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Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi (1969) manipulates the sounds of his guitar via a number of electronic and digital devices. The result has little to to do
with guitars, and approaches the kind of music that is usually created with tone generators.
Ambarchi credits Alvin Lucier as an influence, and his main recordings do
mirror that static minimalism.
His early works were divided between
a pseudo-jazz project, Stacte, which released
Stacte (Jerker, 1998),
Stacte.2 (Jerker, 1999) and
Stacte.3 (Plate Lunch, 2000),
and a series of solo and collaborative albums that explored the texture and
the formation of sound:
The Alter Rebbe's Nigun (Tzadik, 1999), a collaboration with Robbie Avenaim,
Insulation (Touch, 2000), which was still devoted to chaotic atonal
poems (performed on guitar only), and probably his first masterpiece,
Afternoon Tea (Ritornell, 2000), which documents two improvisations with Paul Gough (Pimmon), Keith Rowe, Peter Rehberg (Pita) and Christian Fennesz,
Persona (E.R.S., 2001).
Suspension (Touch, 2001 - Staubgold, 2002 - Touch, 2006)
was the album that inaugurated
his mature program, shifting the emphasis towards minimal events and silence.
His exploration continued with:
Sun (Preservation, 2001 - - Staubgold, 2003), a "pop" collaboration with Chris Townend,
Stacte.4 (En/Of, 2002),
Mort Aux Vaches - Song of Separation (Staalplaat, 2002),
Flypaper (Staubgold, 2002), a collaboration with Keith Rowe on prepared guitar,
Oystered (Audiosphere, 2003), a collaboration with Gunter Mueller and Voice Crack,
Strange Love (For Ears, 2003), a collaboration with Gunter Mueller and Philip Samartzis,
the droning My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights (Hapna, 2003), a collaboration with Swedish harmonium player Johan Berthling,
Triste (Idea, 2003 - Southern Lord, 2005), which documents a live performance,
Thumb (Gross, 2003), a collaboration with Keith Rowe, Sachiko M, Otomo Yoshihide, Rob Avenaim,
two collaborations with turntablist Martin Ng, namely
Reconnaissance (Staubgold, 2001) and Vigil (Quecksilber, 2003),
Grapes From The Estate (Touch, 2004 - (Southern Lord, 2006), particularly Stars Aligned, was Ambarchi's most important work
since Suspension. Technically, it is based on the interaction of
live instruments (mainly guitar but also drums) with computers. The sound
is ambient but in a convoluted and glacial way that evokes both
glitch music and post-rock.
Lost Like A Star (Bo'Weavil, 2007) collects a complex dance piece
(for electric guitar, bowed instruments, samples, bells, cymbals and percussion)
and a live performance.
Ambarchi returned to the Stacte project with Stacte Motors (Western Vynils, 2006), containing a 20-minute Cymbal Motor of cymbal drones and a 15-minutes Guitar Motor that harkens back to Alvin Lucier's droning minimalism for overtones.
Squire (2006) is a guitar-duo collaboration with
Keith Rowe.
Pendulum's Embrace (Southern Lord, 2007)
continued the project started with
Grapes From The Estate: overdubbing live instruments and manipulating
them with a mixing board.
The three suites (Fever A Warm Poison, Inamorata, Trailing Moss In Mystic Glow) were among the most fragile and melancholy works
yet devised by Ambarchi, very slowly unfolding.
Sun's I'll Be The Same (Staubgold, 2007), another collaboration with
Chris Townsend, delivers six ethereal folk-pop meditations against a backdrop
of simple guitar strumming, field recordings and digital glitches.
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