Julianna Barwick

Though she initially resisted the terms and their cultural implications, Julianna Barwick helped to launch the modern renaissance in ambient and New Age music. Barwick began singing as a kid in Louisiana, fascinated by the way her voice sounded solo in the sanctuary of the church where her father worked. But it wasn’t until a friend lent her a looping station in New York in 2005 that Barwick found a clear focus for her hobby. She began to layer her vocals and became fascinated by the mysterious shapes the process could create. Her exquisite solo debut, The Magic Place, was a revelation, her operatic tone somehow both earthbound and astral, a bridge between sky and soil, between escapism and toil.

Barwick’s records during the last 15 years have wrestled with such emotional see-saws, documenting the ups and downs of divorce, a cross-country move, and new relationships in hymns to perseverance. A ready collaborator who has worked with The Flaming Lips, Jónsi, and Bat for Lashes, Barwick has steadily augmented the sounds of her own records, too. On 2020’s Healing Is a Miracle, she not only embraced the language of New Age but also added luminous rhythms, roaring keyboards, and fractured electronics, plus the harp of longtime friend Mary Lattimore. At Big Ears 2026, Lattimore and Barwick will perform a collaborative set, while Barwick will also offer her own set of exquisite and transportive songs.