ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 22ND 2011
1YRON’S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING: #33


Julianna Barwick’s The Magic Place was one of the easiest records to fall in love with last year. After self-releasing her Sanguine and Florine EPs, Barwick signed to Asthmatic Kitty in 2010 to begin work on her first proper full length. The process of recording and self-releasing those two EPs - despite falling on deaf ears to many - has proven pivotal to Barwick’s evolution as an artist, each building on what came before it. Florine introduced the loop station to her work process and it’s a tool now so intrinsic to The Magic Place’s ability to recreate a sense of wonder and fantastic isolation. By feeding her vocals through this loop station, Barwick creates a unique sound which feels far greater than the sum of its parts. The Magic Place is a predominantly acoustic record, yet there’s a feeling that Barwick’s gentle ambience runs much deeper than the sounds we hear on the surface. And yet that’s all it is. These lush soundscapes are drenched in reverb and wordless harmonies, but they never over-complicate or contradict one another. By using this loop station, Barwick’s layered vocals undulate like ripples across a pond, brushing up against one another and allowing ample breathing space from start to finish.


Barwick’s approach to form and structure is interesting because it sets itself strict parameters within which she allows it to roam. The idea of the loop station brings to mind the notion of repetition, and The Magic Place can initially come off as a lazy attempt at layering through which nothing is gained or achieved. Yet knowing exactly where a song is going is not always a bad thing, especially when the mood invites one to relax as much as Barwick’s does. Her voice may be the record’s primary, distinctive feature but the use of piano to offset the melodies in her vocal experiments allows these incredibly basic forms to counteract each other. On the album highlight, Vow, piano slowly creeps in, establishing its tumbling melody before a single sound falls from Barwick’s mouth. It’s a beautiful moment of transcendence. The song has already established its full potential within the first thirty seconds. Once the loop station begins to weave its wonderful web over Barwick’s gossamer vocal lines, it’s plain sailing all the way.


There’s something to be said for how Barwick reinforces her vocal patterns to such effect. What may appear to some as background music is actually the sound of an artist holding a tight control around her otherwise curious form of sonic exploration. That her sound is so refreshing after a year of constant replay asserts The Magic Place as one of the more affecting ambient records of recent times. The ability to not only establish a very simplistic form - without the temptation to take it further into something more complex - but to maintain that form is a talent that Barwick excels at. Envelop opens the record with vocals that move in circles as a barely noticeable piano melody is established ever so slowly behind. It’s only once the song enters its last thirty seconds that the piano rises to meet these vocals before quickly succumbing to the free-falling Keep Up The Good Work. Much of The Magic Place needs to be experienced in the moment, since melodies here feel nebulous and transient. Taken out of context, it can feel forgettable and little about how the way it makes you feel lingers in the memory. Listening to it with headphones in a controlled, private environment is a totally different experience. Barwick’s melodies not only linger, they expand to fill their entire universe for forty minutes. Comparisons to Brian Eno and Enya have been made, yet I find a striking similarity between the early recordings of Sarah McLachlan present through The Magic Place.


Barwick was born and raised in Louisiana before moving to Brooklyn, and the title of the record refers to the name given to a tree that grew in the back yard of the farm on which she grew up. She has remarked on how the tree could actually be crawled into and explored. Entering into this space which is unfamiliar yet comfortable is akin to the environment that The Magic Place develops over its nine tracks. So whilst it’s tempting to ascribe nostalgia and wistful childhood memories to The Magic Place, Barwick is quick to rectify such allusions by clarifying that the record is not a direct response to the tree or her experiences with it, but more a shared feeling of tone or mood, or of wonder, that came with the process of recording the record. Prizewinning feels like the most distinct statement here: Barwick utilises the vocal loops that dominate the record, this time piling layered drum beats all around them, rising and rising as the track progresses like galloping cavalry. As such, it points at the most promising direction that Barwick could take her music in should she desire to develop her sonic palette in such a way that feels like a significant advancement as opposed to mere gestation. Whatever path she takes years down the line, The Magic Place will always serve as her breakthrough, the realisation that a distinct new talent was emerging, as yet, into who knows what.