incoming: julia holter – ekstasis

[RVNG Intl.; March 7]

Sound artist Julia Holter made one of our very favourite 2011 releases with her debut album Tragedy, a brilliantly inventive recasting of Euripides’ Hippolytus, so hopes are sky high for this enticing-sounding follow-up. Painstakingly created over a couple of years and mixed by Cole M. Greif-Neill (the husband of Nite Jewel’s Ramona Gonzalez), Ekstasis was reportedly inspired/influenced by Julia’s studies at California Institute of the Arts, medieval manuscripts, her classical training and time spent in India where she learnt harmonium and vocal techniques from a guru. One listen to ‘Marienbad’ – okay, several listens – and you’ll probably forget all that. The song is simply a stunning composition, full of unexpected shifts and spine-tingling beauty condensed into little under five and a half minutes. The production is cleaner than on Tragedy, permitting the song a more instant appeal and placing more emphasis on Julia’s truly spectacular voice.

STREAM: Julia Holter, ‘Marienbad’

A peek at the tracklist below might suggest that there’s a bit of overlap with Tragedy, but we’re reliably informed that the two versions of ‘Goddess Eyes’ that appear on Ekstasis are different to the one that first appeared on that album.

Tracklist:
01 Marienbad
02 Our Sorrows
03 In The Same Room
04 Boy In The Moon
05 Fur Felix
06 Goddess Eyes II
07 Moni Mon Amie
08 Four Gardens
09 Goddess Eyes I
10 This Is Ekstasis

Julia Holter on Facebook

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: ekstasis, goddess eyes, julia holter, marienbad

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 17th, 2011 at 4:13 am and is filed under news, the inside leg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.