Matthew Halsall casts musical spells at Union Chapel

There can be no better venue for Matthew Halsall’s sweet, meditative music than Islington's Grade I-listed Union Chapel. Its soaring Piranesi-like arches and galleries are on a monumental scale. In such a magnificent setting who wouldn’t want to nod along to the blissed-out flow of sound produced by this seven-piece ensemble and forget - for a while - all about Ukraine, sky-high fuel and food prices and corrupt politicians?

Halsall’s new album is called Salute to the Sun, and the song titles alone tell you what to expect: Harmony with Nature, Joyful Spirits of the Universe, Mindfulness Meditations…  we are, of course, in the territory known as Spiritual Jazz. It’s a genre currently enjoying a revival as the state of the world prompts inward escape, but it’s also partly down to a recent influx of brilliant jazz harpists, among whom we may now number young Alice Roberts, a key member of Halsall’s band. The presence of harp links them to the legacy of Alice Coltrane, the artist who really set the dial for this kind of music. There’s nothing discordant. The tunes often start with a simple riff from the bass of long-standing band member Gavin Barras, and proceed at a medium tempo (often in 6/8) almost without chord changes, finally subsiding to a gentle close. In between there are solos, although Roberts and new keyboardist Jasper Greene didn’t often feature, most of the leads being taken by saxophonist/flautist Matt Cliffe and Halsall himself.

The second set was livelier because it offered more variety, with a couple of solos from drummer Alan Taylor and percussionist Jack McCarthy, and some rasping Ian Anderson-like flute from Cliffe, as daylight faded behind the stained glass windows, and spectacular lighting effects strafed the enormous dome of the Union Chapel.