Bleep

Marking the launch of Documents, Domino’s new series of live studio recordings, Julia Holter’s In The Same Room is both a must for anyone who has experienced any of her entrancing live performances over the last five years, and an excellent introduction to the adventurous and deeply affecting music of a pioneering artist for those who haven’t. The Documents series seeks to capture, in high fidelity, the label’s artists in their element, at their most natural, immediate, and direct; to this end each release is recorded within just a couple of days at a London studio.

Consistent with this ethos, In The Same Room was recorded at RAK studios in less than two days, when Julia and her band – Corey Fogel (drums/vocals), Dina Maccabee (viola/vocals), and Devin Hoff (double bass) – were fresh off the stage, having just returned from their performance at Green Man Festival in Wales. Named after a track on Holter’s 2012 album, Ekstasis, this collection comprises new arrangements of songs, imaginatively reworked, from three of her previous studio releases. One notable highlight is ‘So Lillies’, a track from Holter’s debut album, Tragedy (2011), pared-back to its skeletal essence: with a cappella delayed vocals and, later on, simple, sparse instrumentation, it bears a haunting, almost nursery-rhyme quality.