Human Ear Music

Julia Holter

Julia Holter is a songwriter, composer and sound artist from Los Angeles, California. She holds a BFA in composition from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and is currently attending the Masters program in composition at the California Institute of the Arts. She began contributing to the Human Ear Music label shortly after its founding in 2006, becoming co-chairperson of Human Ear Music in December 2007. Her interest in the promotion and distribution of music and radio has always accompanied her art practice. Her music has been released on CD in the US and Germany.

Between 2006 and 2007 she recorded a collection of mysterious and beguiling songs in which she developed an individualistic poetics, utilizing found and mis-translated texts, phonetics, and archaic languages.

Her song-writing shows a careful sense of balance, expression and picturesque instrumentation, unfazed by homespun recording techniques. Her sound resonates and sparkles with crystalline vocals, carefully molded synth tones and acoustic percussion loops. The result is a music that transcends classification, though rough comparisons can be made to baroque music, French bubble-gum pop and Fairlight-era Kate Bush.

Her experimental work frequently uses simple, chance-based procedures, textual interpretation and ritual-like activities that lead to complex personal and devotional meanings.