Helena Espvall

 

Helena Espvall started to play the electric guitar and the cello in her youth in northern Sweden. After having played in rock bands, a silent movie orchestra, an arabian ensemble and being inspired to play free improvised music by an outrageous Eugene Chadbourne performance, she moved to the US in 2000,where she spends much of her time collaborating with dancers, playing with folk psych band Espers and singing bossa nova and swedish traditional songs. Helena has performed several times at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, twice at the High Zero Festival of improvised music in Baltimore,  MD, at the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn, NY, at Big Sur experimental festival in California and at Terrastock 2006 & 2008 among others. Espvall has received grants for artist residencies in Mojacar, Spain and at CESTA in Tabor, Czech Republic, and was invited to play at OpenCircuit InterAct, an international festival for improvised music in Hasselt, Belgium, where she performed with Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, C. Spencer Yeh, Daniel Carter and others.  In 2006 she released her debut solo album Nimis & Arx on Firemuseum/Pax records.  She has worked with Lukas Ligeti, Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadborne, Fursaxa, Damon & Naomi, Bert Jansch, Miho Hatori (of Cibo Matto), and performed at Carnegie Hall as part of a tour with Vashti Bunyan's ensemble. She has collaborated with Masaki Batoh (of Tokyo band GHOST), with whom she has toured in Japan, where she also performed with Damo Suzuki, Keiji Haino, Tatsuya Yoshida and Seiichi Yamamoto. The collaboration with Masaki Batoh has also resulted in two albums released on the record label Drag City, Chicago, IL.Ms Espvall has performed music for Martha Colburn's short movies at the Philadelphia Museum with Thollem McDonas, and with the film orchestra The Valerie Project at the MOMA, NYC. In 2009, she was the recipient of an Individual Artist Award from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She is currently working on an album of processed and looped cello music. After moving to Lisbon a year ago, she has done solo performances at the Out.Fest, ZDB and  at the Cave as well as performed in various improvisational ensembles, together with David Maranha, Margarida Garcia, Riccardo Wanke, Ernesto Rodrigues among others.