First a note: regular readers of my blogs may have noticed a couple of days where all three music blogs did not get a new review article. I apologize. The reason for this was that I have had several multiple CD sets I was reviewing, and in those cases (as per my usual) I listened to the set five times per disk, so there were 10 additional listens, and so for a few mornings I only had one or two CDs ready for review. My apologies.
On to today's music. Eivind Opsvik, Norwegian bassist, has been cropping up on some very hip sessions lately. But with his ensemble Overseas and its forth release, matter-of-factly titled Overseas IV (Loyal Label 001), I discover I have been missing Eivind the bandleader and composer.
Overseas is Eivind on bass, Kenny Wollesen, drums, etc.; Jacob Sacks, harpsichord, Farfisa, piano; Tony Malaby on saxes; Brandon Seabrook on electric guitar and mandolin. These are names you probably know and certainly should if you don't (if you read my blogs anyway).
But they aren't just talented players/improvisers. For Overseas they are dedicated to the service of realizing Opsvik's involved, refreshing, sometimes breathtakingly newish compositions. Don't ask me fully to describe them, not on a Monday morning at 8 am anyway. They have rock-fusoid and avant elements and a certain machine precision combined with deliberate looseness. And a sound. Eivind gets a fabulous sound from the band in the course of this album.
I will stop short and just say this: in a world of polyglotten hybrids abounding and rebounding around our musical world like out-of-control handballs in a gymnasium, the music of Overseas makes its own absolute SENSE. Brilliant! I say brilliant!
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