MIKE DAVIES COLUMN JANUARY 2022

Following on from her debut single, High On Hope, Warwick-based BIMM graduate  JULIANNE OC, the daughter from a family of Birmingham funeral directors,  releases her full album, White Camelia (Ingenius Music), a collection of melancholic, at times ethereal acoustic  folk mingled with dreamy electronica.  It opens with the slow-paced, wintry feel of Wait Till Dawn  proceeding into the similarly atmospheric melting icicles ambience of Eden where her airy voice soars to the clouds over keyboards and percussive clicks. 

The spare acoustic strum of From Elle keeps the mood whispery, building to a muted tinkled keyboards finale fade then, following the single, its  upbeat tempo remains with the acoustic pulsing notes and shimmering bells of Traces before ending with the handclaps static,  Spanish guitar and pulsing electronics bedrock to the intoxicating balladeering Ringadingding with her soaring vocals taking on a choral quality and Kate Bush meets Morricone colours  and, finally the five minute title track itself, again evoking a wintry yet warming soundscape  with her trilling crystal waters vocals and  dreamy acoustic music box pirouette as it builds to a muted cacophony. Like the flower, this is an early blossoming with a heady musical scent that promises to linger for months to come.