Pattini D'argento Mary Mapes Dodge

Slowdive’s Neil Halstead supplies gauzy production for LA-based Harpist, Mary Lattimore’s latest suite of fairytale music for adults in suspended animation, casting her third album for Ghostly on a warm Gulf Stream of narrative melodies.

Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson’s new album, Cloudward, is due January 19, 2024 on Nonesuch Records. The album features eight new compositions by Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis; the improvisatory band that performed on her critically praised 2022 albums Amaryllis and Belladonna comprises Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Labelmate Laurie Anderson also is featured on the album track “Incarnadine.” The dual 2022 releases’ acclaim included being named Jazz Album of the Year in DownBeat’s annual Critics Poll.

Through evocative, emotionally resonant music, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, the new LP from American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore, speaks not just for its beloved namesake — a hotel in Croatia facing renovation — but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephemeral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore’s decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slowing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements.

Mary Hellmann presents a program of works by Beethoven, Scarlatti, Christopher Cook, Thomas Harrison, and James Paul Sain. Mary Hellmann studied first at the University of Louisville before receiving Masters degrees from the University of Illinois and her DMA from the University of Alabama. Is Chair of the Department of Music at Chowan University. In addition to this role, she teaches various piano courses and maintains an impressive performing and recording schedule. The title track, Firebreak by James Paul Sain, was written specifically for Mary Hellmann.