Mirroring by Yohuna

As a songwriter and producer, Johanne Swanson—who performs as Yohuna—maintains a masterful ability to distill chaos into calm; to contemplate the more challenging and messy matters of heart and mind with a self-assured deadpan stare and pointed stillness. Whereas her previous work centered layers of synthesizer, Mirroring was written entirely on guitar, giving her new songs a sense of catharsis and physicality. And while her debut, 2016's Patientness, was a culmination of several formative years spent in flux, a document of coming and going, Mirroring is different: it has a set place and a time. Swanson wrote these intimate songs quickly in one purge in her bedroom in Brooklyn. When her roommate, Eric Littmann (Julie Byrne, Vagabon, Phantom Posse) heard her writing and recording them from the other side of his bedroom wall, he approached her to collaborate. Littmann ultimately co-produced, engineered, and mixed the record, alongside contributions from Adelyn Strei (guitar, flute), Warren Hildebrand (guitar) and many more friends. The results are some of Swanson's most sweeping arrangements to date, with cello riffs that sing like a grounding human voice, harp and trombone, drums that push her loudest hooks yet forward.
credits
releases June 7, 2019

Written, arranged, and performed by Yohuna *
Yohuna is Johanne Swanson
Produced by Yohuna and Eric Littmann
Engineered and mixed by Eric Littmann
Mastered by Warren Hildebrand

Additional Instrumentation:
Adelyn Strei - guitar, flute
Cale Israel - trombone
Emily Yacina - vocals on "Rain & Prairie Snow"
Eric Littmann - bass, synth, guitar
Felix Walworth - drums on “Dead to Me”
Greg Rutkin - drums
Hilary James - cello
Marilu Donovan - harp
Michael Caridi - guitar on “So Free”
Warren Hildebrand - guitar

* “Find A Quiet Place” co-written with Eric Littmann

Thank you to my parents who taught me about music and love, and support my love of music. Thank you to those who played on the album, provided the artwork, and worked on the team to release it. Special thanks to Eric Littmann and Warren Hildebrand, the best project managers I could imagine; Adelyn Strei, my longest friend and collaborator; Emily Yacina, my newest friend and collaborator. To all my friends, you’re the good soil I grow in. Fizz Perkal, for seeing me. Michael Caridi, for helping me see.

Est. 2010

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