Biography
After years spent performing and recording with other artists and groups, Canadian-born, New York City-based Julia Kent found her own voice with her solo debut, Delay, an exploration of the private emotional worlds that exist within the disjunctions and disorientations of travel, hailed for its “lovely, melancholy” compositions, full of “aching romanticism…rich melodicism, and detailed arrangements.” She toured to support it throughout Europe and North America, and subsequently released an EP, Last Day in July.
In Green and Grey, her following solo record, she continued to use looped and layered cello, electronics, and field recordings to explore the intersections between the human world and the natural world, the melding of the technological and the organic, the patterns and repetitions that exist in nature and are mirrored in human creations, and the complexity and fragility of our relationships with one another and with the world that surrounds us.
She moved to the Leaf Label to release Character in 2013 and Asperities in 2015.
Her most recent record, Temporal, came out in January 2019. Made up mostly of music originally created to accompany dance and theatre, it is a meditation on the passing of time and the fragility of existence.
In addition to her solo albums, Julia Kent has composed a number of original film scores, as well as music for theatre and dance performances. She has toured throughout Europe and North America, including appearances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, the Donau festival in Austria, Meltdown in London, the Unsound festival in New York City, Reeperbahn in Hamburg, CTM in Berlin, and Mutek in Montreal.
Press for Temporal:
“Epic”
★★★★ Contemporary Album of the Month, The Guardian
“A stunningly controlled and moving work, for fans of ambient and instrumental music Temporal is a must-listen”
★★★★★ The Skinny
“This is music on a truly human scale, in terms of its inspiration, delivery and undeniable emotional punch”
★★★★ MOJO
“Here’s a record of real substance from this extraordinary Canadian cellist and composer. Richly textured and full of depth and complexity that will enamour devotees of neo-classicists such as Max Richter or Jóhann Jóhannsson”
Electronic Sound
“With Temporal, Julia Kent continues to craft cerebral yet accessible epics, encompassing a vast spectrum of emotions using a limited set of tools”
★★★★ All Music
★★★★ Uncut
★★★★ DJ
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