“Norwegian bassist Eivind Opsvik made the most imaginative album trilogy of 2005”
Nate Chinen, JazzTimes, April 2006 >>

“Opsvik has a very personal style, whether it be integrating the celeste into his music or refining an approach to jazz that is unique and personal”
Stuart Nicholson, JazzWise (UK) August 05

“The attraction here is a sense of innocence, as the casual mingling of styles with good writing leaves the listener pleasantly perplexed”
John Ephland, Downbeat (US) August 05

"Opsvik's tunes are refreshingly direct in a landscape proliferated with advanced structures and chart-driven complexity... With surprisingly consistent writing and highly accessible tunes, Opsvik has a world of talent at his disposal”
Troy Collins, One Final Note.com (US) August 05 >>

“Keeping the notion that this record flourishes on its slow burning subtlelty makes this one that clutches at you after you’ve had a taste”
Jay Collins, Signal to Noise (US) January 06

“He writes present-day jazz material unlike anything else in the market.”
All About Jazz NYC (US) July 05 >>

“His music is fresh and new, carried out by an inner necessity rather than a conceived 'newness' so common in much of today's jazz. More than recommended. Check it out! ”
Jazz Special (DK) August 05

"Opsvik gives steady support to a set of his warm, pop-informed music. On 'Planned Future' for example, drummer Jeff Davis, Opsvik and Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby edge closer and closer to ragged free improv, even as Jacob Sacks maintains a dreamy triplet-pattern melody on the celeste to the very end"
JazzTimes (US) October 2005

“A beautiful follow up to “Overseas” ...strong and clear, rhythmically complex, compositions with original melodic lines”
Jazznytt (N) August 05

"The mix leads to a disc with an anything-goes esthetic, chockfull of concise tunes that are by turns brash or mysterious... The musicians on this disc mix precision and abandon in their playing. Seek out this cliche-free work"
Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen (CAN) September 05

“The bassist is forging an identity that belies simple labeling and is creating an interesting body of work. From the onset of the opening track, “Planned Future,” one can clearly distinguish this album from anything else currently being produced”
All About Jazz.com (US) August 05 >>

“ "Overseas II" has become the confirmation we expected Eivind Opsvik would come with - he's now on his way up to the top notch both as a bandleader, musician and composer”
Puls.no (N) June 05 >>

 "Ma Overseas II e' tutt'altro che un asettico collage di stili e di moods. A fare da collante ed a rendere il lavoro perfettamente organico ci sono la raffinata e leggera scrittura di Opsvik ed un gruppo di musicisti dalla mente aperta, in grado di assecondare con disinvoltura, freschezza ed originalita' il pensiero musicale del leader"
All About Jazz Italy (IT)(editor's pick) October 05 >>

«Overseas II» offers jazz a bit on the sideline of the new Norwegian jazz movement, with great compositions and sharp interplay. What’s there not to like?” 5 stars
Bergens Tidende (N) September 05 >>

"On his new album, "Overseas II", the Norwegian bassist Eivind Opsvik plumbs a strikingly modern (and yes, vaguely Nordic) brand of fusion"
Nate Chinen, New York Times (US) October 05

“Eivind Opsvik is a concise and concrete composer/improviser who knows how to find and shape melodic and rhythmic elements. ...Music that seems relaxed, simple and remarakably clarified in its expression”
Groove.no (N) October 05 >>

"I hear Overseas II presenting itself as a puzzle with the pieces scattered: elliptical and fragged, though the through line is just within grasp. But the playing is so cagey and hip, it’s never less than compelling"
Jim Macnie, Village Voice, December 05

“The sound has a sheer, weightless quality... whether you understand it as jazz or as a kind of instrumental post-rock it leaves more permanent traces”
Ben Ratliff, New York Times (US) January 03 >>

"Opsvik's own bass has an aching sound, with his lines plumbing the depths to find almost folk-song-like melodies"
David Dupont, Allmusic.com (US) May 03 >>

"Overseas, the excellent debut recording by New York-based Norwegian bassist/composer Eivind Opsvik, shows what happens when a musician puts the whole range of his imagination into play ...Overseas is such a perfect generational document”
Greg Buium, Downbeat (US) August 03 >>

”Eivind Opsvik has an unusual gift for writing small, poignant pieces of music”
New York Times (US) February 03 >>

“What makes this album stand out is the arrival of one of the most promising young composers in jazz today”
Jazzreview.com (US) 03 >>

“The connection to early fusion, before it severed its links to free jazz, is evident”
One Final Note.com (US) 03 >>

“Personal and fresh music that feels totally 'today' and not like a rephrasing of something that happened many years ago”
Orkester Journalen (SE) July 03 >>

"A player who seems likely to follow in Scandinavia's tradition of such wonderful bassists as Palle Danielsson and Anders Jormin"
Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise (UK) April 03 >>

“A vos souhaits ! Surpris par la fraîcheur glacée de Norvège, sans doute, que ce jeune contrebassiste apporte avec lui”
JazzHot (FR) July 03 >>

 "A Nordic sensibility shapes the sound of his latest album, Overseas"
Article in JazzTimes (US) June 03 >>

Natt Jazz in Bergen, Norway, May 2006
"In comparison with Andrew Hill's magisterial playing, Esbjorn Svensson's rather glib sub-Jarrett stylings in the big hall made no great impression. Much more compelling, in the club venue, was the latest edition of Eivind Opsvik's Overseas featuring Tony Malaby (tenor-sax), Jacob Sacks (piano) and Kenny Wollesen (drums) – you'd get an idea of their sound from the trio album Tone Collector on Jazzaway, featuring Malaby and Opsvik. Born in 1973 in Oslo, Opsvik moved to New York where he plays in a number of left-field groups including Opsvik & Jennings, and the David Binney/Bill Frisell Project. His Overseas quartet mix of post-Tim Berne grooves and free playing – adventurous and stylistically free-ranging, their music is densely-packed with ideas and hard to categorize. Jacob Sacks was a revelation on piano and Fender Rhodes – almost crouching at the keyboard like Glenn Gould, he and Andrew Hill would make for a piano teachers' nightmare. Though there's plenty of noise and overblowing in Malaby's playing, the label "free jazz" doesn't quite fit. Howard Reich referred to the listener having to "decode" Malaby's improvisational techniques and shifting idioms – which show great clarity and logic – and that seems right. It's a measure of his originality that his playing grabs your attention while you try to figure out how it works.
Andy Hamilton, The Wire (UK)

"EIVIND OPSVIK OVERSEAS at Zebulon" NYC October 2005
Overseas is quite an original musical world, lyricism being a key element of all of Opsvik’s compositions (do check his splendid Overseas II - New Talent / FSNT 219). The two sets unmasked simple pieces with a certain “classical” richness showing great romantic sensibility, opening both ears and senses to a tranquil world impregnated with a sort of barren melancholy. Actually, the tunes’ titles are quite revealing in this respect. Just to name a few: Sun Road, Tilt of Timber, Escapades (a sinuous, lyrical and poetic bass/ piano duo), Indian Summer, Quickstep, Silver, The Lull of Lumber… All are profoundly personal statements exploring Opsvik’s melodic territory, creating vivid atmospheric audio landscapes, unveiling a peaceful communion with nature, at times solemn and anthem-like. Zebulon’s crowd can be quite noisy but, surprisingly, there was nothing but total respectful silence from a fascinated, attentive audience. Throughout, Opsvik’s bass remained so very humble yet so essential, Malaby’s smoky tone was like a smooth, often majestic mossy Laphroaig malt whisky, Jacob Sacks’ colorful accents and sprinkles on fender rhodes piano were tender and poetic, while Jeff Michael Davis’ drumming inventions were constantly surprising, always catchy (delicate mallets on inverted cymbal resting on tom, sticks smartly scraping cymbals, irregular time, and more!). The Encore “Overseas” took the audience to yet another magical landscape that even in its more intense moments kept a tender, poetic quietness. Profound and enchanting music!
Gilles Laheurte, Jazz Improv Magazine (US)

SCANDINAVIA HOUSE, NYC July 2005
In a glass-enclosed second-floor atrium at Scandinavia House (Jul. 6th), bassist Eivind Opsvik did his best to rise above loud conversations fueled by flowing drinks. The bandmates - Tony Malaby on tenor, Jacob Sacks on keyboard and Gerald Cleaver on drums - have played on one or both of Opsvik’s superior Fresh Sound-New Talent discs, Overseas and Overseas II. So the lines of communication were open and buzzing and a core group of attentive listeners reaped the benefits. Sacks’ faux-Rhodes sound did not limit him, although he could only hint at the multilayered keyboard textures favored by Opsvik in the studio. But at one highly abstract moment he managed to approximate a celeste, creating tangles of harmony with crossed hands. Cleaver found malleability in some of Opsvik’s easygoing straight-eighth tempos, reaching grand and spontaneous heights behind Malaby’s solo on the opening “Prelude”. Opsvik followed an untitled ballad with a sturdy bass intro to “Kraftpakke”, a dense free-funk episode that segued into the off-kilter rubato piece “Ah! Aground Again”. With “Still the Tiger Town” and “Italian Movie Theme”, one could take the full measure of Opsvik’s lyrical sense, his taste for unpredictable endings and his band’s ability to weave complex counterpoint on the fly.
David Adler, All About Jazz NYC

"Confidence and Catchy Tunes, Imported From Norway"
Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC January 2003
Eivind Opsvik, a young Norwegian bassist and bandleader, has an unusual gift for writing small, poignant pieces of music. His melodic shards are strong, as are the chord sequences moving underneath them; to a degree, the musicians take a subordinate role to the written concepts. This is no small thing: he has the distinction, in a time when jazz compositions are becoming increasingly opaque, of writing catchy tunes.
Mr. Opsvik, whose confident first album, "Overseas" (Fresh Sound Records), came out of nowhere a month ago, has hooked up with good musicians since coming to New York a few years ago, and a group of them were with him on Thursday night: the saxophonists Jason Rigby and Loren Stillman, the keyboardist Wells Hanley and the drummer Jeff Davis.
Most of the tunes included single-chord groove sections, in which bass and drums came together, and Mr. Opsvik's fat-toned, unfussy sound enveloped the music. (Part of his charm is that he's not obviously trying to annex parts of pop and dance music, by means of distorted guitars and turntable scratches; the music, in its own quiet way, is naturally pop-influenced.) Others, like "Prelude," were fitted out with rapid chord changes, well navigated by the saxophonists.
"Foxtrot," with an attractive theme in a nine-beat rhythm, and a reedy, mentholated sound attained by means of a Fender Rhodes keyboard and a bass clarinet, closed the set. It's a good advertisement for Mr. Opsvik's breadth, since the tightly written parts alternate with stretches of free collective improvisation.
What the set didn't have much of was all-out, heavy-duty interactive play, the sort of thing for which New York jazz is known. But it's nice to come across an unknown whose music sounds slightly odd, and comfortable in its oddness.
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times