Something about the name Julianna Barwick makes me think of country singers with tremorous, incredible voices, or classically trained violinists who’ll gain acclaim and awards but never chart success. That kinda thing. But while Julianna does seem to have a lovely warble, her stuff is much more unusual and ephemeral, particularly latest song Choose. It’s a brief, wispy blur of a tune, Julianna singing the same trance-like lyric again and again as the volume delicately rises then delicately falls. It makes me think of a train passing through a town at night – you hear it coming nearer and nearer, then it suddenly bustles through, and just as quickly the sound is slowly lost and the deathly silence restored, and you wonder if it even happened at all.
As with every musician and their dog these days, Julianna’s also into a spot of remixing – recently giving Jack Peñate’s Tonight’s Today a stripped-down, willowy makeover. Another string to an impressive-sounding bow, and definitely a non-country singer to keep an eye on.
Julianna Barwick on MySpace
MP3:
Julianna Barwick – Choose (zSHARE)
Jack Peñate – Tonight’s Today (Julianna Barwick remix) (zSHARE)
Buy Julianna Barwick’s stuff on her website.