Julia Holter
“Holter’s lyricism is something completely distinct.” – Under the Radar Magazine
Los Angeles composer and multi-instrumentalist Julia Holter has forged a reputable identity in the contemporary music landscape by merging pop melodies with abstract composition. A true DIY composer, Holter cut her teeth releasing limited run cassettes and CD-Rs releases for labels like Human Ear Music, Engraved Glass, and NNA Tapes. Holter’s songwriting stems from a mythological reverence of that which is incomprehensibly beautiful. Holter’s Eating the Stars EP (2007) was a first attempt at musically transcribing this beauty, while discovering the honest enjoyment of unadulterated creativity. Holter’s debut album Tragedy (Leaving Records, 2011) embraced similar strains of shimmer, but used sparser textures in a narrative context. She further refined this sound on her 2012 follow-up, Ekstasis (RVNG Intl., 2012), an album that reflected the conventions of her classical training while also introducing pop structure. Recent years brought about an existential focus on human connection, amid the staggering change that came with the death of loved ones (including her young nephew, to whom the album is dedicated) and the birth of her daughter. On Something in the Room She Moves, her latest release, Holter vividly processes the complexity, gravity, and awe of this confluence of experience.
