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Spatial mix on Sounding Future, curated by ZKM Karlsruhe
Julie Herndon
composer | performer | sound artist
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Electronic Études
Populist Records
2025
Electronic Études are moments of reflection. Each piece grows from the seed of an improvisation, with a focus on a specific aspect of live electronics: turning reverberation into a sonorous wall, distorting field recordings into textures beyond recognition, looping melodic delays, and scattering granulation. They blur the boundaries between real and imaged, spinning webs of acoustic and synthesized sounds.
I composed these pieces as a means of self-soothing during times of personal and global anxiety. I found myself recording long, slow melodies, sending them through loops, delays, and distortion so I could immerse myself in the sound. Listening back to the recordings, I started to notice the qualities of my environment: the hammers in the piano, the wind in the trees outside my window, the cicadas singing seamlessly alongside the electronics. I collected and sampled theserecordings, adding them like coats of paint each day. As the sounds accumulated, a world began to emerge from nothing.
Track list
Mirrors (6:23)
Shimmering, Wavering (5:44)
Reflection: Up/Down (5:37)
Slide (6:41)
From Nothing (9:56)
Credits
Composed and performed by Julie Herndon, piano, synthesizer, harmonium, and electronics
Recorded in Los Osos, California between August 2022 and August 2024
Mixing: Julie Herndon
Mastering: Emilie Daelemans
Cover art: Christina McPhee, detail, Primrose Limoncello, color pencil and ink on Awagami Inbe washi paper. Photo courtesy the artist ©Christina McPhee 2025.
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