You only need to listen to a few seconds of Healing Is A Miracle to understand that Julianna Barwick’s albums have the same amount of thoughtfulness that you’d find in a monastery. This American from Louisiana, who’s now based in Los Angeles after a long stint in Brooklyn, lets this dreamlike atmosphere seep into everything she composes. Wide soundscapes, infinite layers, loops and repetitive patterns immersed in halos of echo and reverb swirl around her fascinating voice which possesses a similar grace to Liz Fraser’s from the Cocteau Twins, despite hardly resembling it. It’s like an ethereal, hypnotic, suspended music session. It’s hardly surprising that Barwick has worked with Sigur Rós, among others… Jónsi from the Icelandic band features on In Light. The Californian electronic musician Nosaj Thing (on Nod) and the harpist Mary Lattimore (on Oh, Memory) are the two other guests on this fourth album, which, like the previous records, is soaked in a half-New Age, half-ambient feel. Time is suspended. And so are we. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz