Belladonna’s five pieces were through-composed for the Mivos Quartet and augmented by Halvorson’s guitar improvisations. Without the band there’s more focus on Halvorson’s technique; longer, sonorous lines are strung with bright notes or cranky counterpoint melodies overlaying the quartet’s intense and precise accompaniment.

…on the melancholic modes of ‘Moonburn’ [Halvorson] grows more emphatic throughout, but as a parasitic mistletoe threads and winds about its host, so Halvorson finds her guitar separate yet utterly reliant on the string structure for its existence. The closing title track has intimations of Bartok and Hermann in the strings, but we're not allowed to settle as the guitar goes astral above them.

…what truly dazzles is her compositional audacity. “Belladonna,” for instance, has the snap and rhythmic drive of a Bartók string quartet, plus searing electric guitar. What more could a listener want?