麻豆传媒映画

In her music Julia Holter creates sonic journeys with a consummate craftsmanship that draws from a wide range of sources.

A classically-trained pianist working in avant-pop realms, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter incorporates influences such as medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut, 1960s girl groups and the stream of consciousness operas of Robert Ashley into her work.

Holter鈥檚 2011 debut album, Tragedy, is conceptually rooted in Euripides鈥� Hippolytus, while 2013鈥檚 Loud City Song, loosely based on Colette鈥檚 novel Gigi, features a cover of Barbara Lewis鈥� top 40 soul hit 鈥淗ello Stranger鈥� set in amongst other original tunes. The indie singer/songwriter likes to throw some curves into her music.

She recorded Tragedy and 2012鈥檚 Ekstasis on her own in layers, while for Loud City Song and Holter鈥檚 latest, Have You in My Wilderness, she brought in a producer and a full band to accompany her. Perhaps because she鈥檚 writing with other musicians in mind Holter has begun to move towards more conventional song structures but the transition does not seem to have affected her intense esthetic at all. The song remains the same mainly because the young Holter is an old hand when it comes to thinking about compositional technique.

鈥淲hen I was like nine I remember having music in my mind,鈥� Holter says on the phone from Los Angeles. 鈥淚 wanted to write but I was like, 鈥楴o, I can鈥檛 do that.鈥� I didn鈥檛 know about contemporary composers. A lot of Americans don鈥檛 understand that there are people who are still composers. It鈥檚 kind of like poets 鈥� people don鈥檛 know there are people who are actually poets.鈥�

Holter got her first taste of music as an art form as a teenager at L.A.鈥檚 Alexander Hamilton High School Academy of Music. 鈥淚 had some great teachers in high school,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 went to a regular school that had a music program that was pretty strong and teachers there taught us theory and that was pretty important for me.

鈥淏ob Bruning, the electronic music class teacher at Hamilton, took us to the NAMM show, the big music technology convention in L.A., and we got to meet Bob Moog 鈥� Robert Moog, the guy who invented the moog [synthesizer]. It was so crazy 鈥� he came to our class. It was extremely cool. When I started at Hamilton, I was like 14, I guess and I said, 鈥業 want to make electronic music.鈥� Basically what that meant is I went to Guitar Center and bought a big Casio [keyboard].鈥�

Holter started seriously composing while she was studying at the University of Michigan. 鈥淢y first teacher at Michigan was a composer named Susan Botti and I think she was pretty important for me as an inspiration. She was a singer and she was the first teacher that I worked with there. I started college at 17 and that would have been pretty formative as a female inspiration. It was good for me to meet her and begin to learn about other women.鈥�

Finding her own footing as a musician Holter further studied composition at CalArts before joining Linda Perhacs鈥� band in 2010 and collaborating with Night Jewel (Ramona Gonzalez) among others.

In Holter鈥檚 own work anything goes. 鈥淭he writing is always singular for me. I write it alone. It鈥檚 not really one way. I hear melodies sometimes and sometimes I hear words with them and sometimes I make up words first. Sometimes I鈥檓 at the piano notating some kind of figuration that my fingers are doing, other times I鈥檓 just playing chords and I write down the chords and words just kind of come out while I鈥檓 playing and then I elaborate them. On the last record I would just play chords because it was more of a traditional pop form.鈥�

Long an admirer of Joni Mitchell, and particularly the album Court and Spark, in her latest material Holter reaches a new level of emotional immediacy and directness while losing none of her poetic edge. Mitchell always tried to keep a dialogue going between pop and poetics throughout her songs and that can also be heard on much of With You in My Wilderness in tracks such as 鈥淟ucette Stranded on the Island鈥� and 鈥淪ea Calls Me Home.鈥�

Ramona Gonzalez鈥檚 husband Cole Marsden Grief-Neill (a member of Ariel Pink鈥檚 Haunted Graffiti before becoming Beck鈥檚 engineer) mixed Holter鈥檚 album Ekstasis and co-produced Loud City Song and With You in My Wilderness.

While writing music is a meticulous, all-consuming process for Holter the results are brought on demos into a studio environment where they receive further treatment.

鈥淐ole does things very quickly but we still have to mix which usually means arranging over and over again,鈥� she says. 鈥淎ll the vocals are recorded at home. It鈥檚 not fast in the end, it鈥檚 part of the composition process in the way you鈥檙e working with new material and you can鈥檛 predict a lot of things. He鈥檚 good at making decisions and I鈥檓 not good at making decisions, so that鈥檚 very helpful.鈥�

Holter completes a West Coast tour in 麻豆传媒映画at the Cobalt on Feb. 4 before heading off for Europe to start a new round of shows in Paris on Feb. 8.

Julia Holter with guests Circuit Des Yeux at the Cobalt (917 Main St.), Thursday, Feb. 4, 9:30 p.m. Tickets $15, 19+ admission. For more information, visit .