The Greater Wings, by Julie Byrne

The Greater Wings

by Julie Byrne

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jasonandtheargonauts ecstacy vs melancholy but The Greater Wings has won

Metallurgical Fire Julie’s songwriting is truly transcendent. There isn’t much music that can touch the level of emotional resonance she is able to reach. She never dumbs down her lyrical sensibilities to increase popularity. The arrangements here are more complex, yet also more ethereal, than those on Not Even Happiness. If there is a perfect album, The Greater Wings may be it. That’s coming from a metal fan.

cnefdt I came across Julie by chance a few years ago and really enjoyed 'Not Even Happiness'. The new album is just as good.

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Sky Blue Vinyl
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1.	The Greater Wings 03:24	buy track
2.	Portrait Of A Clear Day 03:20	buy track
3.	Moonless 03:46	buy track
4.	Summer Glass 04:19	buy track
5.	Summer's End 02:55	buy track
6.	Lightning Comes Up From The Ground 04:00	buy track
7.	Flare 03:47	buy track
8.	Conversation Is A Flowstate 03:38	buy track
9.	Hope's Return 04:04	buy track
10.	Death Is The Diamond 05:08	buy track

about

The first album in over six years from American songwriter Julie Byrne is a testament to patience and determination, the willingness to transform through the desolation of loss, the vitality of renewal, and the courage to rise, forever changed. For nearly a decade, Byrne has moved through the world as a characteristically private artist largely outside the public eye. A self-taught musician that has committed her life to her work, she now emerges from a deeply trying and generative period with the most powerful, lustrous, and life-affirming music of her career, The Greater Wings. While they hold the plasticity of grief and trauma, the songs are universally resonant, unbridled in their devotion and joy, held up by the love and alliance of a chosen family. Byrne leans further into atmospheres both expansive and intimate; the lush, evocative songcraft flows between her signature fingerpicked guitar, synthesizer, and a newly adopted piano, made wider by flourishes of harp and strings. It is the transcendent sound of resource, of friendship that was never without romance, of loyalty that burns from within like a heart on fire, and the life force summoned in unrepeatable moments — raw, gorgeous, and wild.

The Greater Wings was written across several seasons, pulling imagery from nights on tour, periods of isolation, and the drives cross-country for its various collaborations between Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Recording started with the late Eric Littmann, her longtime creative partner and Not Even Happiness producer, and finished in the Catskills of New York with producer Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Julianna Barwick).

"My hope for The Greater Wings is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future. Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: this is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me."

Julie Byrne will confess the success of her 2017 LP Not Even Happiness was unexpected; nine gracefully road-worn odes to the fringes of life she assembled without any expectation that they'd travel so far beyond their DIY origins. But its hushed closing track, "I Live Now As A Singer," did forecast an intention. She knew the open space — occupied by Littmann's signature palette of synth tones, Jake Falby's strings, and Byrne's robust, drifting voice — presented something new and thrilling, something they'd develop as a live band touring the world, and what would later be understood as the catalyst for material to come. From orchestral folk meditations (“The Greater Wings”, “Portrait of a Clear Day”) to windswept piano ballads (“Moonless”, “Death Is The Diamond”) to the luminous, synth-driven euphoria of “Summer Glass,” The Greater Wings builds on this revelatory space at every turn.

credits

released July 7, 2023

Produced by: Eric Littmann, Alex Somers, Jake Falby
Mixed by: Alex Somers
Additional Engineering by: Eli Crews
Additional Recording by: Rafael Anton Irisarri
Mastered by: Taylor Deupree @ 12k Mastering
Photography by: Tonje Thilesen
Design by: Ikhoor Studio
Published by: Mute Song Ltd.

license

about

Julie Byrne New York, New York

juliemariebyrne.com

shows

May 25

Le Botanique

Brussels, Belgium
May 28

Bremen Teater

Copenhagen, Denmark
May 29

Parc del Fòrum

Barcelona, Spain
Jun 1

Silent Green

Berlin, Germany
Jun 2

artheater Köln

Cologne, Germany
Jun 4

Zonzij, Tolhuistuin

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jun 5

Le Hasard Ludique

Paris, France
Jun 6

Parque da Cidade

Porto, Portugal
Jun 11

Blue Note

Poznan, Poland
Jun 12

Jassmine

Warsaw, Poland
Jun 13

Helsingin jäähalli

Helsinki, Finland
Jul 27

Crystal Palace Bowl

Bromley, UK
Aug 8

Castelbuono

Palermo, Italy
Aug 9

Piazza Castello

Castelbuono, Italy
Aug 9

Piazza Castello

Castelbuono, Italy

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