Julia Holter and I go way back. We first crossed paths in the early days of high school, seated across from each other in Ms. Klein’s A-level English class, where we bonded over our mutual love of Greek tragedy (we also worked together to create a very thorough PowerPoint presentation on The Good Earth, garnering praise from Ms. Klein and scorn from our less-driven classmates). I’ll never forget the look in Julia’s eye after the final bell of our Senior year, when we both knew our friendship might soon fade away from prolonged distance (she was headed for CalArts, I for Brown, majoring in Astronautical Engineering). I pulled a worn copy of Euripides’ Hippolytus from my JanSport backpack, sharing my most treasured tragedy with the truest companion I’d ever known. She trembled as she held the slim paperback with both hands, and I embraced her with all the feeling a boy — not yet a man — could withstand. As we all know, Julia would go on to create the critically revered, Hippolytus-inspired Tragedy album for Leaving Records, and I would drop out of Brown in my first year and end up editing Tiny Mix Tapes news stories.
To be fair, a few of the facts from this history are embellished. I said my copy of Hippolytus was worn; in truth, I had stolen it from Barnes & Noble the night before. I said I attended Brown University; in truth, I followed Julia Holter across the country to attend the very same Electronic Music courses at CalArts as she. I quickly became known around campus for leading the majority of the early morning drum circles on the main quad, and for adding my own flourishes on the theremin. Julia excelled in all her classes, and though I had memorized a number of Karlheinz Stockhausen quotes to offer up in discussions as my own thoughts, I never managed to win the favor of my professors, classmates, or even my dearest Julia — she claimed we had never met before, that she had never heard of the town I was from, and that she felt bothered by my staring at her all the time. Eventually I was forcibly removed from CalArts for reasons never fully explained, and Julia apparently gained enough “peace of mind” to create a follow-up to Tragedy, called Ekstasis, which is set for release March 8 of 2012 on CD, digital, and double-LP via RVNG Intl.
I could describe the album as a melding of Tragedy and Eating the Stars and mention the album’s mixing by Haunted Graffiti member Cole M. Greif-Neill, but there’s a preview track you can hear below, and anyway I feel too downtrodden by circumstance and the sting of knowing yet another successful composer-musician refuses to acknowledge our mutual history.
Julia Holter - Marienbad by RVNG Intl.
Ekstasis tracklisting:
01. Marienbad
02. Our Sorrows
03. In the Same Room
04. Boy in the Moon
05. Fur Felix
06. Goddess Eyes II
07. Moni Mon Amie
08. Four Gardens
09. Goddess Eyes I
10. This Is Ekstasis
• Julia Holter: http://juliashammasholter.com
• RVNG Intl.: http://www.igetrvng.com
