Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore

Tragic Magic finds Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore, two of contemporary ambient and experimental music’s most celebrated composers, synthesizing their respective crafts within the walls of Philharmonie de Paris, given access to the extraordinary instrument collection of the Musée de la Musique in partnership with the French label InFiné. 

The collaborative album, co-produced by Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), came together in just nine days, a testament to the “musical telepathy,” as Barwick puts it, that has developed between the two artists over the years, traveling the world as friends and tourmates. Sessions crossed improvisation with loose ideas they arrived in Paris with from Los Angeles, shortly after the January 2025 wildfires. Still reeling for their community, the two artists embraced a divine setting, feeling deeply cared for by their hosts and overwhelmed by the beauty and history at their fingertips. Lattimore selected three harps tracing the evolution of the instrument from 1728 to 1873, and Barwick chose several analog synthesizers that have shaped decades of exploratory music, including the Roland JUPITER and Sequential Circuits PROPHET-5, among other treasures. Together in freeform dialogue, voice and instrument, they render a meditation on tragedy, wonder, and the restorative power of shared experience. Tragic Magic features seven immersive, evocative songs guided by the human spirit. Intimate, grounded in friendship, earthly yet cosmic, and part of a greater continuum, speaking to the solace of artistry that’s lifted us for generations.