THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Where the parallels meet
Every artist has a place from which they create. The Parallel Universe is the name Julia Biel gives to hers.
Emerging from curiosity, deep listening and the belief that meaning arises through relationship - between words and music, melody and harmony, one musician and another, artist and audience, structure and improvisation - its primary expression is Julia's music. But behind the songs lies a wider artistic enquiry.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Julia's Afro-European heritage has made her especially attuned to the ways in which different energies intertwine. Throughout her work she has found herself drawn to the spaces between seemingly separate worlds: jazz and contemporary song, spoken word and singing, improvisation and composition, memory and the present, listening and expression. It is in these meeting places that The Parallel Universe is found.
More than two decades into her musical journey, The Parallel Universe continues to find new expressions. One of these is the Sonic Encounter - an original artistic format devised and created by Julia Biel.
Beginning with an invitation to another musician to join her in The Parallel Universe, Julia and her guest converse and improvise spontaneous music with no agenda other than to allow an artistic relationship to unfold through words and music.
Through editing, juxtaposition and sonic collage, relationships begin to emerge between words, music and silence that were not immediately apparent in real time. A narrative gradually reveals itself, meanings deepen, echoes develop and unexpected resonances appear, until the finished Sonic Encounter becomes a portrait of the space between the artists.
The first six Sonic Encounters formed a pilot series with six internationally respected musicians while Julia developed and refined the format. Following this initial period of exploration, the series will relaunch in 2027 as a growing archive of encounters, accompanied by essays, reflections and field notes that continue the enquiry beyond the recordings themselves.
Whether you've arrived through Julia's music or one of her pilot Sonic Encounters, you'll find all the strands of her artistic practice converging in Julia Biel – The Parallel Universe, her Substack publication.
Here, songs, sonic encounters, essays, reflections and studio diaries will gradually unfold, as an evolving body of work where real life and the online meet in their own space between.
Join Julia in The Parallel Universe for free → HERE