Acclaimed pianist-composer Sylvie Courvoisier and celebrated guitarist Mary Halvorson—two of the most distinctive and fearless figures in modern improvised music—join forces once again with the release of Bone Bells on Pyroclastic Records.
Following their highly praised collaboration Searching for the Disappeared Hour, Courvoisier and Halvorson take their partnership further with Bone Bells, a collection that is by turns evocative, explosive, and intimate. The album delves into a sonic space where chamber music lyricism intertwines with improvisational daring, blurring boundaries between composition and spontaneity.
Throughout Bone Bells, Courvoisier’s pianism—renowned for its balance of crystalline detail and percussive vitality—meets Halvorson’s unmistakable guitar voice, with its unpredictable bends and spectral resonance. Together, they create sound worlds that are at once fragile and fierce, lyrical and dissonant, tethered yet free. The title evokes both corporeality and ephemerality: bones as structure, bells as resonance. Across the album, that duality rings true—solid foundations of form give rise to shimmering harmonic overtones, unexpected detours, and deeply emotional landscapes.