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Dec 3, 2012More immediate songs such as In the Same Room are ineffably breezy, while other tracks illustrate her handle on ancient Greece (This is Ekstasis) and the uncommon control she has over textures and motifs, atmospheres and vocoders.
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Nov 29, 2012The more time you spend with it, the more its structures make sense, the more the melodies begin to sparkle, the more the sense of some unsought truth fighting its way out becomes apparent.
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Apr 5, 2012Ekstasis is brimming with them though [moments that are avant-gard yet instantly accessible] -an album so coherently constructed that it's perhaps more notable for its instants, its moments and sequences, than its full tracks.
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Mar 27, 2012Although it still occasionally feels like there is something distant about Ekstasis, something yet to thaw (chalk this up to its chilly aesthetic and Holter's wilfully eclectic approach to her art), it is a genuinely enthralling listen.
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Mar 27, 2012Ekstasis is a lovely record. Bedroom pop that floats and swoons, it has a lightness to it at the same time as a real sense of seriousness and ambition.
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Mar 23, 2012With Julia Holter, with this profound and inexhaustibly gorgeous album, we can transcend our own transcendence and find the greatest bliss in the joyful renunciation of what makes us us.
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MojoMar 23, 2012A work of transcendent pop beauty that finally explains the idea of "ekstasis" by leaving the listener beside themselves, in a state of rapturous joy. [Apr 2012, p.91]
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Mar 21, 2012Ekstasis abounds with originality and depth; soars and sinks; expands and implodes; evolves and dissipates; crackles and breaks all within one cohesive sound.
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Mar 20, 2012Ekstasis reminds us that music can mean so much more.
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UncutMar 16, 2012It's remarkable that the cosmic Ekstasis--recorded in Holter's home with only five musicians--feels surer of itself than Tragedy, a record rooted in millennnia-old practice. [Apr 2012, p.72]
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Mar 15, 2012Holter is arguably at her best when exploring texture.
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Mar 13, 2012Ekstasis is a challenging listen, but a rewarding one.
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Mar 13, 2012Ekstasis is ecstatically good.
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Mar 13, 2012Everything about the record suggests a separation and a self-contained existence, like a second novel, and is wonderful for it.
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Mar 13, 2012Music that's both haunting and life-affirming, something to make you dream and think.
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Mar 13, 2012It's both refreshing and exciting to hear an artist so vividly committed to exploring new frontiers in such a rewarding way.
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Mar 13, 2012Often very pretty, just as often very strange, Holter has crafted an album that reflects her unique vision, though it fails to captivate the whole way through.
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Mar 13, 2012Although the complex layers of meaning and obscure allusions may seem perpetually out of reach to your casual consumer of indie pop music, it is still a beautiful path to follow and the sense of mystery and unknowability that emerges is an essential component of this music's enjoyment.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 31 out of 33
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Mixed: 2 out of 33
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Negative: 0 out of 33
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Aug 25, 2022Quietly intimate avant-garde chamber pop folk thatvfeels like if Joanne Newsome had to whisper
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Feb 5, 2014
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Aug 18, 2013