The Silent Life is a solo bass album recorded by Jonas Hellborg in 1990 at Greenpoint Studios, the recording studio he co-owned with Bill Laswell at the time. Hellborg spent 2 years prior to recording this album playing and getting attuned to an acoustic bass guitar crafted by master luthier Abraham Wechter. This instrument, the Roman bass, was not only used on this landmark recording but also featured on Hellborg's collaboration with Tony Williams called "The Word" and Ginger Bakers "Middle Passage" (both recorded the same year). The re-release of this album is prompted by the discovery of unused takes of certain pieces and the sheer quality of sound on the original recordings (before processing). What you get here is the naked truth, Jonas Hellborg, the Wechter Roman bass, two mics (a Neumann U47 and an AKG 414) straight to tape.