Julianna Barwick’s “Ash Day” Takeaway Show

La Blogotheque’s beautiful Takeaway Shows have artists performing songs in unlikely public settings (Phoenix at Versailles, Of Monsters and Men in Rome), and this latest one puts Julianna Barwick on the street in Reykjavik during Ash Wednesday, which children celebrate in Iceland by going door-to-door and singing for candy. Barwick, who makes a very particular kind of ambient, yearning, wordless-in-a-cathedral music (sort of “hipster Enya,” but that doesn’t do her justice: see her remix of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” as a good introduction), holds out candy and eventually entices a few costumed youthfolk to sing into her mic, adding miscellaneous melodies (Beach Boys!) into the mix. Video comes strongly recommended for anyone who is hungover from last night.