Ramoen

A Thousand Ancestors is the culmination of a long-standing collaboration between photographer Michelle Arcila and musician/bassist Eivind Opsvik which synthesize the strong influence of visual imagery on music, and vice versa. Hailing from Costa Rica and Norway, two different countries with distinct cultural traditions and folklore, A Thousand Ancestors is an exploration of family history and the continuing influence of ancestral narratives on the present generation.
The artists aim to slow time for the observer, and allow him/her to perhaps uncover distant, buried memories of their own during the encounter. A beautiful example of this can be experienced in “A Strange Gratitude”-- the second track and print on A Thousand Ancestors pairs a steady, escalating tension of bass strings with a slightly ominous, dreamlike image of two silver-haired figures obscured by a thin veil of dying tree branches in the foreground, hazy snow-covered mountains stretching behind.

The project is a limited edition box set (numbered edition of 500) designed by Espen Friberg containing a ten-track vinyl LP (plus a CD and download card), ten photographic prints, each of which correspond to a track on the record, and a poster. Released by the Brooklyn based record label; Loyal Label.

Eivind Opsvik first started recording the music in his basement studio in 2011. The starting point and framework was his solo double bass performances, which sometimes had projections of Michelle’s photographs (like at Williamsburg’s now defunct Monkey Town). But when it came time to record he intentionally did not put any limits on himself. He decided to orchestrate the bass centric pieces with subtle overdubbing and other studio techniques and with light touches of other instruments, like lap steel guitar, 50’s Hammond Solovox organ and some percussion and drum machine. The process sometimes included having specific photo prints with him in the studio, other times the general theme and mood of the project served as a guideline and inspiration.

Michelle Arcila has been described as “ a storyteller who uses very few words ”. Arcila was born in New York and has a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts. Her images have been exhibited at international venues, including Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz in Paris, the National Arts Club, and Jen Bekman Gallery in New York City. She has also photographed and served as art director for several album covers. Publications featuring Arcila’s work include Vogue Korea, Time Out NY, Metro Pop, Les Inrockuptibles and DownBeat. Her work appears in a number of private collections. She currently works in Brooklyn, Norway, and Costa Rica.

Eivind Opsvik is a Norwegian bassist/musician living in New York. His main projects are his band Overseas, the instrumental chamber-pop duo Opsvik & Jennings, and his solo music, which appears on ‘A Thousand Ancestors’. Opsvik also mixes, composes and produces music, and runs the Loyal Label record label. He played his first solo show at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in 2008 and has also performed solo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC .
Opsvik has performed internationally in the bands of Paul Motian, Anthony Braxton, Tony Malaby, David Binney, Kris Davis and Nate Wooley, and collaborated with Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Martha Wainwright, Daedelus, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Craig Taborn, among others. Downbeat magazine had this to say about his previous release, Overseas IV; "Eivind Opsvik's new opus belongs to a unique musical universe...”

Photography/Music
01. Ramoen
02. A Strange Gratitude
03. El Cadejos
04. Los Desamparados
05. One Room Into Another
06. Arise
07. Zeneida
08. Painted White
09. Vartdal
10. Familiar Ghosts

All Photography © Michelle Arcila

All Music Composed by Eivind Opsvik
Eivind Opsvik: Double Bass, Electric and Lap Steel Guitars, Organ, Synthesizers, Electric Piano, Percussion, Programming and Field Recordings

Recorded, Mixed and Produced by Eivind Opsvik at Greenwood Underground, Brooklyn, NY, 2011 - 2014
Mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering in Brooklyn, NY, March 2014

Text by Lisa Bernhoft- Sjødin
Graphic Design by Espen Friberg

A Thousand Ancestors is dedicated in loving memory to Mama Zeneida and Tante Solveig.