Album Review: Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place

In 2007 Panda Bear’s Person Pitch - an album that channelled the cathedral sound of early music’s visceral, choral vibe - broke new bread. What Noah Lennox did was to tap the hopeful sound which rests at the heart of a sort of ancient religiousness – an acceptance of the past and quiet belief in the future, all of which results in a meditative, pleasant present. With The Magic Place, Julianna Baewick shares her past in the form of a tree where she would play as a child. By rooting the album in place, Barwick creates a foundation from which her angelic vocal loops may rise as glowing embers from a licking fire. Barwick also manages to strike an accord with the wafting aromas Stars of the Lid capture on And Their Refinement of the Decline (2007).

This is a collection of songs which soothe and offer a willing listener space for meditation, an inviting and inebriating atmosphere leaks from the speakers into the room. These are sounds which act to affirm a sense of self-belief, of the returning goodness of quiet moments. ‘Vow’, for example, has a looped piano sample which chimes like a Chopin nocturne or patrolling ice cream van equally. Barwick’s bird-like “ooh-ee-ooh” call rings out like an infant’s delight at prospective cold sweets, or a mother calling her children home for dinner. And while Barwick’s previous release, the 6-track EP Florine, was all voice and droplets of keys, she brings a bassier range to The Magic Place,  particularly on latter tune, ‘Prizewinning’, apparent beneath the shuffling drum roll which appears from the melee of the singer’s many voices.

It’s no overstatement to put The Magic Place in a similar standing to the slow-motion of Stars of the Lid’s The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid or the choral loop routine of Person Pitch. Shorn of common language (other than song titles) the artist achieves something out of the ordinary and welcome in an era of intellectual over-stimulation. This is a record which appeals to all in its frank and open spaces through its simplicity, and its direct address to the beating, softening heart of the listener.