Audiopile Review: Composer and guitarist Mary Halvorson is having a bit of a moment. Halvorson is a fixture on the jazz and improv scenes, with a reputation as a spiky, uncompromising player. In recent years, her reputation as a composer has grown, and her audience has expanded with it. Recent releases (notably ‘The Maid with the Flaxen Hair’ with Bill Frisell, plus the EPs ‘Belladonna’ and ‘Amaryllis’) have showcased her more contemplative side and drawn listers from far afield. Her new album, ‘Cloudward’, seems poised to have significant crossover appeal. It even features a guest appearance by Laurie Anderson, on ‘Incarnadine’. But Halvorson remains uncompromising. On opener ‘The Gate’, her six-piece band bursts into a swarm of complex harmony over a lopsided avant funk groove. It’s only halfway through track two, ‘The Tower’, that Halvorson’s more spacious approach re-emerges. From there, it becomes clear that she is more interested in making a masterpiece than having a crossover hit. Releases from January rarely get remembered when it comes time to compile albums of the year lists. But it seems like ‘Cloudward’ will buck that trend.

“Cloudward features eight new compositions by guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis—the improvisatory band that performed on her acclaimed 2022 albums Amaryllis and Belladonna: Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Laurie Anderson is featured on the track “Incarnadine.” All the music on Cloudward was written in 2022 … when things started moving forward,” Halvorson says. “Air travel had resumed, and we were once again cloudward … This band, for me, was quite simply working, both musically and personally, and the main thing I felt while writing the music was optimism.”