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Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts

By Mike Jurkovic
June 8, 2025
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It has become more than an urban legend that Brooklyn's genius-in-residence

Mary Halvorson

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Mary Halvorson is supernaturally up to something. Some new route around something else. On her second resiliency test of the year—her first, the fiery Bone Bells (Pyroclastic, 2025) alongside hot-house pianist

Sylvie Courvoisier

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Sylvie Courvoisier still rattles the playlist—Halvorson's About Ghosts tells of wide open spaces with a wide open lens. Its intricate inner architecture is so comfortably ethereal that you sway freely within its charm and frenzy.

About Ghosts?is about what we have come to expect (and maybe take for granted) from the mercurial Halvorson, whose recipe reflects her taste for now. About Ghosts may very well turn out to be the fleet thinker's most lyrical and expansive set. Which says a whole lot of something when considering the recent flood of accolades for Amaryllis & Belladonna,?the notoriously animated Cloudward (Nonesuch, 2022, 2024) and the equally challenging Code? Girl (FireHouse, 2018).

Halvorson assembles her most trusted and tested Amaryllis—vibraphonist

Patricia Brennan

vibraphone

" data-original-title="" title="">Patricia Brennan, bassist

Nick Dunston

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Nick Dunston, drummer

Tomas Fujiwara

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Tomas Fujiwara trombonist

Jacob Garchik

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Jacob Garchik and ever evolving trumpeter

Adam O’Farrill

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Adam O��Farrill to the fore—invites saxophonists

Immanuel Wilkins

saxophone, alto
b.1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Immanuel Wilkins and

Brian Settles

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Brian Settles to the party and?"Full of Neon" hijacks your day first. Its many ecstatic convolutions, avant-swing, free-trad, culminate and catapult into "Carved From," a fever dream rocker that has Halvorson bending and extending notes hither and yon while Wilkens and Settles shoot for the moon, with Fukiwara not far behind.

"Eventidal" turns the energy generated by "Carved From" on a dime and steadies the unsteady air. The track's quiet languish is held aloft via a floating duet with Brennan, as Halvorson frees the horns to solemnly bring the track to a close. "Absinthian," its jumpy metro meter leading to a post-bop cutting session, packs its barely containable four-plus minutes with enough creative vigor and?verve to fill several future musical statements.

The title track slows things down to a cotillion-type pace as Halvorson, Amaryllis and guests take to the dance floor. "Amaranthine" pits an impatient Fujiwara against the recalcitrant Halvorson and Brennan, while O'Farrill and his brother brass and woodwinds seemingly cut their course. And of course they do, to an extent. For About Ghosts, including "Polyhedral"'s brief, frantic burst and the album's musical summary contained within "Endmost" springs from Halvorson's deep well of humanity and the music humans must make to thrive.

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Track Listing

Full of Neon; Carved From; Eventidal; Absinthian; About Ghosts; Amaranthine; Polyhedral; Endmost.

Personnel

Mary Halvorson

guitar

Patricia Brennan

vibraphone

Nick Dunston

bass

Tomas Fujiwara

drums

Adam O'Farrill

trumpet

Jacob Garchik

trombone

Immanuel Wilkins

saxophone, alto

Brian Settles

saxophone, tenor

Additional Instrumentation

Mary Halvorson: synth Pocket Piano (#1�C3, 8).

Album information

Title: About Ghosts | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Nonesuch Records

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