Barwick, Julianna - Healing Is A Miracle

Reflecting on the wonders of our bodies, the title Healing is A Miracle draws inspiration from the ability of our bodies to heal themselves from physical and emotional damage. This album is a product of her changed surroundings: a move to LA and a trip to Iceland. While in Iceland, Julianna's boyfriend took the album artwork and drone footage which she plans on using for digital assets. The release marks the critically acclaimed artist’s highly anticipated return with her first album in 5 years.

Julianna Barwick very much has her own lane in modern music. While the ethereally beautiful loops Barwick has delivered since emerging in the mid-2000s can be compared to the likes of Active Child, Clams Casino, Grouper and Mary Lattimore, none of those artists quite capture a sense of hazed ecstasy as well as Barwick.

Barwick’s new full-length Healing Is A Miracle, which follows the Circumstance Synthesis EP she released at the end of 2019, dives back into the pool. The likes of ‘Inspirit’ and ‘Wishing Well’ are both dense and weightless all at once, Barwick’s looped and layered vocals slathered in reverb until they achieve a state of rare grace. Indeed, bar the somewhat ominous ‘Flowers’, all of the tracks on Healing Is A Miracle deliver on the redemptive promise of the album’s title.

A trio of guests all assimilate superbly into the flow of Healing Is A Miracle, at once folding seamlessly into Barwick’s sonics and imbuing them with their own unique twists. The blend of Barwick’s reveries and harp from the aforementioned Lattimore was always going to be a winning combination, and ‘Oh, Memory’ does not disappoint on this front. The other two contributors both bring gentle rhythmic thrust - Jónsi helps to turn ‘In Light’ into a thousand-yard ballad while gently knocking drums from Nosaj Thing underpin closer ‘Nod’.

Healing Is A Miracle is another heavenly offering from Julianna Barwick.

1. Inspirit
2. Oh, Memory ft. Mary Lattimore
3. Healing Is A Miracle
4. In Light ft. Jónsi
5. Safe
6. Flowers
7. Wishing Well
8. Nod ft. Nosaj Thing