Halsall takes his interesting brand of harp filled, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders influenced jazz compositions and goes vocal on 5 out of the 11 tracks with the help of Josephine Oniyama and Bryony Jarman-Pinto, who sings on the last track. Oniyama is quite a formidable vocalist, with a soulful style that works great with the spiritual jazz that Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra bring - "Badder Weather" is a moving performance. Vocal jazz is, an unexpected switch from Halsall, as all his past albums are instrumental, but it is done well. On Into Forever, The long improvisation filled tracks are mostly gone, in favor of focused, relatively short statements; some of which could even be characterized as interludes ("Dawn Horizon", "Cushendun"), with the longest track clocking in at only 6 minutes and 22 seconds.
The opener, "Only A Woman", sets the tone for a good part of the album, a beautiful string section plays in the background as Oniyama's voice and the harp exchange moments in the spotlight. One of the first things that stands out, besides the presence of Oniyama of course, is how gorgeous the string arrangements are on this album. Whether the strings are the main focus or playing an accompanying role, they are beautiful tracks like "Only A Woman" and "These Goodbyes". It is also worth noting how great Gavin Barras’ bass playing is throughout this entire album. Although it does not always naturally stick out in terms of technicality, the tone of the bass here is exquisite and occasionally there are infectious lines, in particular, the one on "Badder Weather" is extremely soulful. Despite the focus on vocals on this record, the stand out song is probably "The Land Of", a relatively fast track with no vocals, driven by some great bass playing and high octane drumming. One would be hard-pressed to find a past Halsall composition with this much raw energy before, especially from drummer Luke Flowers. What is particularly impressive is how even at this pace, the arrangement of “The Land Of” still feels delicate and beautiful - a testament to this group’s mastery of the genre. The album closes out with "Jamais Vu", another track with great harmonies provided by the string section and a fine vocal performance by Bryony Jarman-Pinto. Overall, Into Forever is a successful effort - the vocals bring a nice change of pace to Halsall's discography.
