An Ever Changing View (Gondwana Records)
Matthew Halsall
Released September 8, 2023
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
Jazzwise Top 20 Albums of the Year 2023
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kLJSTJiBSR1JR9uajY5LC3oRQzwUCFJnM
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About:
Trumpeter, bandleader and composer Matthew Halsall announces landmark new album An Ever Changing View, an expansive, immaculately conceived project which presents Halsall’s signature blend of jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences.
Halsall who has been hailed as one of the leading figures of the UK jazz renaissance has never seen himself as part of any one sound or scene: he builds his own sonic universe instead. An Ever Changing View finds him at his most experimental yet, once again expanding his sound and production techniques to create his unique brand of deeply meditative music.
During the album’s creation, he was staying in both a beautiful architect’s house with breath-taking sea views and a striking modernist house, where he composed what he saw “like a landscape painting”. In these new environments, Halsall wanted to capture “the feeling of openness and escapism” and to approach making music again from scratch. “I hit the reset button and wanted to have complete musical freedom,” he says. “It was a real exploration of sound.”
An Ever Changing View comes in a package as striking as the music, with handmade fonts designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic and the specially commissioned tapestry by artist Sara Kelly is a stunning and harmonious complement to the record’s sound.
Track Listing:
1. Tracing Nature (Matthew Halsall) 1:10
2. Water Street (Matthew Halsall) 8:18
3. An Ever Changing View (Matthew Halsall) 6:32
4. Calder Shapes (Matthew Halsall) 7:08
5. Mountains, Trees And Sees (Matthew Halsall) 5:06
6. Field Of Vision (Matthew Halsall) 1:16
7. Jewels (Matthew Halsall) 6:37
8. Sunlight Reflection (Matthew Halsall / Alice Roberts / Jasper Green / Gavin Barras / Alan Taylor) 1:23
9. Natural Movement (Matthew Halsall) 5:09
10. Triangles In The Sky (Matthew Halsall / Chip Wickham / Alice Roberts / Jasper Green / Gavin Barras / Alan Taylor / Sam Bell / Caitlin Lang) 6:48
Personnel:
Matthew Halsall: trumpet (2-5, 7, 9) glockenspiel (2), piano (1, 6), kalimba (2-5, 7), celesta (2, 4), Fender Rhodes (7), piano effects (3, 7), chimes (3-5, 7), bells (5, 10), log drum (9), custom made triangular gongs (8, 10), field recordings (1, 5, 6)
Matt Cliffe: alto saxophone (4), flute (2, 3, 5-9)
Chip Wickham: soprano saxophone (7), flute (10)
Alice Roberts: harp (2-4, 7-10)
Maddie Herbert: harp (5)
Liviu Gheorghe: Fender Rhodes (2, 3, 5)
Jasper Green: Fender Rhodes (4, 10), piano (7-9)
Gavin Barras: bass (2-5, 7-10)
Alan Taylor: drums (2-5, 7-10)
Jack McCarthy: congas (2-5), percussion (4)
Sam Bell: congas (9, 10), percussion (10)
Chris Davies: xylophone (9)
Caitlin Lang: vocals (10)
Produced by Matthew Halsall and Daniel Halsall
Recorded April 2021 – July 2022, at Llanddeusant, Anglesey by Matthew Halsall (tracks 1, 6); at WR Audio, by Matthew Halsall and Daniel Watkins (tracks 2-5, 7-10)
Mixed by Greg Freeman
Mastered by Peter Beckmann
Cover Concept: Matthew Halsall
Special Comissioned Tapestries: Sara Kelly
Photography by Rich Williams
Cover Image art-directed: Daniel Halsall
Sugar-free Design & Typ: @ianTDR
Management by Kerstan Mackness
Review:
The rise of vibes-based jazz — the aesthetic, not the instrument — has gone largely unremarked but is now unmistakable. Although the artists who make this sort of music have roots in the spiritual jazz of the early 1970s (Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Idris Muhammad, etc.), they have the mellow feeling and love of a simple, hypnotic melody that propelled the CTI catalog to great commercial success, and they have clearly spent plenty of time on dance floors as well.
Trumpeter Matthew Halsall’s latest album is a gently rippling, sun-dappled lake made of harps, kalimbas, flutes, chimes and Fender Rhodes electric piano, over which flutes, saxophones and trumpets dance like dragonflies. Occasionally, a soft female voice whispers wordlessly from somewhere, like a breeze through trees. It would be easy to imagine a DJ putting a thumping 4/4 beat underneath the more uptempo tracks here, like “Calder Shapes” and “Water Street.” The gentle breakbeats and shimmering chimes of the closing “Triangles In The Sky,” on which Halsall plays custom gongs, could easily have come off a Ninja Tune compilation from the ’90s. The melodies are memorable, but the solos are never passionate enough to break free of the groove; Halsall’s playing on “Natural Movement” feels like he’s trying to rehabilitate Chuck Mangione for Gen Z. But none of this is bad news; the summertime vibe is impeccable.
Phil Freeman (DownBeat)
