In rotation: Julia Holter’s ‘Tragedy’

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In rotation: Julia Holter’s ‘Tragedy.’ A series in Sunday Calendar about what Times writers & contributors are listening to right now...

Local experimental musician Julia Holter had a banner year in 2011. Her full-length album, “Tragedy,” inspired by Euripides’ “Hippolytus,” found its way onto a few influential year-end lists, including NPR’s Best Outer Sound Albums of 2011.Released on the tiny Leaving label in the fall, “Tragedy” is 50 minutes of collage, soaked in neo-classical atmosphere.

Sometimes Holter sings in an ethereal voice suggestive of Aphrodite, the play’s vengeful goddess of love who dooms everyone around her; other times, instrumental blocks made of evolving synths, ringing chimes, static-shrouded woodwinds push in like weather systems. The 10-minute “Celebration” is one of the wonders from this transporting collection that’s out of print on vinyl but available digitally.

Julia Holter
“Tragedy”
Leaving Records

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