Composer, singer-songwriter, and spellbinder Julia Holter delivers what might be the perfect marriage of all her talents on her newest album, Something in the Room She Moves, out now via Domino. She’s currently touring in Europe, with a 14-date U.S. tour slated to start May 3 at the El Rey in LA.

Employing an eclectic set of instruments to help her lead the journey through a sonic world of her making, Holter doesn’t shy away from tough topics and traumatic events, both old and recent. Amid the album’s impressive grandeur and peaceful atmosphere, marking what might be her best body of work yet, she dedicated it to her young nephew, who passed away.

With a subtle sense of existential dread throughout, Holter, time after time, does not box the album into one category or emotion, flowing through chambers of artful pop compositions to staggering highs.

The title track opens to a lush orchestra of flutes and electronic ambiance, underlined by drums crashing down on the keys. Julia Holter’s vocals drift across the production like a ghost levitating in the sky, guiding the listener across what seems to be whole neighborhoods of compositions. Fittingly, the song encapsulates everything the album has to offer, serving as a microcosm of the sum of Something in the Room She Moves’ parts.

Given there are only ten songs, the time spent with each one managing to cover an entire corner of Something in the Room She Moves, where more than half of the tracklist clocks in over five minutes. “Talking to the Whisper” happens to be the longest and one of the most moving, with its church organs and huffing drums creating unexpected harmony. For much of the track, Holter takes a backseat and allows the instruments to visualize an, at times, harrowing portrait of someone leaving, either from proximity or in a physical sense.

The album, while, in some ways, exploring Holter’s mind and emotions with lucid clarity, is equally concerned with creating a space for hallucinatory sounds to surround the listener. In the same vein as her composition work on Behind the Wallpaper and the film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Holter pushes the envelope to heal wounds that resonate for how raw they are.

“There’s a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies,” she said.

Words: David Sosa

Something in the Room She Moves by Julia Holter is out on streaming services. For more on new music and upcoming shows, including her LA date at the El Rey on May 3, follow her on Instagram and her website.

Julia Holter US Tour:

May 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
May 4 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
May 6 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
May 7 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
May 10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
May 11 – Chicago, IL @ Outset
May 13 – Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
May 14 – Montreal, QC @ Le Belmont
May 15 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
May 17 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
May 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
May 19 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
May 21 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
May 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Purgatory)