Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - Into Forever

Matthew Halsall is a trumpeter, producer and composer who is redefining spiritual jazz for the next generation. Over the course of nine albums, numerous accolades and his taste-making label, Gondwana Records, he’s become a vital voice in UK music with his lithe, limitless blend of jazz and deeply meditative influences that’s in tune with the natural world. His thoughtful and refined style draws on the foundations laid by greats like Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, but adds the sample-fuelled electronica that he first heard in clubs, as well as global percussive influences and his signature – what you might call – sparkle.

Partly inspired by the arrangements of Charles Stepney, Into Forever, was the second of Halsall’s albums to feature The Gondwana Orchestra, here joined by a string quartet and vocalists Josephine Oniyama and Bryony Jarman-Pinto. Soulful, varied and beautifully arranged it illustrated the depth and complexity of Halsall’s global vision.