Album Review: Joel St. Julien – Empathy
Album Review: Joel St. Julien – EMPATHY
November 17, 2021
Elise Mills
Haitian-American composer and sound artist Joel St. Julien released the long-awaited album EMPATHY in October. Equipped with modular synthesis and laptop, he sonically communicates the need for making room for empathy and compassion-filled spaces to exist “outside of the shadow of white supremacy.” Available on Bandcamp or on cassette.
This past October, Haitian-American composer and sound artist Joel St. Julien gifted us with EMPATHY. This is a poignant, mystical work that “alchemically” crafts sacred space for subtle mental transformations in the face of white supremacy and other forms of “American ugliness.” Compassionate and challenging, oozing and abrasive, St. Julien stitches together a luminescent auditory experience. The melodies and dissonances clash in both pleasant and uncomfortable ways. At once, there is both catharsis and expansive comedown. With the help of Land of Sea Oakland, EMPATHY is available on tape, providing a touchingly tangible way of engaging with this piece. Listening to EMPATHY on cassette allows for the work to culminate organically as a complete experience from beginning to end, which requires added intention and attention from the listener.
I am a firm believer that ambient music has the power to anchor listeners in nonlinear time and space, an experience that is in direct opposition to the world that most of us participate in. Ambient music enables “deep listening”, through which disrupting thought patterns, reframing perspectives, and ultimately transforming the ways we relate to ourselves and the world in subtle but critical ways is possible. Joel St. Julien’s EMPATHY is in perfect alignment with that work: “An almost alchemic act, with EMPATHY, St. Julien transforms echoes of American ugliness into profound beauty. These songs lend to the notion of the very human act of processing a harsh truth or sudden loss. At times sounds and gestures find themselves at odds with one another, yet in other moments we hear a soft field of harmony - perhaps a coming to terms with self.”
Photo courtesy of Joel St. Julien
From start to finish, EMPATHY is an evolving, living, breathing thing. Absolutely cinematic, utterly emotional and present, St. Julien constantly brings attention to the breath and to the stillness of awareness. He enamors the listener with a simultaneous softness and urgency to heal. Linearity is less important than fluidity here. Raw and visceral, some pieces feel more like free associative thought, cyclically in dialogue with each other. Other pieces remain suspended in a more liminal space, inviting deeper contemplation. Nonetheless, the message of the work is clear.
By the third movement of EMPATHY, the listener abruptly submits to the rapid crescendo of frantic, anxious synthful noise. “Empathy IV” enters the sonic environment vulnerably but assertively, with a sound palette of muted cool-toned colors. If you’re listening to EMPATHY on tape, “Full Moon” concludes Side A in a 14-minute meditation, providing a stark contrast to the visceral, driving, and often chaotic energy prior to it. To my ear, the first five movements culminate in a plea for reconnection, to notice all of the ugly feelings, thoughts, and emotions that reside in paradox with their opposites.
The clumsy moment that it takes to switch to Side B allows the listener to take their first full breath. Then the tide turns. Side B begins a new incantation, with the pieces “Where I Am” and “Morning Light” pivoting us to align ourselves differently in the space St. Julien has brought into being– how are we in (mis)alignment with ourselves, each other, and the spaces we occupy? “The World is Ending (Again)” and “Released” conclude the album with an ever-growing expansion that is at first eerie then welcome as a part of the journey.
Reckoning of the self in the face of the complexities and darkness of the world remains at the crux of Joel’s compositions. Yet again, Joel St. Julien seamlessly brings forth the sensitivity and vulnerability into that complex space, and invites an alternative, expansive, and compassion-filled one that is sorely needed. He hopes that “this album gives you a place to be. It is my deep wish that communities of empathy continue to be created outside of the shadow of white supremacy.”
Support Joel St. Julien on Bandcamp and be sure to snag a limited edition tape by emailing the crew at Land and Sea Oakland at christopherrobinduncan@gmail.com. And if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Fault’s artist profile of Joel St. Julien from July for more context around his musical journey and career.
Elise is a recovering 2020 graduate, sound artist, and noise lover born and raised in San Francisco. Especially interested in the metaphysicality of sound, she spends her time attempting to prototype DIY synthesizers and experimenting with (and lamenting!) the whims of magnetic tape, among other experimental electronic projects.