Mary Halvorson rarely stays in place from album-to-album; the forward-thinking guitarist’s trio on Dragon’s Head had grown by a member per album until it was an octet by Away With You. She’s indulged in all sorts of side projects during that time, but with 2022’s Amaryllis, the master plectrist and composer formed a whole new band dubbed the Amaryllis Sextet, comprising of herself, Thumbscrew mate Tomas Fujiwara, Jacob Garchik (trombone), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet) and Patricia Brennan (vibes). Two years later, she goes out of character to record a new set of originals with the same line-up.
Cloudward (Nonesuch Records) offers a rare chance to see how Halvorson’s music evolves when everything else is kept the same. As suspected, these new tracks show the restless Halvorson continue to propel ahead with her craft. Halvorson has shown prowess as a bandleader and composer of the highest order from the start of her solo career, but amazingly, she’s raised her game on both counts here to the point that her highly idiosyncratic guitar takes a back seat (though hardly out of sight) in favor of putting the band and composition first.
You’ll still find a few instances of her guitar inventiveness: Halvorson displays advanced use of looping at the beginning of “The Tower” and tears off a searing avant-metal solo turn on “Desiderata.” But even here, the arrangements are the main point of intrigue, with Brennan’s vibes being the highlight on the former piece.
“The Gate” (video above) would have been right at home on Amaryllis, standing out as the songs on the earlier album for striking a perfect balance between the nimbleness of a small ensemble and the intricate, intertwining parts of an orchestra.
Halvorson stays iin the background for “Collapsing Mouth” while O’Farrill and Brennan flourish. Everyone is intricately pairing with and opposing other players, as the roles continually change. The lumbering “Unscrolling” gets going with Fujiwara’s highly attenuated mallet work and is marked by Dunston’s barbed sawing on his standup bass.
Fujiwara has a crisp, light touch on drums that inconspicuously establishes the uniquely dynamic rhythmic foundation for Halvorson’s song, and it only becomes more apparent when you hear his solo, opening lede to “Tailhead.” Dunston having a spirited discourse with Halvorson’s unadorned guitar forms the intro section of the melodic, folk-adjacent “Ultramarine.”
The free-drifting, effects-heavy “Incarnadine” is transformed by the presence of a guest violin, from the eminent avant artist Laurie Anderson. In that way this is a look back to Halvorson’s old partnership with Jessica Pavone but there’s enough new vistas suggested here to justify a full-blown collaboration with Anderson.
Mary Halvorson doesn’t ever seem to need help to introduce fresh, provocative concepts, however. Cloudward might be more of a companion piece to Amaryllis than a standalone album in her catalog, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have anything interesting to offer on this release. She always does.
Cloudward is available now, from Bandcamp.
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