Julia Holter announces new album 'Aviary'

Aviary is an epic journey through what Julia Holter describes as “the cacophony of the mind in a melting world.” Out on October 26th via Domino, it’s the Los Angeles composer’s most breathtakingly expansive album yet, full of startling turns and dazzling instrumental arrangements. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2015 record, Have You in My Wilderness, it takes as its starting point a line from a 2009 short story by writer Etel Adnan: "I found myself in an aviary full of shrieking birds." It’s a scenario that sounds straight out of a horror movie, but it’s also a pretty good metaphor for life in 2018, with its endless onslaught of political scandals, freakish natural disasters, and voices shouting their desires and resentments into the void.

“Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it's hard to find one's foundation,” says Holter. “I think this album is reflecting that feeling of cacophony and how one responds to it as a person - how one behaves, how one looks for love, for solace.  Maybe it’s a matter of listening to and gathering the seeming madness, of forming something out of it and envisioning a future.”

The first song to be shared from Aviary, 'I Shall Love 2' echoes that hope: "I am in love... There is nothing else". Stream 'I Shall Love 2' here.

“In a lot of the songs, when I mention love, it’s about a seeking for compassion and humility in a world where it feels like empathy is always being tested,” Holter says. In Aviary’s case, that search for sweetness - that bridging of the gulf - becomes a metaphor for the creative process itself, cutting through the hierarchies of history, language, and musical form to offer something more fluid, more inclusive, more idiosyncratic. 

Aviary, executive produced by Cole MGN and produced by Holter and Kenny Gilmore, combines Holter's slyly theatrical vocals and Blade Runner-inspired synth work with an enveloping palette of strings and percussion that reveals itself, and the boundless scope of her vision, over the course of fifteen songs. Holter was joined by Corey Fogel (percussion), Devin Hoff (bass), Dina Maccabee (violin, viola, vocals), Sarah Belle Reid (trumpet), Andrew Tholl (violin), and Tashi Wada (synth, bagpipes).

Tracklisting:

1.     Turn The Light On

2.     Whether

3.     Chaitius

4.     Voce Simul

5.     Everyday Is An Emergency

6.     Another Dream

7.     I Shall Love 2

8.     Underneath The Moon

9.     Colligere

10.  In Gardens’ Muteness

11.  I Would Rather See

12.  Les Jeux To You

13.  Words I Heard

14.  I Shall Love 1

15.  Why Sad Song

Aviary will be available to pre-order on Dom-Mart exclusive deluxe LP (2 x heavyweight clear vinyl, photo print and booklet), Indie-exclusive LP (2 x heavyweight clear vinyl and booklet), standard LP (2 x heavyweight black vinyl and booklet), double CD (with booklet) and digitally.    

Upcoming live dates

2018

14th Oct - Desert Daze Festival, Lake Perris, CA Tickets

24th Nov - Explore The North Festival, Leeuwarden Tickets

26th Nov - Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam Tickets

27th Nov – Schauspiel, Bochum, Germany Tickets

28th Nov - De Roma, Antwerp Tickets

30th Nov - Funkhaus, Berlin Tickets

1st Dec - Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg Tickets    

2nd Dec - Brotfabrik, Frankfurt Tickets

3rd Dec  - Kammerspiele, Munich Tickets

5th Dec  - Petit Bain, Paris Tickets

6th Dec  - Gorilla, Manchester Tickets

7th Dec  - Fiddlers, Bristol Tickets

8th Dec  - Button Factory, Dublin Tickets

10th Dec - Summerhall, Edinburgh Tickets

11th Dec - Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds Tickets

12th Dec - Hackney Arts Centre, London Tickets

2019

19th Feb - U Street Music Hall, Washington DC Tickets

20th Feb - Underground Arts, Philadelphia Tickets

22nd Feb - Warsaw, New York Tickets

23rd Feb - Brighton Music Hall, Boston Tickets

24th Feb - La Sala Rossa, Montreal Tickets

26th Feb - The Great Hall, Toronto Tickets

27th Feb - El Club, Detroit Tickets

28th Feb - Thalia Hall, Chicago Tickets

1st Mar  - Turf Club, St. Paul Tickets

4th Mar  - Imperial, Vancouver Tickets

5th Mar  - Doug Fir, Portland Tickets

6th Mar  - Neumos, Seattle Tickets

8th Mar  - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco Tickets

9th Mar  - Lodge Room, Los Angeles Tickets