Julianna Barwick

Born in Louisiana and long based in Brooklyn, Julianna Barwick crafts vocal ambient music with layered harmonies at its core. Shaped by childhood choral singing, she builds most of her pieces from nearly wordless vocal loops that unfold in highly reverberant sonic spaces, somewhere between ambient, neoclassical, and slow dream pop. After a self-released debut, Sanguine (2006), and the EP Florine (2009), Barwick’s career coalesced with The Magic Place (2011), which placed her within New York’s then-burgeoning experimental scene. Recorded in Reykjavík with producer Alex Somers and Icelandic musicians, Nepenthe (2013) further anchored Barwick in an atmospheric, choral aesthetic. Will (2016) and Healing Is a Miracle (2020) continue this pursuit of a contemplative sound, where vocal layers, discreet electronic touches, and stretched tempos intersect. On stage, Barwick translates this solo practice through real-time looping, favoring venues with generous acoustics—churches and certain contemporary art spaces—which fuels a trajectory between experimental music, meditative music, and independent culture.