Matthew Halsall Announces New Studio Album and shares first single ‘Water Street’ (Tune of the Day)

While Manchester-based trumpeter, bandleader and composer Matthew Halsall‘s music may be rooted in Northern England, he draws on a broad breadth of global influences that have helped shape and define his unique sound. He has just announced that his new album, An Ever Changing View, will be released on September 8^thon Gondwana Records (the label Halsall founded 15 years ago) ahead of a landmark show at The Royal Albert Hall in London on September 21^st.

The album is described as his most experimental and deeply meditative – that sentiment can certainly be applied to his lead single, Water Street. Still, there is also a refreshingly playful vibe to the music. The hypnotic kalimba, glockenspiel, flute, and Halsall’s trumpet are woven together beautifully. There’s a freshness to this music that envelopes the listener and makes you want to hit repeat at the end. That freshness carries through to the album’s visual presentation – handmade fonts designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, the specially commissioned tapestry by artist Sara Kelly, and Emily Dennison’s beautiful photography.

When talking about the studio sessions, he says he “would almost be like a DJ at points, bringing different elements in and out for people to play on top of. It was a new and fun way of working, and everyone beautifully adapted to that process.”

According to the press, when he was composing the tracks that make up ‘An Ever Changing View’, Halsall stayed in a beautiful architect’s house with breathtaking sea views in north Wales and a striking modernist house in Bridlington, in the northeast of England, and 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.”

Water Street is also our Tune of the Day. The video was filmed on location in North Wales and Directed by Matthew Halsall, Daniel Halsall & Rich Williams.