Julia Holter- Materia LP

Julia Holter always knew that there were many forms her song ‘Materia’ could take. The tune's dynamic Hildegard von Bingen-inspired melody and dense modal chords stood on their own without a complex arrangement on her wondrous 2024 album Something in the Room She Moves, but she felt a lingering desire to expand the texture and stretch out the harmony. But on the new Materia, a kind of companion LP to Something, Holter has realized not one but two distinct versions of the song. ‘Materia 2’ is a hallucinatory dream of drum machines, fretless bass, and clarinet, Holter's voice spiraling through ether alongside that of Jessika Kenney. And on Materia 3, intended as a hidden bonus track in an homage to the CD era of her youth, Holter literally slows down the take from Something.