Helena Espvall is a Swedish-American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music. Chara ...

and

free improv Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...

scenes. Her primary instruments are

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

."Helena Espvall interviewed and introduced by Buck Curran". (2009). Dream Magazine #9, pp. 12-13.

Career

Espvall's early career included work with Arabian music ensemble Sumer and with Projektor 7, a silent movie orchestra formed by members of Swedish pop group

Komeda Komeda is a Swedish pop/indie band from Umeå. They were initially called Cosma Komeda, named in honour of composer Vladimir Cosma and jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate ...

. She relocated to Philadelphia, USA in the year 2000. Time spent concentrating on cello improvisation led to performances at the High Zero festival in 2001 and 2002. Espvall subsequently entered Philadelphia's flourishing psychedelic and weird-folk circles. She joined Espers shortly after they recorded their first album, was a member of The Valerie Project, and formed the duo

Anahita Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as ('), the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" (Aban) and hence associate ...

with Tara Burke (a.k.a.

Fursaxa Fursaxa is a United States-based psychedelic folk or freak folk project led by Tara Burke of Pennsylvania. Her home-recordings feature acoustic guitar, simple Casio electronic keyboards, accordion, Appalachian dulcimer, dulcimer and her heavily o ...

). In 2006 a trio consisting of Espvall, Espers bandmate

Meg Baird Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunbur ...

, and English folk singer

Sharron Kraus Sharron Kraus is an English singer, songwriter and musician with strong ties to the US. Kraus was born in New York but grew up in Leicester, England. She has lived in Philadelphia and collaborated with American musicians, including Meg Baird, Hel ...

released an album of traditional folk songs under the title Leaves From Off The Tree. 2006 also saw the release of Espvall's first solo album, ''Nimis & Arx'', named after the large-scale sculptures erected in the

micronation A micronation is a political entity whose members claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by world governments or major international organizations. Micronations are classified se ...

of Ladonia by Swedish artist

Lars Vilks Lars Endel Roger Vilks (20 June 1946 – 3 October 2021) was a Swedish visual artist and activist who was known for the controversy surrounding his drawings of Muhammad. He also created the sculptures ''Nimis'' and ''Arx'', made of driftwood an ...

. Collaboration with Masaki Batoh (of Japanese psych band

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

) produced two albums released by the Drag City label. The first of these, ''Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh'', included several Swedish folk songs and marked the first prominent appearance of Espvall's vocals. A BBC review called it "beautifully fragile, remarkably melodic and enticingly charming". 2009's ''Overloaded Ark'' tilted toward extended psychedelic jams, featuring members of Ghost Junzo Tateiwa and Kazuo Ogino as well as ancient music specialist Haruo Kondo. The album's varied instrumentation included acoustic and electric guitars, cello, organ, shō, banjo, renaissance harp,

rauschpfeife Rauschpfeife is a commonly used term for a specific type of capped conical reed musical instrument of the woodwind family, used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. In common with the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is a wooden double-reed instru ...

crumhorn The crumhorn is a double reed instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, particularly since the 1960s, there has been a revival of interest in early music, and crumhorns are being play ...

cornamuse The cornamuse is a double reed instrument dating from the Renaissance period. It is similar to the crumhorn in having a windcap over the reed and cylindrical bore. The only evidence for the cornamuse comes from a description and a few comments b ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...

, recorders, piano, frame drums,

darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet- ...

riq Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...

, and electronics. In 2010 Espvall released ''Lapidary'', an improvised collaboration with noise/drone figure Marcia Bassett. Writing for ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'' magazine, Keith Moliné compared it to the first

Ash Ra Tempel Ash Ra Tempel was a West German krautrock group led by guitarist Manuel Göttsching that was active from 1970 to 1976. Their debut album ''Ash Ra Tempel'' was released in 1971. Following the band's demise, Göttsching released music under the name ...

album and dubbed it "an impressively powerful record". Espvall frequently lends cello playing to the work of other musicians. She has been a member of the touring bands for

Vashti Bunyan Vashti Bunyan (born Jennifer Vashti Bunyan, 1945) is an English singer-songwriter. Beginning her career in the mid-1960s, she released her debut album, ''Just Another Diamond Day'', in 1970. The album sold very few copies and Bunyan, discourage ...

Damon and Naomi Damon & Naomi are an American dream pop/ indie folk duo, formed in 1991 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly of Galaxie 500. History After Galaxie 500 completed a tour of the US supporting Cocteau Twins, guitarist and vocalist Dean Wareh ...

, and

Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler (born April 5, 1981) is an American musician and fine artist. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, ''The Path of the Clouds'', in Oc ...

; she has made guest appearances on records by

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...

, and

Charalambides Charalambides is an avant garde musical group originally from Houston, Texas, United States and lately of Austin, Texas. Formed in 1991 (under the short-lived name Mutual Admiration Society) by Tom Carter, Christina Carter and Kyle Silfer, they ...

, among others.

Discography

Solo

*''Nimis & Arx'' CD (2006) (Fire Museum/Pax Recordings)

As part of Espers

*"Riding" / "Under The Waterfall" 7" single (2005) (Wichita) *''

The Weed Tree ''The Weed Tree'' is the second album from Espers, released on Locust Music in 2005. It was, for the most part, a covers album, although it did feature the original song "Dead King". The artists covered were The Durutti Column, Nico, Michae ...

'' CD/LP (2005) (Locust Music) *'' II'' CD/LP (2006) (Drag City) *'' III'' CD/LP (2009) (Drag City)

As part of The Valerie Project

*''The Valerie Project'' CD/2LP (2007) (Drag City)

As part of Anahita

*''Arcana En Cantos'' CD-R/LP (2006/2010) (Deserted Village/alt.vinyl) *''Matricaria'' CD (2008) (Important Records) *''Tourmaline'' LP (2016) (Three:Four Records)

With Sharron Kraus and Meg Baird

*''Leaves from Off the Tree'' CD/LP (2006) (Bo'Weavil Recordings)

With Masaki Batoh

*''Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh'' CD/LP (2008) (Drag City) *''Overloaded Ark'' CD/2LP (2009) (Drag City)

With Marcia Bassett

*''Lapidary'' Cassette/LP (2010) (Heavy Blossom/alt.vinyl)

With Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes Szelag

*''Espvall/Jakobsons/Szelag: Improvisations for Strings and Electronics'' CD-R dition of 100(2012) (Arachnidiscs)

With Alan Sondheim and Azure Carter

*''Cauldron'' LP (2012) (Tequila Sunrise/Fire Museum)

With Ernesto Diaz-Infante

*''A Hallowed Shell of Ash and Rust'' CD (2013) (Erototox Decodings)

With David Maranha

*''Sombras Incendiadas'' LP (2015) (Three:Four Records)

Compilation appearances

*''The Garden of Forking Paths'' CD (2007) (Important Records) *''We are all one, In the Sun: A tribute to Robbie Basho'' CD/LP (2010/2011) (Important Records/alt.vinyl)

References

External links

High ZeroDrag City's page for Helena Espvall and Masaki Batohalt.vinylDiscogs entry for Helena Espvallthree:four Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espvall, Helena American experimental musicians Psychedelic folk musicians Drag City (record label) artists Avant-garde cellists Folk cellists Rock cellists Swedish women singers Swedish session musicians Swedish composers Swedish cellists People from Umeå Living people Women cellists Year of birth missing (living people) Espers (band) members The Valerie Project members