, while the guests and additions add a whole other emotional dimension. Indexed otm re: "the fulsome lower register." I surprised myself with the comparison but when the deep rumbling synth comes in on "Inspirit" it reminds me of when the synths come in on "O Superman" and add a whole array of richer, more foreboding colors to the palette. Great album. I will probably still listen to Magic Place more because it is such mood music to me, and the moods on this one are more diverse. But without giving it too much thought this one is feeling like her best artistic achievement thus far.