It feels like there’s something of a renaissance for harp players in jazz and jazz-related musics of late. Brandee Younger, Maria-Christina Harper and Alina Bzhezhinska all making their mark in distinctive ways. Julie Campiche carves another path entirely exploring the fuzzy edges between electronic, classical and avant-garde music where they flow over with jazz. To call her a harpist alone is a disservice – she’s a sound artist who uses the harp, electronics and her voice to compose and imporise in a singular space. Her new album UNSPOKEN, her debut as a soloist, is a celebration of women and the force of feminine power, with portraits of women— famous and anonymous— honouring those whose voices have been silenced or minimised and the causes they have championed.
The music derived from these methods and themes is at the same time stimulating and often very beautiful and calming. Releasing UNSPOKEN on Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin Rhythm Records makes sense given the very different but similarly hypnotising sound worlds the Swiss pianist also creates.
This is an album to spend time with and invest in. Here’s a few words from Julie on what music means to her.
Music is our imagination’s haven of freedom. Being a musician is something sacred, fundamental, universal. I strive to let go of the idea of self, to open to the infinitely universal within the depths of the intimate.”
This is our Chosen One.