Eivind Opsvik

Review of The Setting

The Setting, is now available at Tiger Records in Oslo

ROULETTE

509 Atlantic Avenue (Corner of Third Avenue) Brooklyn, NY 11217

Wednesday, April 1, 20268:00 pm

$25 advance $30 doors $20 Student/Senior (w/ ID, Senior 65+)doors 7pm

Buy Tickets

A double bill of the semi-nostalgic alt trio The Setting (bassist Eivind Opsvik, pianist Elias Stemeseder, guitarist Will Graefe) and the drummer/electronicist jondownload (Jonathan Starks).

The Setting—the trio of Norwegian bassist/composer Eivind Opsvik, pianist Elias Stemeseder, and guitarist Will Graefe—celebrates the release of their debut album. The stunning ten-song record brings to fruition a seed that Opsvik has been carrying with him for about a decade. Sounds and sensibilities that have enchanted long him take form in a very particular combination: The Setting honors Opsvik’s love of 70s and 80s synthesizer music, ECM solo guitar albums, and experimental art pop, but sets these aesthetics in a conversation with boldly acoustic elements like the earthy upright bass, acoustic guitar, and harpsichord. This juxtaposition, only emphasized by the conspicuous and artful absence of a drummer, makes for a dreamlike listening experience, persuasive and melancholic –– inviting rumination and playing with nostalgia.

Eivind Opsvik upright bass and compositions Elias Stemeseder piano and synthesizers Will Graefe acoustic guitars and electronics

Brooklyn-based drummer jondownload opens the evening with a live solo set with drums and expressive software instruments—extended, raw versions of his digital content. jondownload is the performing alias of Brooklyn based drummer Jonathan Starks. He is one third of the acclaimed band, My trio. His solo performances offer hi-fi digital soundscapes powered by acoustic drumming.

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.

"It’s easy to get lost in the music of The Setting. It is a record ideal for contemplation or simply day-dreaming."

"While there are certainly touchstones of previous subgenres and legendary artists – ranging from Brian Eno to Joe Zawinul to Ryuichi Sakamoto – all over this beguiling record, the result is a sound that is unlike anything else most ears have heard. The overall experience is decidedly low-key, but with plenty of moments that are haunting, mysterious, and slightly avant-garde – all delivered with a disarming elegance.

......

The absence of an actual drummer in a jazz trio isn’t unheard of. Still, it does create interesting challenges for the arrangements, which the three assembled musicians are only too happy to turn into dazzling, unorthodox sonic combinations.

.......

The Setting’s music is uncommonly satisfying and tastefully strange. It sounds like plenty of things you may have already heard, but never in this particular combination. These three musicians have not only soaked up a sterling set of musical influences but have also found a way to put them together in a truly artful, enchanting package."

Review of ; The Setting

The Setting is out today

Buy on LP CD Digital (or stream, not on spotify though)

Bandcamp

Loyal Label

The Setting, a trio of bassist and composer Eivind Opsvik, Elias Stemeseder on piano and synthesizers, and Will Graefe on acoustic guitars, release their debut album of the same name. This stunning ten-song record brings to fruition a seed that Eivind Opsvik has been carrying with him for about a decade. Sounds and sensibilities that have enchanted the composer and bassist take form in a very particular combination long dreamt of: The Setting honors Opsvik’s love of 70s and 80s synthesizer music, ECM solo guitar albums, and experimental art pop, but sets these aesthetics in a considered conversation with boldly acoustic elements like the earthy upright bass, acoustic guitar, and harpsichord. This juxtaposition, only emphasized by the conspicuous and artful absence of a drummer, makes for a dreamlike listening experience, persuasive and melancholic –– inviting rumination and playing with though never fully giving into nostalgia. The Setting is uncanny.

The Setting — album out in February on Loyal Label.

First single; Hold On Tight to Your Music, available now on most streaming (no Spotify)

The Setting is Elias Stemeseder, Will Graefe, and Eivind Opsvik

Out now on most streaming platforms (except Spotify because they suck the most). The full album will be released here on Loyal Label on February 20th on a beautiful gatefold vinyl LP, on CD, and on the digital platforms, including Bandcamp. This music is a blend of improvisation, art pop, and ambient music. The music draws inspiration from Brian Eno's ambient music, 1970s ECM solo guitar recordings, and Pink Floyd's early experiments to list a few. The absence of drums creates a chamber music-like atmosphere that brings out a lot of nuance and depth in the electro-acoustic instrumentation.

Hear the single on YouTube

The Setting features Eivind Opsvik on upright bass, Will Graefe on acoustic guitars and FX, and Elias Stemeseder on synthesizers, Wurlitzer piano, harpsichord, and piano. It was all beautifully recorded, mixed, and produced by Randall Dunn. Album photography and art direction is by Michelle Arcila and the album design by Espen Friberg.

NEW SINGLE OUT TODAY

ELECTRIC KIDS

Creeping up on you like a well-intentioned snake, this track charts the dangers of electronic devices on the young, while a rhythmic weighted blanket provided by drummer JT Bates and electric bass lulls you into the enigmatic side of things.

You do Have to Right now Tell you Do it Unplug your kids Reset the kids Off grid your kids It’s now Don’t wait Until Too late Time flies No more Ig Snap twitch Fb Tik Tok Unplug your kids Reset the kids Off grid your kids Let’s save them kids

credits

June 14th

Solar Myth

Philly

Anna Webber - saxophone / flute

Thomas Strønen - drums

Eivind Opsvik - bass

8pm

50% off code on dice : JUNE50

When Young Guns Morph Into Masters

Two decades ago pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Eivind Opsvik had a conversation where they mused on which living jazz great they’d most like to play with. Both of those New York scene fixtures are artists of great sensitivity, subtlety, and restlessness, so it’s hardly surprising that they agreed upon drummer Paul Motian, one of the most original and important figures of the post-bop era. They embraced the idea and successfully enlisted Motian to join them and violist Mat Maneri to make the neglected classic Two Miles a Day, released in 2007. Maneri’s playing mirrored the drag in the drummer’s bumpy swing, setting up a beautiful context that delivered big dividends. The music was deliciously measured and melodic, with a whirl of internal tension and interplay giving the surface calm a thrilling electricity. The band played quite a few gigs in New York in the wake of the session, but the drummer’s death in 2011 spelled the end of the collaboration.Two Miles a Day—Mat Maneri, Jacob Sacks, Eivind Opsvik, Billy Mintz

The three other musicians have continued to work together in shifting contexts. In fact, earlier this year Sacks and Maneri made peerless contributions to Synchronicity (Sunnyside), a marvelous album by Korean bassist Jeong Lim Yang with another exceptional drummer, Randy Peterson, whose playing shares some of the disruptive traits of Motian. Sacks, Opsvik, and Maneri decided to make another recording in the general mood of Two Miles a Day, enlisting an even more overlooked player to take the drum throne, Billy Mintz. A couple of weeks ago the band released the first fruits of the new partnership, the fantastic new Two Miles a Day, So Depending On (Yeah Yeah/Loyal Label), a rather awkward, inelegant collision of two phrases frequently used by Motian. Thankfully, nothing about the music feels as gawky as the album title. As one might expect from a drummer of Mintz’s experience, he doesn’t try to conjure Motian’s sound, although his own aesthetic tendencies aren’t radically different.

The album opens with a remarkable little gem by Sacks called “Drips and Drabs,” which is marked by a terse, darting melody of quicksilver feints and jabs voiced in unison by the pianist and Maneri, with the latter extending each tone to give the execution a wonderfully lopsided feel—in fact, they spend the whole tune engaging in a subtle push-and-pull, gently departing from the written line while constantly circling around its phrases in a way that stretches the theme like putty. Things get more jagged as the album proceeds. Opsvik’s fever dream “Cake, Cross, and Flowers” opens with piano chords that sound like they were swiped from Ellington’s “C Jam Blues,” and, indeed, the melody is one that the bassist has had swimming around in his head, originally inspired by a live Duke recording from the 1970s marked by “a bouncy beat with a syncopated horn riff.” He created a hypnotic countermelody to ride over the jagged groove, and Sacks takes a wonderfully rangy, off-kilter solo that both injects friction and allows us to hear how all of the parts fit together. The piece gains even more turbulence through Maneri’s wonderfully dark, slashing solo. Check out the tune below.