American guitarist Mary Halvorson is at the forefront of today's avant-garde. She settles the boundary between composition and improvisation with her own bands or prominent colleagues such as and . On Code Girl Halvorson profiles herself for the first time as a songwriter and this time she puts her playing at the service of vocal music. She gets help from trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, among others,
… but especially singer Amirtha Kidambi has the lead role. She sings the erratic songs for which Halvorson was influenced by singer-songwriters such as and smoothly and expressively.. Art rock can be heard on Code Girl, played with great freedom, abstraction and jazzy undertones. Her quintet plays as a close band that - with Kidambi in the lead - brings the wonderful and authentic musical world of Halvorson to life. (MR)more
