IN YOUR HANDS | STEROPHILE

“This is music of our own time—strangely beautiful, often angst-laden, filled with energy and unrest.

Identifying herself by just her first name, cellist Lavena Johanson calls in your hands "a time capsule of my musical life in Baltimore....Each piece on this album captures a meaningful facet of that journey," although the connections between each piece and the cellist's time in the city are not made explicit. The compositions are by six youngish composers writing in an age of uncertainty and suspense, when you never know what's hiding behind the mask (if there even is one) or in the body, or which family member may turn on you. The album has cachet since three of the composers, Caroline Shaw, Ted Hearne, and Bryce Dessner, are hot on the contemporary music scene and the other three, Gemma Peacocke, Jessie Montgomery, and Judah Adashi, need only more exposure (and the return of live performance) to make their marks.”