I’ve been a wallflower in the halls of worship which bow at the feet of Julia Holter for only a short 6 or 8 months, to be perfectly honest, but I feel like I need to step out onto the floor and fluff my feathers to and about her a bit more right now. Why? Because of this absolutely otherworldly live recording at the album launch event for her most recent effort entitled “Ekstasis”.I’ll save gushing about the album for any one of the countless other online resources who’ve done a far better job than I and in a much more timely fashion, as well. However, I doubt as many of them will latch onto this, unfortunately, and feel it my duty in their lacking to do so and as a result of my neglecting to truly share my love for her with you all until now, to make you aware of it. It’s about an hour’s worth of her live performance that was reportedly recorded by the folks over at Dublab, who happen to have – among other things – a tight connection to and love affair with the Leaving Records camp, whom are responsible for propelling Julia and her angelic ways into a more prominent piece of spotlight in recent times. It’s presented online for your enjoyment and posterity thanks to Dummymag. The set is one of the most purely and simply beautiful things you can hear, to put it in a nutshell far too small to contain just how remarkable it is. Where her recordings afford her more of a structurally complex and layered song composition, her live performances – at least this one (rest assured, I’m going to check out others I’m able to) – strip her sound down to the base of her atmospheric ambient classical new age dream gaze… or whatever you want to call it. Her voice is afforded more attention from the listener and the space between her carefully crafted and presented soundscapes become even more important than her album efforts already ensure they are. If you’re familiar with her work, rest assured her playful experimentation is still quite present here, and the moments which include defined percussion and and more animated sounds serve to punctuate herself as you’ve come to expect, but in a more intimate fashion. It is a subtle but unquestionable exercise in brilliance and beauty.
