Video of the Day: Mary Halvorson shares ‘The Gate’ from new album Cloudward

Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson will release the next album from her Amaryllis sextet, Cloudward, via Nonesuch on 19 January 2024. The adventurous improvisatory band were heard on the guitarist’s critically acclaimed 2022 dual releases, Amaryllis and Belladonna, and features Halvorson, vibist Patricia Brennan, bassist Nick Dunston, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, trombonist Jacob Garchik and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill. The album also includes a guest appearance by labelmate Laurie Anderson on the track ‘Incarnadine’.

With the music for the 2022 releases written in the depths of pandemic lockdowns, the eight originals on the new album were written during the winter last year, and were in part inspired by the ability to travel again, with the album’s title referencing this. As Halvorson explains: “Performances and tours and recordings were happening after a long hiatus and with a renewed sense of gratitude. This band, for me, was quite simply working, both musically and personally, and the main thing I felt while writing the music was optimism.”

See the February issue of Jazzwise (on-sale 19 January 2024) for an in-depth interview with Mary Halvorson and for more info visit www.nonesuch.com – watch the visualiser for ‘The Gate’ below