Julia Frodahl and Edison Woods
Photo by Elisabet Davidsdottir.
Julia Frodahl is a dreamy dove, a love, a healer, and dare I say, the most precious of precious snowflakes. When I use the word precious, I don’t mean it in a cloying or derisive manner. Julia is truly precious in the incalculably valuable, rare and astonishing sense of that word, like the Baroda Diamond, like a unicorn found wandering the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Music video for Edison Wood’s “Last Night I Dreamt I Would Last Forever” directed by Alicia Reginato, 2008
As an accomplished yoga instructor (according to some, she’s one of the best inversion teachers in New England), her serene approach to the yoga asana practice is paired with a deep working knowledge of human anatomy and alignment. As lead songwriter, singer and keyboardist for the chamber orchestra Edison Woods, she infuses her music with a pensive, wintry grace that makes me think of pure white things: falling snow and eiderdown, powdered sugar, frost, pearls.
Listen for yourself. Here’s Edison Woods’ “Shirts for Pennies”:
Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski.
Click through for more photos of the exquisite Mme Julia, and a rave review of Edison Wood’s album Seven Principles of Leave No Trace from All Music Guide.
Photo by Elisabet Davidsdottir.
This second effort “Seven Principles of Leave No Trace” offers a wide open view of the band’s sound; the strings and keyboards predominantly dress these nine shimmering, haunted, songs with a kind of solitary elegance that is at once sophisticated and full of seamless dynamic tension…
Photo by Patryce Bak
This is music that reflects the outward breath, the one exhaled by an individual that dissolves herself as she exhales, into the emptiness and interconnectedness of an undefined, limitless universe.
Photo by Sean McCabe
At times Frodahl’s voice comes so near to breaking under the weight of change that the listener has to hold her breath for a moment, seemingly to buoy the singer through this gorgeous yet tenderly violent moment of reckoning.
Photo by Sean McCabe
It’s a gloriously vulnerable album to be sure. But in the giving away of everything, as these voices do again and again throughout this recording, “Seven Principles of Leave No Trace” stands resiliently, naked and tall, as a deeply moving and redemptive work or art. — All Music Guide review by Thom Jurek
December 19th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
So what your saying is that she’s really really white?
December 19th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Bah.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Lovely post. Really beautiful visuals.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Guys, I know, this is Mer’s lame attempt to compete with me for fetishizing whiteness. Mer, your Julia Frodahl’s got nothin’ on my albino McCain. You cannot best me.
But no, I thought this post was really poetic. My speakers are busted right now so I can’t hear any music, but your description (and the lovely visuals you chose) helped me really imagine Julia’s performance, which will tide me over until I can actually hear it. Thank you, Mer!
I would love to see Julia Frodahl photographed by Andy Julia, in this style. As Mer would say, GIT ‘ER DONE, COSMOS.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I agree with you completely, Ms. Yayanos.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Oh my, I am now in love with Edison Woods. Off to find the album…
December 20th, 2008 at 9:23 am
So beautiful…Julia’s voice, the visuals….completely breathtaking!
December 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Thank you for the rec.
I’m on itunes now and getting their album.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
It’s getting to the point, where I never question your taste. Good schtuff, again. Again, again, again.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 am
This is like no other music. Completely original, which I fully appreciate and support. Even though I feel the song could’ve done more (more with regards to the lyrics), it has a degraded delicacy that I admire.
I shall be doing me research!
Very poetic post. Thanking you and your clear passion.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 am
Well…I’m in love. Fully.
As cliche as the term “Hauntingly Beautiful” is…it fits really well. What could have easily been droning and stilted has a quiet life and very intimate touch.
One of these days people will study Mer’s head to find out how exactly her taste in music developed to such pinpoint awesomeness. Unless those studying her on zombies then they’ll just eat her brain meat.
Which of course will spawn an unstoppable army of the undead with fantastic taste in music and theremin based weaponry. Not a bad thing really.
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I keep playing the youtube video and the song clip over and over. I’m officially hooked and will be finding their music when I get home from holiday travel.