From album to album,
Juliana Barwick
's music is both consistently gorgeous and expressive of the subtlest change in her creative process. While
Healing Is a Miracle
is just as transporting as her previous work, it also reflects the shifts in her life when she made it. Not only had she moved to Los Angeles after 16 years in New York, but the vocal improvisations that became the album's foundations were the first music she'd made for herself after years of commissioned projects. A feeling of reclaiming and recovery comes from within and without on
.
Barwick
gets support from some longtime friends and new neighbors, and as always, she's a generous collaborator who fully melds her style with other artists. Considering how often
's voice is described as "angelic," it might seem too obvious to add harp to her music, but
Mary Lattimore
's propulsive bass notes and glimmering high end on "Oh, Memory" are layered just as creatively and affectingly as
's vocals. The husky textures of her breathing are echoed by
Nosaj Thing
's submerged synths and beats on "Nod," perhaps the clearest homage to her new home base of L.A. On "In Light," she duets with her dear friend
Jonsi
, another singer who can channel the infinite and still seem approachable. As their voices unite in luminous harmony while titanic beats anchor the song and fracture it into further radiant beams, it makes for one of
's brightest highlights.
and his partner
Alex Somers
(who produced 2013's
Nepenthe
) helped shape
's sound in a more indirect way: This is the first album
made using the studio monitors the pair gave her as a birthday present. While studio monitors are standard gear for many recording artists, they're a notable addition to
's music. When the massive synth bass drops on the stunning opening invocation "Inspirit," the feeling of awe it sparks fills the whole body. On songs such as this one,
borrows the best of
Will
's intimacy, which felt like
and her listeners were in the same room, and the choral majesty of
, which transported listeners somewhere else entirely. Just as
helped her grieve the loss of a family member,
Healing
's therapeutic qualities are unmistakable on calming cathedrals of sound like "Safe" and the title track. However, healing also implies growth, and the album lives up to that aspect of its name with "Flowers," where cascading echoes and pulsing synths provide a fascinating, surprisingly tense contrast to the serenity that dominates elsewhere.
has always celebrated the sheer beauty of voices joining together and likely always will, but she's never done it exactly the same way twice. With
, she once again manages to evolve and remain true to what has made her music special since the beginning. ~ Heather Phares