Tragic Magic by Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

Tragic Magic by Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

Their collaboration floats not just between earth and sky but also between baroque and modern.

Album Review: Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore – ‘Tragic Magic’: A compelling, emotional electro-acoustic collaboration which haunts and hopes.

Some collaborations are just meant to be and this is one of those. Composer, vocalist and electronic musician Julianna Barwick and experimental harpist Mary Lattimore have been more than crossing paths within the ambient/neo-classical world over the years. Both moved to LA at around the same time and built a friendship from playing live shows together as their individual trajectories rose. Recording together has been less frequent. Lattimore pla…

In Conversation: Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore

It’s remarkable that it took over a decade for Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore to make an album together. Two of the biggest figures in contemporary ambient music, the composers developed a friendship long before they shared a home base, moving to Los Angeles around the same time. They’d performed live together and collaborated on singles, but it wasn’t until they were invited to record an album in Paris, using the vast and historic collecti…

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

The composers’ first collaborative album ebbs from epic, cinematic heights to delicate and dreamy lullabies After years of touring together, Los Angeles-based composers Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have developed what the former refers to as a “musical telepathy”. Tragic Magic, the pair’s…

Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic

Tragic Magic could easily have been unbearable. Two well-liked figures from neighboring corners of ambient music head to Paris, gain access to a museum’s worth of historic instruments, and make something tasteful, reverent and instantly forgettable. That it avoids that fate has less to do with its novelty than with its attitude. While its instruments may be precious, musicians Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore are notably uninterested in polis…