Amalia Juliane’s second album, “Reach You,” uses crafted dissonance as a tool for wrestling with the frustration of conveying oneself to others. It often sounds like she is working through the mess of articulation in real time. On the second song, “Mad At My Love,” Juliane sings, her voice agitated, “Now I’m playing guitar really, really hard/ Over words I still can’t find to say,” which serves as a sort of thesis for the album. A trained jazz vocalist, her voice scours the musical scale in a search for solace—like the chorus of the first song asks, “When you don’t feel at peace with it/ don’t you feel like a piece of shit?” Melodies are slippery, one minute resembling pop and the next unraveling into a captivating lack of form.

Juliane was intent that the sound of the album, which was recorded at Goose Room over one weekend in 2023 by Joe Ippolito, capture what the band sounds like live, unlike her first album, “This Is Not My Mind,” which was more concerned with discovering that sound. “Reach You” is texturally very rich, undoubtedly made more so by Juliane’s encouragement of improvisation between herself and her bandmates. The guitars are volatile, sometimes hesitant and other times massive, and the anxious syncopation of Doree Gordon’s drumming serves as the ensemble’s agitated undercurrent.

Juliane plays piano and electric guitar on “Reach You,” in addition to all lead vocals. On top of being a vocal major both at LaGuardia High School and The New School, she also learned boogie woogie piano from her grandmother and bossa nova guitar at a young age. Juliane’s work is influenced by Brazilian musicians (Elis Regina and Gilberto Gil), 2010s pop stars (Rihanna and Lady Gaga), and her songwriting teachers (Wendy Eisenberg and Ed Rodriguez from Deerhoof), as well as friends and musical peers like Jolee Gordon and Grace Ward.

The crux of the album is about the difficulties of language. Juliane, the child of two immigrants, grew up speaking both French and Portuguese in addition to English, and is very cognizant that at times she talks around what she is really trying to say, unable to articulate in her primary language. Songs like “Laugh/Speak” outline the absurdity of presenting oneself to others, whereas “You Don’t Know Me, I Don’t Know You,” speaks to a natural evasiveness towards legibility.

The theme of communication was hyper-present when recording, as Juliane’s hometown (Brooklyn) band consisted of two couples: Juliane and her partner Jonah Eichner (bass), and Gordon (drums) and Judah Sweig (guitar). Amongst her bandmates, Juliane wore the hats of bandleader, partner, roommate, and close friend, demanding the navigation of many overlapping relationships. All bandmates contributed vocals to “Reach You,” at times heard in distant shouts (“Laugh/Speak”) or supportive harmonies (“At Peace With It.”) In the last couplet of the album, Juliane sings, “There’s more to me when I’m with them/ I guess that’s why we call them friends,” which Eichner, Gordon, and Sweig join in on for the final word. It’s an angelic little chorus, and a tender final note of the album. In its rage against clarity, “Reach You” becomes a whirlwind of relief.

Album bio written by Johanna Sommer

All music and lyrics written by Amalia Brueckheimer.

Amalia Brueckheimer- Vocals and electric guitar on all tracks, piano on track 5
Dorée Gordon- Drums on all tracks but 5, additional vocals on tracks 1, 3, 8
Jonah Eichner- electric bass on all tracks but 5, additional vocals on tracks 1, 3, 8
Judah Sweig- electric guitar on tracks 1-3 and 6-8, acoustic guitar on track 4, additional vocals on tracks 1, 3, 8

Produced by Amalia Brueckheimer and Joe Ippolito
Engineered, mixed by Joe Ippolito
Mastered by Carl Saff
Special thanks to Rain Johannes at the Goose Room in Staten Island, NYC.
Album art by Phoebe Clark, Photography by Lucia Napier-Benincasa