Julianna Barwick - Healing is a Miracle

July 10, 2020 - Ninja Tune

New York soul Julianna Barwick has up until now been on the edges of my perception; almost in focus but fleeting. A mention here, a track on a playlist there. I admit, it was only on noticing collaborator and fellow California transplant Mary Lattimore’s name on this project that it garnered my full attention. I found here something I did not know I was looking for, something that I needed to find.

Barwick’s fourth studio album opens on a daydream. We start on the beach, sonic waves pushing and pulling like the tide. The air is quickly filled with vocals that expand upward and outward, outlining an invisible cathedral until all the space is taken up. ‘Inspirit’ is dotted with spicy vocal risers, goosepimpling us up and down all over. A lone but not small synth vibrates forth from the sand; we sit and take in the warmth of the sawtooth wave tone. ‘Oh, Memory ft. Mary Lattimore’ distills these feelings into a more tangible emotive experience. Barwick’s words start softly and grow on their own, reverb layers swirling and combining to form new tones and movement on their own, pushing upward and dropping back down to catch one another on their own. Lattimore’s harp dances along like the sunlight reflecting off the water’s crests, ever fleeting but constant all at once. The warmth is here as well; we must be in a moment of paradise. 

With a quick change of kit and a nimble dive we enter the water with the titular ‘Healing is a Miracle.’ Currents of synthesized strings draw our bodies toward an area of low pressure. Barwick’s multi-layered vocals suspend us in a state of neutral buoyancy as we lose all sense of direction. There are lyrics here but their feeling is more present than their meaning; the title offers meaning enough. ‘In Light ft. Jónsi’ enters and the water becomes electrified. Barwick’s voice intertwines with Jónsi’s tightly at first but soon the voices separate slightly offering room for breath and life and play. The synths here take on a more percussive role, pulsing gently all around before actual percussion elements emerge to drive in the first real beat of the album. Constantly moving onward, the two voices split entirely into a call and response. We flow upward with the beat, the pulse, the rhythm of growth. We emerge from the water and step back on the sand.

‘Safe’ begins bright and subtle, vocal textures lining up to populate the clear air. The original pattern flows on for the first three minutes of the piece, tracing the same ridges deeper. A low synth note rings out like a Japanese bonshō, penetrating the atmosphere on all planes of feeling. The cadence of the voice shifts here, filling the formerly formed ridges with thick air upon which we can flow down like water. As the voice fades along this path, the synth strings emerge again to bridge the gap to the end. ‘Flowers’ marks the first time in the project that the lights, or sun in this case, goes out. Barwick layers delayed staccato vocal calls to form a floor on which to place the hint of an overdriven sharp synth and chilling falsetto. The track is shortest on the album and the intensity is built up quickly and directly as if facing a race against time. 

Light emerges again and we are drawn back into the emotive space of ‘Safe’ in ‘Wishing Well.’ A light layer cake of lemon butter cream tones pushes in from all sides. Here, similar to her other pieces, Barwick plays with the presence and perception of time. The soft synth-like stacked treatment of the vocals lends itself to even more ambient tracks of yore that could and would span upwards to 20 minutes, letting the listener become completely lost in and devoid of time. Barwick quickly reaches that state of presence distortion here but instead swells the energy a few minutes in and pops it like a tiny time bubble, piquing interest for a repeat listen. ‘Nod ft. Nosaj Thing’ heralds the end of the album. Barwick’s rich vocals dance among Nosaj-jasoN’s own voice and digital hang drum notes with a drum kit in a blanket fort laying down a basic but appropriate beat. It’s an ouroboros ending to the album, leading the listener right back to the beginning of ‘Inspirit.’

Barwick’s light touch with such monumental texture and space creates an outstanding and essential project for not just this tough year but for all the tough years past and yet to pass. Her journey to leave her previous life in New York City and grow anew on the West coast has led Barwick to a new source of inspiration, a new source of well-being. The title sums this sentiment well, healing is a miracle, and needs both remembering and being in awe of. 🍍