Julia-Sophie’s second EP finds the songwriter coming into her own

However, she reemerged in 2020, now recording under her own name and debuting in the realm of avant-garde electronic pop with her new EP y? Amidst captivating synth textures, spiraling melodies, and intricate rhythms, a new Julia-Sophie was born. Her sophomore EP, 3, finds Julia-Sophie truly beginning to come into her own, embodying both ambitious scope and alluring honesty.

While many experimental works hold listeners at arm’s length, placing them as attentive observers of the artist’s creative whims, Julia-Sophie invites listeners in on 3. You find yourself wrapped in intricate webs of beats and hypnotic melody, slowly revealing the record’s vulnerable heartbroken core. The opening art pop tapestry of “and you know it” revels in ricocheting synth tones before descending into a free-form explosion of glimmering textures and expansive melodies. Lyrically, the song sets the confessional tone as Julia-Sophie’s pointed lyricism brings her heartbreak to life with an almost numb detachment.

From there the EP finds its twisting highlight in “cctv,” driven by a dark pulsating intro and dense rhythmic soundscapes. Here the intimate electronics and beautifully textured beats recall Kelly Lee Owens’ most recent work, especially as the ambient mid-section breaks into a cascading instrumental climax. Julia-Sophie’s talent for maze-like rhythms equally shines on “i wish,” but rather than exploring a vast shifting structure, the track has a rigid build. The central beat builds from a minimal backing to Julia-Sophie’s dreamy vocals into a brilliant sunburst of frenetic electronica, all while Julia-Sophie’s climactic mantra repeats—“I wish I felt better.”

Finally, after the frenzied highs of the midsection Julia-Sophie closes with the most minimal of all the tracks, “love let you down.” An alluring introductory beat quickly descends into a spacious void of ambient textures before once again rising to a floating apex of interlocking electronics and plaintive vocals. The vocals slowly fade into the background, leaving listeners with only the track’s otherworldly soundscape as it floats once more towards nothingness, with Julia-Sophie’s journey through heartbreak over for the moment.

Uniting the tracks on 3 most of all is a commitment to the freedom of personal exploration. The EP is a diaristic document of heartbreak, told through the expansive emotive lens of electronica and art pop. That vulnerability and adventurous spirit leads to an dramatic evolution from y?, finding the artist at her most moving and her most daring. After years of wandering and uncertainty Julia-Sophie ventures out into new horizons on 3, with only the bounds of her own creative vision to hold her back.