Want a bright musical break? Let yourself be carried away by the meditative soundscapes of Matthew Halsall and his album “An Ever Changing View”

This trumpeter and producer from Manchester composed his latest album by brilliantly mixing organic and electronic approaches. Soothing and contemplative, “An Ever Changing View” translates the beauties of nature into music, ten beautiful sound excursions.

Need a little sweetness in this world of bullies? Want peace and beauty? Take a tangent with An Ever Changing View, the latest album from Briton Matthew Halsall, where it all starts with birdsong and a harp. Trumpeter and composer from Manchester, Matthew Halsall, who is also the founder of the Gondwana Records label, is one of the leaders of the “UK jazz renaissance” (the revival of English jazz), although he considers himself an eternal “outsider”.

After learning from the age of six in the big bands of his city, he developed a passion, as a teenager, for both DJ and sampling culture, but also for jazz. highly spiritual by Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, discovered in the mixes of Mr. Scruff and Gilles Peterson. “I said to myself: this is what I want to do, something that is influenced by the past, but presents itself in a contemporary form”, he remembers. These influences are at the heart of his new album released in September (yes, it’s never too late…) and it’s a delight from start to finish.

Looped homemade percussion as a starting point

For An Ever Changing View, Matthew Halsall, known for his meditative soundscapes, decided to experiment further by changing his creative process. He, who is also a sound engineer and producer, particularly accomplished here, first sampled the dozens of artisanal percussions in his collection, kalimba, bells, chimes, shakers and other triangles. The sound loops thus created served as a starting point for the album’s ten tracks. A first for him and for his group, made up of young and brilliant Mancunian musicians: Matt Cliffe (saxophone, flute), Chip Wickham (saxophone, flute), Alice Roberts (harp), Gavin Barras (bass), Jasper Green (piano) , Alan Taylor (drums) and Sam Bell (percussion).

In the studio, says Halsall, “I worked almost like a DJ, adding and removing elements for the other musicians to play over. It was a new and fun way of working, and everyone adapted to it”.

The beauties of nature translated into sounds

The other major source of inspiration for this fluid and voluptuous album are the landscapes that Halsall had in front of him when he composed it. Seeking to get away from the stress and demands of the city, he rented two seaside houses to work, in Wales and on the coast of north-east England, with breathtaking sea views, constantly changing, as in the title An Ever Changing View.

“The feeling of openness and escape” experienced then, he transmits it in music. The breeze, the wind, the rain, the waves, the cliffs, the changing sky and the flight of birds, we find them all in this record that is both soothing and intoxicating, which is as always with Halsall, a long-time fan yoga and transcendental meditation, in harmony with nature.

Very soft and subtle, this fusion of organic and electronic is a bewitching success. Full of details, these soundscapes, as long as we let ourselves go, take the listener’s mind on a weightless journey. On the delicate grooves of percussion, piano and bass, his luminous trumpet with Miles accents is at the center of the game, but the flute and saxophone regularly respond and take their melodic part, while the harp adds its touch of magic. Ten warm and dreamy excursions, to treat yourself like a balm.

Matthew Halsall “An Ever Changing View” (Gondwana Records)
Matthew Halsall will be on June 12, 2024 at La Cigale (Paris)