Julia Holter's second album, 'Ekstasis', is a collection of songs written and recorded across the span of three years in Los Angeles, California. Following the feverish response to her beautiful, minimalist pop masterpiece 'Tragedy,' 'Ekstasis' marks both a return to earlier, more playful territory and the blooming of more recognisable pop forms. Guided by newly-learned disciplines, slightly better technology, and nearly limitless home recording time, Holter's creative trajectory is taking in new neural pathways. launching from the contemplative and eerily beautiful base of previous recordings, 'Ekstasis' reflects the conventions of her classical training, the album is also uncannily, if unknowingly, poppy. holter's approach to crafting the songs of 'Ekstasis' centered around what she describes as, 'open ear decisions: what seemed to sound best for that moment.' Such instinctive creativity lends an Arthur Russell-esque beauty to the recordings: Holter's is a spirit given flight to experiment but always reigned in by a perfect sense of proportion and space. The fruits of 'Ekstasis' are bountiful - 'marienbad' was built while playing around on a fender rhodes with imagined imagery of topiary gardens and scenes from the song's film namesake in mind. the entirety of 'boy in the moon' - the casio sk-1 noodles, melody, and lyrics - was improvised over a seven minute catharsis. the melody and lyrics for 'four gardens' were written spontaneously while rearranging an older song on a loop pedal for a live performance. With each song, there is a unique story and approach, but all are united Holter's "desire to get outside of my body and find what i can't define." 'Ekstasis' is an album indulged in beautiful, simple, unfolding life mysteries.
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