Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore Announce Second Collaborative Album of 2026

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have announced their second collaborative album of the year, a documentary score for Threshold, a new film about Olympic cross-country skier Jessie Diggins. Directed by American filmmakers Lars and Torsten Brinkema, the documentary follows Diggins’ life and athletic career, exploring the physical and emotional demands of competing at the highest level.

The soundtrack will arrive on November 20. Alongside the announcement, Barwick and Lattimore have shared three songs from the project: “Cold Open,” “Sick and Tired,” and “Gallivare 10km.” The tracks offer an early preview of the expansive, atmospheric sound world the duo created for the film.

The album follows Tragic Magic, Barwick and Lattimore’s debut as a duo, which was released in January. That record was accompanied by a joint tour and introduced the pairing’s distinctive combination of ambient vocals, prepared piano, strings, electronics, and richly textured instrumentation.

Though both musicians had established solo careers before working together, Tragic Magic demonstrated how naturally their approaches could complement one another. Barwick’s layered voice and interest in spacious, immersive arrangements met Lattimore’s expressive piano playing and experimental use of sound. The result was music that felt delicate and mysterious while also possessing a strong emotional pull.

Threshold represents a different kind of collaboration. Whereas Tragic Magic was developed within its own musical framework, the new album was created to serve the narrative of a documentary. Its compositions had to respond not only to the artists’ instincts but also to Diggins’ story and the vision of the filmmakers.

In a press release, Lattimore described the contrasting conditions under which the two albums were made. She explained that Tragic Magic involved limitations on the instruments the pair could use, including “historic, delicate and mysterious” instruments. Those restrictions shaped the sound of the debut, but they also gave Barwick and Lattimore complete sonic freedom.

“For Threshold, the sky was the limit with instrumentation and we held an expansive palette,” Lattimore said. “But our music existed within the framework of Jessie’s life and the vision of the directors.”

That difference appears central to the new project. The first album was defined partly by what the musicians chose not to use, while the documentary score allowed them to work with a much broader range of sounds. At the same time, the need to support a film introduced its own boundaries. The music had to follow the emotional movement of Diggins’ life, career, and athletic achievements.

The three preview tracks hint at the range of that palette. “Cold Open” suggests an introductory piece, one capable of establishing mood before the documentary’s narrative fully unfolds. “Sick and Tired” carries a title that evokes exhaustion and endurance, themes closely connected to the physical strain of elite sport. “Gallivare 10km,” meanwhile, references a specific cross-country skiing event and points toward the soundtrack’s relationship with the details of Diggins’ career.

Together, the titles suggest that Threshold will move between intimate emotional moments and more expansive depictions of athletic effort. Cross-country skiing demands both endurance and concentration, and a score for Diggins’ story must account for the quiet solitude of training as well as the intensity of competition.

Barwick and Lattimore’s music is well suited to that balance. Their work often develops gradually, allowing sounds to accumulate and shift rather than relying on conventional verse-and-chorus structures. Such an approach can create space for images, movement, and reflection qualities that are especially valuable in documentary filmmaking.

The album also continues what has become an unusually productive creative partnership. Releasing two collaborative projects in a single year is ambitious, particularly when the records emerge from different artistic circumstances. One is a standalone studio album created with carefully defined instrumental limitations; the other is a film score shaped by a real person’s life and by the directors’ interpretation of that story.

Lattimore described the experience of holding both projects at once as “challenging, mind-expanding, and satisfying.” She characterized the two albums as “two sides of the same coin,” suggesting that their differences ultimately helped clarify the possibilities of the duo’s work.

That description captures the appeal of the partnership. Tragic Magic and Threshold may have been made under contrasting conditions, but both projects reflect Barwick and Lattimore’s shared interest in atmosphere, emotional detail, and unusual combinations of sound. The first established their musical language; the second tests how that language can function within a cinematic narrative.

Threshold will be released on November 20, with “Cold Open,” “Sick and Tired,” and “Gallivare 10km” available ahead of the full album. The soundtrack promises to expand Barwick and Lattimore’s collaboration while bringing their ambient sensibilities to the story of one of America’s most accomplished endurance athletes.

For listeners who discovered the duo through Tragic Magic, the new project offers a chance to hear how their sound changes when given a larger instrumental palette and a clear visual narrative. For fans of film music, it marks the meeting of two distinctive composers whose work can transform quiet details into something expansive and emotionally resonant.