Julianna Barwick

Julianna Barwick constructs atmospheric, mostly vocal-driven pieces by layering loops of her own singing into intricate, wordless textures. Her method stems from childhood participation in rural church choirs, where she typically begins a track with one short phrase or motif and then expands it through a loop station augmented by subtle instrumental touches, producing emotionally resonant results. Though her work echoes the ambient explorations of Brian Eno and Steve Reich, the dream-pop textures of Sigur Rós and Cocteau Twins, the conceptual vocal experiments of Meredith Monk, and the calming tone of new age recordings, her distinctly human sensibility sets it apart. She continues to probe both the personal and expansive dimensions of her sound across successive projects, moving from the comparatively grounded atmosphere of 2011's The Magic Place to the more ambitious and refined Nepenthe in 2013. Even as she incorporated additional elements and guest musicians on releases such as 2020's Healing Is a Miracle, the music retained its singular character.

During her upbringing across Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma, Barwick developed a deep attachment to vocal performance and natural reverberation, whether harmonizing in an a cappella church ensemble or practicing alone inside a parking garage. Additional early influences included high-school singing instruction and exposure to a wide range of material—from pop and R&B by Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie, through film scores such as John Williams' work for Empire of the Sun, to alternative artists like Björk and Tori Amos.

After relocating to New York, Barwick encountered experimental music while performing at DIY venues and capturing exploratory guitar works. Her characteristic process crystallized in 2005 when a friend lent her a looping guitar pedal, which she employed to shape her self-released debut Sanguine the following year as she tested the boundaries of her approach. After appearances in Lisbon and London, she advanced to a dedicated loop station for the June 2009 self-released EP Florine, which added light synth and piano accents to her vocals. Growing recognition prompted a remix of Radiohead's "Reckoner" and a signing with Asthmatic Kitty. Tracked in a Brooklyn rehearsal space and titled after a hollowed-out tree where she once sang, February 2011's The Magic Place offered a more polished and expansive rendering of her hypnotic style. Following the album's strong reception, she released that April's Frkwys Vol. 6, documenting an October 2010 live collaboration with Ikue Mori, and that October's The Matrimony Remixes, featuring reinterpretations by Prince Rama, Diplo, Helado Negro's Roberto Carlos Lange, and additional artists. She sustained collaborative activity into 2012, contributing to Sharon Van Etten's album Tramp and reuniting with Lange for the Ombre project, which issued Believe You Me that August.

Barwick resumed solo work in 2013 with the March seven-inch Pacing on Suicide Squeeze and the August full-length Nepenthe on Dead Oceans. For the latter she traveled to Reykjavík to record at Sigur Rós' Sundlaugin studio with producer Alex Somers, initiating an enduring friendship. Prompted by a family loss, Nepenthe's sound grew more intricate both musically and emotionally, incorporating the string ensemble Amiina, members of Múm, and a young women's choir. As with earlier releases, Nepenthe received widespread critical praise. She followed it with June 2014's Rosabi EP, a Dogfish Head Brewery collaboration that integrated field recordings from the brewery. In 2015 she joined Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson for the Flaming Lips' Carnegie Hall reinterpretation of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and performed two concerts with Yoko Ono. During the same period she tracked her fourth album across Asheville, North Carolina, upstate New York, and Lisbon, Portugal, resulting in 2016's Will, a comparatively direct and rooted record that also featured Mas Ysa's Thomas Arsenault, Dutch cellist Maarten Vos, and Chairlift drummer Jamie Ingalls.

After sixteen years in New York, Barwick relocated to Los Angeles in 2017. Her initial post-move endeavor was a July 2019 performance in Lincoln, Massachusetts, presented as part of visual artist Doug Aitken's traveling project New Horizon, which carried a mirrored hot-air balloon across the state. That December, the RVNG Intl. imprint Commend There released Circumstance Synthesis, Barwick's AI-enhanced composition for the lobby of New York's Sister City hotel. She then moved to Ninja Tune for July 2020's Healing Is a Miracle, an album derived from private improvisations and realized with studio monitors gifted by Somers and his partner, Sigur Rós' Jónsi. Jónsi appeared on the record alongside longtime associates harpist Mary Lattimore and producer Nosaj Thing.