Swimmer, Survivor, and accomplished violinist Elizabeth Beisel has released a new single titled “black line battle”.
The nearly four-minute violin duet tells a lyrical story by the interplay of two violins between opposing forces – the slow, consistent monotony of the pool’s black line juxtaposed against the frantic furor of what happens above water, with splashing and power and the staccato of the stroke and the kick.
It’s a theme that will be familiar to swimmers, though a title and a story that are universal enough to resonate beyond the pool even to those who don’t connect the reference to the lifetime spent staring at the bottom of the pool.
The song is performed by Beisel and Brad Bensko, and was produced, mixed, and mastered by Bensko. This is a deviation from Bensko’s own work which typically has more of a guitar-driven indie folk-pop vibe.
The official YouTube post of the song features a haunting video of an old, empty pool that is desperately in need of care, but that simultaneously features elaborate decoration that tells a story of its past glory – again hitting the theme of the battle between opposing imagery.
This is Beisel’s second release of new music in the last few months after dropping a four song EP in September titled ‘seasons.’
A long-time member of the U.S. National Team, Beisel won a pair of Olympic medals at the London 2012 Games: silver in the 400 IM and bronze in the 200 backstroke. She was also the 2011 World Champion in the 400 IM, among three career individual long course World Championship medalists.
At the University of Florida, she was a nine-time SEC Champion and was named the 2012 SEC Female Swimmer of the Year. She won individual NCAA titles in the 200 backstroke in 2012 and 400 IM in 2013 and was a first-team Academic All-American.
Beisel has some family history of celebrity: her great uncle Warren William Krech has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was one of the original fourteen members of the Screen Actors Guild. He was a prominent actor who appeared in more than 20 -plays and dozens of films in the early era of movies with sound. He was the first actor to play the famous character Perry Mason.n
A lovely piece of music! I also wish NBC would hire her as a commentator. She’s great interviewing swimmers after a race. I loved it when she said to Gretchen Walsh (after her world record) “How? Just how?”
Exquisite, provocative and hauntingly beautiful.
And she composed it?
It is so good… will definitely be listening to it again.
The best of our best – Keep it coming!
Artist-Athletes 🙌
Absolute CLASS swimming and violin!
add her to the Jumbotron!
“one black line battle after another” the crossover event of the year