Julianna Barwick is a Louisiana-born, Brooklyn-based recording artist who makes ambient and experimental music built from layered loops of her voice. Her work is rooted in a rural church-choir upbringing, and she often begins a piece with a short phrase or refrain before expanding it with a loop station and, at times, piano or percussion into dense, atmospheric song forms.

Style and approach

Barwick’s music is largely wordless and relies on stacked vocal parts rather than conventional lyrics. The songs create mood and structure through sound alone, with melodic overdubs and vocal percussion playing a central role. Her recordings are often described as ambient folk, with a drifting, choral quality and themes suggested through texture rather than explicit text.

Releases

She releases her first two collections, the full-length Sanguine and the EP Florine, in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 she issues The Magic Place on Asthmatic Kitty, followed later that year by the remix album Matrimony Remixed. Her next full-length album, Nepenthe, appears in 2013.

Songwriting and vocals

Barwick’s songs are often created spontaneously, with material written and recorded quickly. Her vocal approach gives the recordings their main musical weight, and the close layering of voices can make individual sounds merge into textures that are difficult to distinguish from one another. Her work is sometimes compared in approach to vocal-led experimental recording, although it remains centred on her own method of building songs from the voice.

Label

She is associated with Julianna Barwick Music.