A song cycle
about a mysterious transformation

Music & LYRICs by alex temple
performed by Julia Holter & Spektral Quartet

NEW ALBUM OUT 3/3/23

COVER ART: CAT GRAFFAM // COVER DESIGN: NATALIE BONTUMASI (GOOD THOMAS DESIGN)

About Behind the wallpaper

“Behind the Wallpaper is a story about someone undergoing a mysterious transformation. At first her life is mundane, even dreary — but moments of altered perception reveal something sinister flickering in the corners. And then, late one night, she has an inexplicable encounter in a university science park. Soon she finds herself changing, in ways that may or may not be visible to others. Like the cycle’s unnamed protagonist, the music slips unnoticed through the cracks in the walls, drawing on indie pop, Weimar cabaret, Elizabethan music and 19th-century Romanticism.

I wrote Behind the Wallpaper for Spektral Quartet and singer Julia Holter, whose own music has a stylistic fluidity and vulnerability that made her the perfect choice for this dreamy, unsettling story.”

–Alex Temple

Purchase Digital + Vinyl

““[A] dizzying collage of dreamlike impressions … somewhere between avant-garde composition, mysterious artifact, and sci-fi thriller.””

— Village Voice (from review of 2015 NYC premiere)

The Backstory

Behind the Wallpaper was commissioned in 2012, with four songs previewed in 2013 at The Hideout with guest vocalist Constance Volk, and finally premiered in its entirety in 2015with Julia Holter during a multi-state tour including Liquid Music, Ecstatic Music, and Constellation. As our longest-range project, spanning both Spektral personnel changes, we are proud to finally release it as a studio album on 3/3/2023.

While the narrative of Behind the Wallpaper provides a stirring metaphor for Alex Temple’s own transition, the central theme of alienation will feel familiar to many. To learn more about the timely cultural relevance of this album, and why we never gave up on our goal of recording it, check out the Artists’ Statement and Alex Temple in Her Own Words below.

ALBUM SINGLES

Artists

JULIA HOLTER // photo by Michael Clement

Artists’ Statement
Spektral Quartet

Liner Notes
by Sandow Sinai

Interview: Cover Artist Cat Graffam

Alex Temple in her own words

ALBUM CREDITS

Spektral Quartet: Theo Espy (violin), Clara Lyon (violin),
Doyle Armbrust (viola), Russell Rolen (cello)
Julia Holter: voice
Alex Temple: composer

Producer: William Brittelle
Engineer: Greg Norman
Mixer: Zach Hanson
Mastering Engineer: Ryan Streber

Commissioned by Spektral Quartet
Written by Alex Temple between 2013–2015
Recorded in June 2022 at Electrical Audio