Julia Bardo

Giulia Bonometti, performing under the name Julia Bardo, crafts melancholy indie pop marked by a retro folk-rock sensibility. After issuing two favorably received EPs, she unveiled her debut full-length, the isolation-themed Bauhaus, L'Appartamento, in 2021.

Born in Brescia, Italy yet now residing in the U.K., Bonometti helped establish the angular post-punk group Working Men's Club as a teenager in Todmorden, England during 2018. Serving as guitarist alongside vocalist/guitarist Sydney Minsky-Sargeant and drummer Jake Bogacki, the trio issued the single "Bad Blood" in 2019 and promptly secured a deal with Heavenly Records. When Minsky-Sargeant expressed a desire to pursue a more electronic, synth-driven direction, the remaining members departed, allowing Bonometti to focus on her own material.

March 2020 saw the introduction of the Julia Bardo moniker via the four-song EP Phase, whose forlorn, 1960s-shaded folk-rock compositions were scored for a complete ensemble. Bardo and Henry Carlyle Wade co-produced the release, with Wade contributing guitar, keys, and bass. Later that year Wade also captured three covers that Bardo released as The Raw EP, drawing on originals by Silver Jews, Fleetwood Mac, and LCD Soundsystem.

Months of lockdown in Manchester amid the initial COVID-19 outbreak shaped her first album. Loneliness, self-doubt, and homesickness course through Bauhaus, L'Appartamento, which appeared in September 2021 as her Wichita Recordings debut. Recorded to tape in Greenwich, England alongside her band and producer Euan Hinshelwood (Younghusband), the set captures that period of seclusion.