Asperities is as close to commercial as one can get in modern composition without compromise.  Accessible yet deep, Julia Kent‘s cello-based music provides an entry point to those who might not otherwise have considered listening to instrumental music.  Her new album offers a mix of pensive, emotional tunes and the stringed equivalent of bangers.  Credit her background in Rasputina and Antony & the Johnsons for the knowledge of how to walk the line.

Even apart from the music, Kent’s presentation exposes the workings of a complex and mature mind.  The cover seems to indicate two personalities cleaving together, or the resolution of duality.  The press release describes the album as “the layers of sound peeling back to reveal a beating, bloody human heart.”  Contrast this with the majority of releases in the genre, which bend over backwards to be polite.  As Kent puts it, “it seems like a particularly dark…