Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson ‘Bone Bell'

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson are both players at the forefront of contemporary jazz, creating fresh and original music.  There is clearly chemistry between the two players and their respective styles fit together extremely well.  Courvoisier’s piano playing draws on both jazz and classical influences, but always has an engaging drive and energy, while Halvorson’s soundworld is more quirky, using a range of sounds on her guitar including occasional detuning.

Bone Bells is their third duo album together, and is another excellent issue on Kris Davis’ innovative label, Pyroclastic Records. It is a delightful album to listen to as each track creates a different mood and the whole album is full of interesting surprises; it certainly deserves close listening.  Each track is based on a composition that has been developed collaboratively, and moves into quite intricate improvisation, mostly interactive between the two, occasionally led by one or the other. So for example, the opening track, the title track, is very much a warm conversation between the two players, whereas the following track, Esmeralda, is more dramatic, beginning with heavy chords on the piano and more introspective responses from the guitar.

Sally Walk begins with a very tight and intricate unison passage, but occasionally explodes into a wild improvised passage.  The album’s press release notes the link to the Monty Python sketch of the name.  Folded Secret is a highly rhythmic piece in which Halvorson’s guitar interacts with Courvoisier’s percussive prepared piano. The final track, Cristellino e Lontano is a particularly engaging piece that brings the album to a very satisfactory conclusion

Each of the album’s eight tracks is quite different from the others.  The compositions are developed collaboratively by the two players, with the composer credits for 1,3,5 and 7 attributed to Courvoisier and 2, 4, 6 and 8 to Halvorson.  

from https://ukjazznews.com