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  Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson 
  Bone Bells
  (Pyroclastic Records) 


  
   review by Paul Serralheiro
  2025-10-22
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic Records)

This is the third album by this improvising piano-guitar duo, a worthy follow up to the excellent Crop Circles released in 2017 and the equally satisfying Searching for the Disappeared Hour in 2024. Like its predecessors, Bone Bells is an ebullient interaction between two sympathetic musicians whose wide palette of sounds and ideas make for a tasteful and hearty offering of music.

The album starts with a Satie-esque piano statement, but evolves from there to express musical content of an original and engaging quality, where one instrument lends support to the other as each instrumentalist takes her turn at exploring ideas, textures, intervals, extending phrases and superimposing idea upon idea, all with an enviable telepathic communication skill set and a rich sonic imagination.

While a seriousness of purpose seems to drive the first three tracks, a playful note is struck in "Nags Head Valse" and the music swings with childlike abandon and glee. This playfulness also surfaces, albeit with a more sombre tone, in a piece called "Silly Walk," wherein the duo articulates some long unison lines in an almost out-of-time bebop fashion. A Delius-like chordal sense and line articulation characterize "Beclouded," while an urgent parade of Courvoisier's piano chords and Halvorson's sinewy noodling motifs make up "Float Queens."

The album closes with "Cristellina e Lontano," a piece that showcases the duo's enviable chops and ability to swing together even while articulating some complex, intricate lines.







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