Words: Lucas Gladman

Julianna Barwick’s music tends to occupy the more sacred spaces of our hearts and minds. Many of her songs march along like half-remembered hymns across a beaten path, and much of the aural pleasure found in her music is largely indebted to our primal search for meaning in the mundane. Her music is ethereal and can transport you or transform your space so long as you’re willing to offer a little patience and greet her repetition with admiration.

With her latest effort, Will, Barwick manages to address the sacred without the imposition of being holy—she turns inward and pushes out a rough, intimate collection of songs that expand upon her previous themes without feeling trite or banal. Barwick’s veiled and oft-indiscernible voice is still present, but she now allows her synthesizers and piano to take the lead or lay the foundation for many songs before layering ambient vocals in seemingly infinite patterns.

Barwick most often sacrifices brevity for expression, but the listener is still able to find meaning or purpose in the overall composition of most songs. “Nebula,” the lead single released from Will, conjures images of a vast, expansive space where everything and nothing might flourish. Swirling and repeating synth lines call forth Barwick’s siren-like vocals to dance until they’re so tangled that they give way to silence. The lonesome piano lines at the beginning of “Heading Home” provide temporary reprieve from the washed wall of sound in which much of the album has indulged, but the song soon finds itself filled with strings and a choir constructed solely of Barwick’s voice. “See, Know,” the album’s final track, feels like a heart awakening after an extended slumber—this is likely due to the rhythmic pulse that hides and builds in this song as if it fled from the others.

Barwick expertly controls Will’s delicate pacing without losing her audience’s attention. Many of the songs are sparse, but they never feel bare. Will refrains from becoming profane or irreverent, even in its slowest and softest moments, and this certainly becomes one of the album’s greatest successes. Barwick’s well-honored practice shows how merit can be found in the echoes of simplicity. It’s easy to feel lost and wayward under a wave of ambiance, but Barwick anchors her songs with a voice that believes in hope and such an act can shelter joy, even if that voice sounds as if it’s already fading into the distance.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/257279659″ /]

Score: 3.8/5

Julianna Barwick: Facebook | iTunes