When Julianna Barwick released The Magic Place way back yonder in 2011, it truly felt like a shimmering new presence had arrived. Drawing glowing comparisons from Pitchfork at the time to a kind of Panda Bear-meets-Cocteau Twins, noting that Barwick's sound was also somehow entirely her own, it feels high time to revisit the record. Remastered, and set to arrive in early November, it's time to bathe in The Magic Place again. - Flying Out
Originally released in 2011, Julianna Barwick's debut full length The Magic Place is a nine-piece full-length album of magic and solace, bursting joy, and healing tones. Julianna's mostly a cappella music is built from her multi-tracked and looped voice, with backing instrumentation, but it's the vocals-soaring high in reverb-drenched, wordless harmonies-that matter most here. Layered fragments and pieces become an intricate pattern through electronics; it's the sound of a rising thing, a big group harmony as a splash of sunlight through a car window, a sound that feels like hope and ascendance and patience and intimacy. Out of print for years, this 2024 version has been fully remastered by Heba Kadry, and available through Julianna's Florid Recordings, the imprint she started in 2006 to self release her earliest recordings.
There's a very particular joy in listening to Barwick's music. Free of the constraints of narrative and traceable language, it's the same joy in giving yourself over to opera in a foreign language, of letting go of your pesky rational mind and allowing the feeling to come through in the voices and performance. The title track is next, a reverb-y beauty queen that soars to Promethean heights and builds it's own kind of safe haven in the clouds. Even the gaps between songs are essential to the album's listening experience-a sigh between stories or silence-as-drone, each second important. The New York Times called the pauses between Julianna's songs, "the small pleasure of a chance to breathe between the greater pleasures of not wanting to have to." Meet The Magic Place. It's a great place to be.
Tracklist:
1. Envelop
2. Keep Up the Good Work
3. The Magic Place
4. Cloak
5. White Flag
6. Vow
7. Bob in Your Gait
8. Prizewinning
9. Flown
Please note that The Magic Place (2024 Remaster) (Vinyl LP) is currently not in store but is an imported title from an overseas supplier.
Most of the time it takes around 2-3 weeks for the item to arrive here and be sent out but it can take longer if there are any delays.