Julianna Barwick

Julianna Barwich, the Brooklyn-based songster and possible sorceress-queen of the sirens, seems in full control of the magical underwater echo of a chorus her voice can unleash. Her 2011 Asthmatic Kitty debut, The Magic Place, pairs the ethereal sparsity of her looping vocals with detailed execution and storytelling, bricklaying swelling choruses over one another to paint a soundscape portrait. Barwich’s songwriting is more akin to composition, creating a one-woman vocal orchestra that sounds like a Baptist church full of mermaids with Barwich at its golden center. Her self-released Sanguine and EP Florine from 2009 touched on much of the same ground, but The Magic Place feels like solid execution as opposed to sketched idea. 

Updated 02/29/2012