An Ever Changing View

In Halsall's skilled arranger's hands, all the tones are woven into a gently hypnotic patchwork which makes the set feel like one long sunny daydream. A treat for the mind and the heart. — Allaboutjazz.com More…

Release Date: 8th Sep 2023
Catalogue No: GONDLP62
Label: Gondwana Records

Jazzwise

Editor's Choice

October 2023
Presto Recording of the Week

15th September 2023
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2023

A1. Tracing Nature

A2. Water Street

B1. An Ever Changing View

B2. Calder Shapes

C1. Mountains, Trees and Seas

C2. Field of Vision

C3. Jewels

D1. Sunlight Reflection

D2. Natural Movement

D3. Triangles in the Sky

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Recording of the Week, Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View

15th September 2023

Inspired by stunning landscapes and sea views, the new album from the Gondwana-boss and trumpeter is a richly immersive and soothing listening experience.

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.”

It was hearing jazz on the dancefloor as a teenager that first opened up new possibilities in Halsall’s mind and his music has long drawn on his love for the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders and contemporary electronica from the likes of Warp Records and Ninja Tune. An Ever Changing View melds those forms in a way that feels heady and, at times, even otherworldly. One of the album’s starting points was Halsall’s ever-expanding box of percussion, from congas and kalimba to various clusters of seeds, bells and chimes, which he sampled and looped to use as a foundation for the songs – a first for him and his band. Elevating, charming, totally modern jazz tracks jostle with deft warm magic realism; and laid back grooves with hand percussion, deep bass and the gorgeous glisten of the Fender Rhodes meet hip-hop beats. Halsall himself sparkles, illuminating his beautiful tapestries of sound with lithe, glistening elegiac trumpet.

Reviews

In Halsall's skilled arranger's hands, all the tones are woven into a gently hypnotic patchwork which makes the set feel like one long sunny daydream. A treat for the mind and the heart.

October 2023

In Halsall's jazz, the dancefloor and the meditative retreat merge in mutual rhythmic recognition.

Deeply meditative, there’s a flow to this album that is sublime, its well crafted sonic universe delivering a palette of colour that washes effortlessly against its inviting canvas.

An Ever Changing View

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An Ever Changing View

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