Julia Holter - Materia Julia Holter

Julia Holter always knew that there was more to the song “Materia” than what she included on her wondrous 2024 album, Something in the Room She Moves. She had written the tune not long after the tours for 2018’s Aviary concluded, and it worked well for solo shows—her voice and piano, lyrics still morphing as she played with the meaning.

But on the new Materia, a kind of companion LP to Something in the Room She Moves, Holter has realised not one but two distinct versions of the song. “Materia 2” is a hallucinatory dream of drum machines, fretless bass and clarinet, Holter’s voice spiralling through the ether alongside that of Jessika Kenney. On “Materia 3”, intended as a hidden bonus track in homage to the CD era of her youth, Holter literally slows down the take from Something in the Room She Moves. The change not only emphasises the unpredictable glory of the harmonies within but also reiterates the song’s emotional sophistication, the sense that it’s about learning how to live.

Materia is only seven tracks long, but Holter works in nearly that many modes here. There are two astounding improvisations: one where she builds a one-person ensemble of drum machines and synth lines, and another where she manipulates her voice until each word seems to contain another symphony. Another piece is built from a riff that originated in a demo for Something in the Room She Moves, a demo that itself becomes one of Materia’s most spellbinding and emotional moments, “My Twin.”

These seven songs show that Holter remains one of her generation’s most fluid and adventurous art-pop composers, moving between ideas and idioms with remarkable ease. Materia functions as a creative playground, where each distinct scene gradually coheres into a moving and rewarding whole.