Live Events Spring 2024

Sun March 10
Oren Ambarchi solo
Perronnord
St Gallen
Switzerland
ambossundsteigbuegel.ch/programm/toctoc-32

Sun April 7
Phew & Oren Ambarchi duo
Rewire Festival
The Hague
Netherlands
www.rewirefestival.nl/line/up/2024

Thu April 18
Oren Ambarchi solo
St George’s Church
Lisbon
Portugal
zedosbois.org/en/programa/oren-ambarchi/

Sat May 25
Oren Ambarchi & Ilan Volkov & the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra present “Sous Vide”
Scelsi Sound Magic festival
Flagey
Brussels
Belgium
www.brusselsphilharmonic.be/en/concerts/scelsi-soundmagic-25-05-2024

Live Events Winter 2023/4

2024

Sat Jan 13
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
All Ears Festival
Oslo
Norway
www.munchmuseet.no/en/live/

Thu Feb 1
Oren Ambarchi presents Carpe Diem with Konrad Sprenger, Sam Dunscombe, Jules Reidy, Mike Majkowski, Will Guthrie
Kings Place
London
UK
www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/oren-ambarchis-carpe-diem/

Thu Feb 8
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Elbphilharmonie
Hamburg
Germany
www.elbphilharmonie.de/de/programm/ghosted-oren-ambarchi-johan-berthling-andreas-werliin/20213

Wed Feb 14
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Bimhuis
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.bimhuis.nl/en/

Thu Feb 15
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Joe Festival
Essen
Germany
www.jazz-offensive-essen.de/joe-festival/

Wed Feb 21
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Artefact Sound Festival
Leuven
Belgium
www.stuk.be/en/program/artefact-sound-2024-oren-ambarchi-johan-berthling-andreas-werliin-ghosted-jules-reidy

Sat Feb 24
Oren Ambarchi solo
Volksbuhne am Rosa-Luxemberg-Platz
Berlin
Germany
www.volksbuehne.berlin/#/en/events/psychic-liberation-auguste-vickunaite-jack-callahan-jeff-witscher-oren-ambarchi

2023

Sun Nov 5
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
JazzFest Berlin
Berlin
Germany
www.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/jazzfest-berlin/start.html

Wed Nov 8
Oren Ambarchi solo
MPS Studios
Villingen / Black Forest
Germany
mps-studio.de/

Sat Nov 11
Oren Ambarchi solo
MIRA festival
Barcelona
Spain
mirafestival.com/en/

Wed Nov 15
Oren Ambarchi / Eric Thielemans duo
Jazz A Poitiers
Poitiers
France
jazzapoitiers.org/archives/evenements/oren-ambarchi-eric-thielemans

Thu Nov 23
Oren Ambarchi solo
Jazzfestivalen No 5
Pedek/Hopsfossen
Bergen
Norway
nymusikk.no/en/chapters/bergen-en

Wed Dec 6
Oren Ambarchi solo
Gigi-Hertz Festival 2023
ZKM
Karlsruhe
Germany
zkm.de/de/veranstaltung/2023/12/giga-hertz-festival-fuer-elektronische-musik-und-klangkunst-2023

Sat Dec 9
Phew & Oren Ambarchi duo + Akiko Nakayama
Mutek festival Tokyo
Spotify O-EAST
Tokyo
Japan
tokyo.mutek.org/jp/artists/phew-oren-ambarchi-akiko-nakayama

Thu Dec 14
Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi & crys cole trio
Polaris
Tokyo
Japan
polaris231214.peatix.com/

Sat Dec 16
Oren Ambarchi & Joe Talia duo
+ crys cole solo
Soto
Kyoto
Japan
soto-kyoto.jp/en/

Thu Dec 21
Oren Ambarchi solo
Omniversal Hum
Norla Dome
The Mission To Seafarers Victoria
Melbourne
Australia
events.humanitix.com/omniversal-hum-oren-ambarchi

Live Events Summer/Autumn 2023

Sat July 15
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
@ Tabakalera
San Sebastian
Spain
www.tabakalera.eus/en/musika-dena-eta-ez-dena-festibala

Thu Aug 3
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Jazz em Agosto festival
Lisbon
Portugal
gulbenkian.pt/jazzemagosto/en/agenda/ghosted/

Sat Aug 12
Oren Ambarchi solo
Sanatorium Of Sound festival
Sokolowsko
Poland
sanatoriumofsound.com/artists/oren-ambarchi-2/

Tue Aug 16-20
crys cole and Oren Ambarchi – “Get Lost”
CAMP
Pyrenees
France
www.campfr.com/course/onsite/78/get-lost-with-oren-ambarchi-and-crys-cole

Sat Aug 26
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Summer Bummer festival
Antwerp
Belgium
www.trixonline.be/nl/programma/festival/summer-bummer-festival/2100/

Fri Sept 1
Oren Ambarchi solo
End Of The Road festival
Larmer Tree Gardens
UK
endoftheroadfestival.com/artist/oren-ambarchi/

Sun Sept 3
Oren Ambarchi solo
The White Hotel
Manchester
UK
ra.co/events/1715520

Thu Sept 7
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted with special guest Christer Bothen
(Venue TBC – either in a church or a barn)
Bovallstrand
Sweden

Tue Oct 3
Oren Ambarchi solo
Volume Festival
Art Gallery of NSW
Sydney
Australia
volume.sydney/

Sun Oct 22
Oren Ambarchi solo
Meet Factory
Prague
Czech Republic
www.meetfactory.cz/en/

Live Events Spring 2023

Wed Jan 25
Oren Ambarchi solo
crys cole solo
Northcote Social Club
Melbourne, Australia
northcotesocialclub.com/

Tue March 14
Oren Ambarchi & Thomas Brinkmann duo
Moods
Zurich, Switzerland
tamriko.net/concerts/?lang=EN&_wb=topics/moods-carte-blanche-tamriko-kordzaia/

Sun March 26
Oren Ambarchi with The End
Pardon To, Tu
Warsaw, Poland
pardontotu.pl/event/2-nights-with-mats-gustafssons-the-end-ambarchi-werner-berthling-lauvdal-w-pardon-to-tu-jedyne-koncerty-w-polsce/

Mon March 27
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthlong duo
+
Oren Ambarchi with The End
pardontotu.pl/event/2-nights-with-mats-gustafssons-the-end-ambarchi-werner-berthling-lauvdal-w-pardon-to-tu-jedyne-koncerty-w-polsce/

Sunday April 9
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Rewire festival
The Hague, The Netherlands
www.rewirefestival.nl/event/rewire-2023

Sun April 16
Oren Ambarchi’s Carpe Diem w/Konrad Sprenger, Sam Dunscombe, Julia Reidy, Mike Majkowski, Will Guthrie
Minimal Music Festival
Bimhuis
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
www.bimhuis.nl/en/calendar/oren-ambarchi/

Sat April 22
Oren Ambarchi solo
Engine Room
Floriana, Malta
www.kinemastik.org/

Sat April 29
Oren Ambarchi presents SHEBANG – 4D sound mix
Stone Nest
London, UK
www.stonenest.org/events/4dsound

Fri May 12
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Rymer Auditorium
University of York
York, UK
yorkconcerts.co.uk/whats-on/2022-23/ghosted/

Sun May 14
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Kings Place
London, UK
www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/ghosted/

Mon May 15
Oren Ambarchi’s Carpe Diem w/Konrad Sprenger, Sam Dunscombe, Julia Reidy, Mike Majkowski, Will Guthrie
Angelica Festival
Bologna, Italy
aaa-angelica.com/aaa/festival/edizione-festival-2023/

Wed May 17
Oren Ambarchi solo
25 Years Of Staubgold
Perpignan University
Perpignan, France
www.staubgold.com/

Sun June 4
Oren Ambarchi & João Pais Filipe duo
Serralves Festival
Porto, Portugal
www.serralves.pt/en/agenda-serralves/

Tue June 6
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Fasching
Stockholm, Sweden
www.fasching.se/?date=0&artist=all&view=default&c=2

Wed June 7
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Alice
Copenhagen, Denmark
alicecph.com/en

Thu June 8
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Teatro Torresino
Padova, Italy
www.centrodarte.it/concerti/2023-06-08-ghosted/\

Fri June 9
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Lido di Savio
Ravenna, Italy
www.areasismica.it/prossimi-eventi/

Sun June 11
Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthing / Andreas Werliin – Ghosted
Clandestino Festival
Gothenburg, Sweden
https://clandestinofestival.org/2023/

Thu June 15
Oren Ambarchi’s Carpe Diem w/Konrad Sprenger, Sam Dunscombe, Fredrik Rasten, Mike Majkowski, Will Guthrie
Art Basel – Messeplatz – Installation by Latifa Echakhch
Basel, Switzerland
www.artbasel.com/

OREN AMBARCHI – SHEBANG (Drag City)

Available on Bandcamp

Tracks:

Shebang I
Shebang II
Shebang III
Shebang IV

Credits:

Oren Ambarchi – guitars & whatnot

with:
Chris Abrahams – piano on III & IV
Johan Berthling – acoustic bass on III
BJ Cole – pedal steel on II & IV
Sam Dunscombe – bass clarinet on I & II
Jim O’Rourke – synths on III & IV
Julia Reidy – 12-string guitar on III & IV
Joe Talia – drums on the whole Shebang

Recorded at Choose Studios, Berlin by Joerg Hiller

Additional recording at Challis Studio, Sydney by Chris Abrahams, ‘The Batcave’, Stately Wayne Manor studios, London by BJ Cole, Summa, Stockholm by Johan Berthling, The Crystal Ball, Berlin by Sam Dunscombe, Steamroom Japan by Jim O’Rourke and Good Mixture, Berlin by Joe Talia

Edited by Joerg Hiller and Oren Ambarchi at Choose Studios, Berlin
Mixed by Joe Talia and Oren Ambarchi at Good Mixture, Berlin
Mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture
Executive Producers: Konrad Sprenger & Dick Wolf

Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the same studio air. Expanding on the techniques used on Simian Angel (2019), we can never be entirely sure who is responsible for what we hear, as Ambarchi’s guitar is used to trigger everything from bass lines to driving piano riffs.

Picking up from the staccato guitar patterns that ran through Hubris, Shebang’s single 35-minute track begins with a precisely interwoven lattice of chiming guitar figures, expanding Hubris’ monolithic pulse into a joyous, hyper-rhythmic melodicism that calls up points of reference as disparate as Albert Marcoeur, early Pat Metheny Group, and Henry Kaiser’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Building from isolated single notes into densely layered polyrhythms, the muted guitar tones are joined by subtle touches of shimmering Leslie cabinet tones and guitar synth. Simmering down and funnelling into a single note, the guitar stew is soon thickened by Joe Talia’s propulsive ride cymbal, which blossoms into a beautifully flowing yet rigorously snapped-to fusion funk, whose ever-shifting details skitter across the kit – think 70s heavyweights like Jack DeJohnette or Jon Christensen. An unexpected entry of guttural bass clarinet licks from Sam Dunscombe begins the series of instrumental features that pepper the remainder of the piece. Soon we hear from the legendary British pedal steel player B.J. Cole (hopefully known to some listeners from his outer-limits singer-songwriter masterpiece The New Hovering Dog or, failing that, ‘Tiny Dancer’), whose languorous yet uneasy lines float in and out of a shifting rhythmic foundation supported by a single note bass groove, cut through with aleatoric synth articulations

Though single-mindedly occupying its rhythmic space throughout, Shebang’s dense ensemble sound is carefully composed while drawing on the free flow of improvisation, with individual voices momentarily coming to the fore and subtle changes in harmony and texture. Perhaps the most surprising of these shifts occurs around half-way through when the smoke of a buzzing synth crescendo from Jim O’Rourke clears to reveal something like a piano trio, with Ambarchi’s guitar-triggered piano patterns providing restless accompaniment to flowing melodic lines from Chris Abrahams of The Necks, while Johan Berthling’s double bass and Talia’s drums fill out the bottom end. Before long, things take another left turn as Julia Reidy’s rapidly picked 12-string guitar lines take centre stage, with O’Rourke’s monumental synth clouds hovering in the distance. The ensemble surges through a slow series of harmonic changes before the whole shebang dissolves into a delirious synthetic mirage.

Bridging minimalism, contemporary electronics, and classic ECM stylings, and bringing together a cast of preternaturally talented contributors, Shebang is unmistakably the work of Oren Ambarchi: obsessively detailed, relentlessly rhythmic, unabashedly celebratory.

Live Events 2022

Mon Jan 31
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
40 years of Touch
CTM festival
Berlin
Germany
www.ctm-festival.de/festival-2022/programme/schedule-part-1/event-detail/event/ctmevent-109

Thu Feb 3
Oren Ambarchi solo
Ear We Are festival
Biel
Switzerland
www.earweare.ch/de/

Tue Feb 15
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
Radiophrenia
CCA
Glasgow
UK
www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/radiophrenia-live-to-air-cryscole-oren-ambarchi-amaya

Wed Feb 23
Oren Ambarchi & Karl D’Silva duo
Unity Centre
Rotherham
UK

Sat April 9
Rachel Morend, Marie Piot, Oren Ambarchi & crys cole perform WHIRLED MUSIC
(Max Eastley, David Toop, Steve Beresford, Paul Burwell)
Archipel Festival
Geneva
Switzerland
edhea.ch/en/evenements/festival-archipel

Sun April 10
Oren Ambarchi solo
Archipel Festival
Geneva
Switzerland
2022.archipel.org/fr/program/oren-ambarchi-solo

Mon April 11
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi in discussion with Max Eastley, David Toop and Steve Beresford
La Becque
Switzerland
https://nb-no.facebook.com/pg/LaBecque/posts/?ref=page_internal

Sun April 17
Oren Ambarchi & Robert AA Lowe duo
Presences Electronique
La maison de la Radio et de Musique
Paris
France
www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/podcasts/l-experimentale/concert-presences-electronique-partie-3-avec-claire-rousay-oren-ambarchi-robert-aiki-aubrey-lowe-1076989

Tues April 26
Oren Ambarchi solo
Strange Brew
Bristol
UK
www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/strange-brew/tue-26-apr-strange-brew-pres-oren-ambarchi-ashley-paul-live-73206

Thurs April 28
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ Ora Clementi, Judith Hamann
Cafe Oto
London
UK
www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/black-truffle-present-oren-ambarchi/

Thurs May 5
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ Oren Ambarchi/Richard Pinhas duo
Le Ciel
Grenoble
France

Tue May 17
AMBARCHI /HÄUSERMANN / KOCH / LÄNG
Cafe Kairo
Bern
Switzerland
www.cafe-kairo.ch/kultur/ambarchi-haeusermann-koch-laeng

Wed May 18
AMBARCHI / HÄUSERMANN / KOCH / LÄNG
Kunsthaus Pasquart
Biel
Switzerland
www.pasquart.ch/en/event/ambarchi-haeusermann-koch-laeng/

Thu May 19
AMBARCHI / HÄUSERMANN / KOCH / LÄNG
Barakuba
Basel
Switzerland
www.barakuba.ch/2022/19/05/ambarchi.haeusermann.koch.laeng

Fri June 3
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
KAIOLA festival
Bilbao
Spain
www.facebook.com/kaiolafestibala

Thu June 9
Ambarchi/Sollmann/Sprenger trio
Primavera Sound
Barcelona
Spain
www.primaverasound.com/en/artist/oren-ambarchi-konrad-sprenger-phillip-sollmann

Fri June 10
Oren Ambarchi solo
Jazz Is Dead Festival
Planetario di Torino
Turin
Italy
www.sentireascoltare.com/news/jazz-is-dead-2022-oren-ambarchi-planetario-torino/

Fri June 24
Ambarchi/Sollmann/Sprenger trio
Monheim Triennale
Monheim
Germany
www.monheim-triennale.de/en/programme/signature/phillip-sollmann

Fri July 1
Oren Ambarchi / Julia Reidy duo
A Tribute to Peter Rehberg
Cafe Oto
London
UK
www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/a-tribute-to-peter-rehberg-1/

Fri July 15
Oren Ambarchi solo
Rocca Sforzesca
Bagnari di Romagna
Italy
m.facebook.com/events/1024369808216673

Thu July 21
Oren Ambarchi & Konrad Sprenger duo
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv
Israel
levontin7.com/festival/

Fri Aug 19
Oren Ambarchi solo
Waking Life festival
Portugal
wakinglife.pt/program/

Wed Aug 24
Ghosted – Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin
Meteo Festival
Mulhouse
France
www.festival-meteo.fr/artiste/ghosted/

Thu Sept 8
Ambarchi Black Truffle DJ set
Ufurstudios
Berlin
Germany
ms-my.facebook.com/events/396351389265255/403458405221220/

Thu Sept 15
Oren Ambarchi – SHEBANG album launch
MONOM
Berlin
Germany
www.monomsound.com/events/shebangalbumreleasebyorenambarchi

Tue Oct 11
Ghosted – Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin
Unsound Festival
Krakow
Poland
www.unsound.pl/en/bubbles/artists/ghosted

Wed Oct 12
Arnold Dreyblatt Band (Dreyblatt/Ambarchi/Schütz/Sprenger)
+ crys cole
Black Truffle fest #1
Arkaoda
Berlin
Germany
berlin.arkaoda.com/

Mon Oct 24
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ crys cole solo
@ Highline Brewing
Calgary
Canada
https://www.newworkscalgary.com/crys-cole-oren-ambarchi

Sat Oct 29
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ crys cole solo
+ Seracs
@ Ace Art Inc
Winnipeg
Canada
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/crys-coleoren-ambarchiseracs-tickets-431460338487

Sat Nov 5
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ crys cole solo
@ Tranzac
Toronto
https://www.showclix.com/event/departures-ii-oren-crys

Thu Nov 10
Black Truffle festival
Oren Ambarchi presents HUBRIS
+ Bellows
+ Francis Plagne
@ Arkaoda
Berlin
Germany
http://berlin.arkaoda.com/

Sat Nov 12
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ crys cole solo
@ Enveloping Sound Concert Series
Stavanger
Norway

Sat Nov 26
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ KASSTL
Antwerp
Belgium
www.casstl.com/onresonance

Sat Dec 3
Oren Ambarchi & the Athens Symphony Orchestra present “Sous Vide”
Conducted by Ilan Volkov
Tectonics Festival
Athens
Greece
www.onassis.org/whats-on/tectonics-athens-22/tectonics-athens-22-2nd-day

Live Events Autumn/Winter 2021

Sun Sept 5
Oren Ambarchi solo
Scenasonica
Ex Covento di San Francisco
Piazza della Motta
Pordenone, Italy
https://m.facebook.com/events/518201039481397?active_tab=about

Thu Sept 9
Ever Present Orchestra play Alvin Lucier & Gavin Bryars
Ambient Festival
St Aposteln
Koln, Germany

02 – programm

Fri Sept 10
Oren Ambarchi & Marta Zapparoli in conversation
Ambient festival
Koln, Germany

02 – programm

Fri Sept 10
Ever Present Orchestra play Alvin Lucier
Ambient Festival
St Aposteln
Koln, Germany

02 – programm

Sat Sept 11
Ever Present Orchestra play Alvin Lucier
Ambient Festival
Zionskirche
Berlin, Germany

02 – programm

Sat Oct 16
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
+ Leila Bordreuil
Les Ateliers Claus
Brussels, Belgium
http://www.lesateliersclaus.com/activities/frontporch-day-2-oren-ambarchi-crys-cole-leila-bordreuil

Sun Oct 17
Weavings
Unsound festival
Teatr Laznia Nowa
Krakow
Poland
https://www.unsound.pl/en/dp-authentic/events/weavings-unsound2021

Thu Oct 21
Oren Ambarchi & Stephen O’Malley perform Lucier’s “Criss-Cross”
Sound Of Distance Festival
HKW
Berlin, Germany
https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2021/the_sound_of_distance/start.php

Sat Oct 23
Annea Lockwood’s “bayou borne (for pauline)”
Performed by crys cole, Oren Ambarchi, Werner Durand, Sam Dunscombe, Michiko Ogawa, Emilio Gordoa
Sound Of Distance Festival
HKW
Berlin, Germany
https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2021/the_sound_of_distance/start.php

Sat Nov 6
crys cole & Oren Ambarchi duo
FAQ festival
‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

New homepage

Tue Nov 9

Oren Ambarchi’s “Carpe Diem”
featuring Konrad Sprenger, Julia Reidy, Sam Dunscombe, Mike Majkowski, Samuel Rohrer
Gebaude 9
Koln, Germany
https://rausgegangen.de/events/reihem-prasentiert-oren-ambarchi-ensemble-carpe-diem-ua-jose-0/

Thu Nov 11
Oren Ambarchi solo
Le Guess Who festival
Utrecht, The Netherlands
https://www.leguesswho.nl/lineup/oren-ambarchi

Tue Nov 16
Oren Ambarchi’s “Carpe Diem”
featuring Konrad Sprenger, Julia Reidy, Sam Dunscombe, Mike Majkowski, Samuel Rohrer
KM28
Berlin, Germany
https://www.km28.de/

Wed Nov 17
Oren Ambarchi’s “Carpe Diem”
featuring Konrad Sprenger, Julia Reidy, Sam Dunscombe, Mike Majkowski, Samuel Rohrer
KM28
Berlin, Germany
https://www.km28.de/

Sat Nov 20
Charles Curtis, Stephen O’Malley & Oren Ambarchi perform Alvin Lucier’s “V” and “Criss-Cross”
Philharmonique Luxembourg, Luxembourg
https://www.philharmonie.lu/de/programm/omalley-ambarchi-curtis-performing-alvin-lucier/3537

Wed Nov 24
Gravetemple – Attila Csihar, Stephen O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi
Advanced Music Festival 2021
Bratislava, Slovakia

https://m.facebook.com/events/4590650090996952

Wed Dec 1

Oren Ambarchi / Konrad Sprenger / Phillip Sollmann
Kaserne
Basel, Switzerland

https://www.kaserne-basel.ch/de/spielplan/ambarchi_sollmann_sprenger/01-12-2021_20-00

Wed Dec 8

Charlemagne Palestine, Oren Ambarchi, Eric Thielemans trio
Vooruit
Ghent, Belgium
https://www.vooruit.be/en/agenda/2937/support_tbc/RUISKAMER_3_Trio_Thielemans_Ambarchi_Charlemagne_Palestine_Eric_Thielemans_Oren_Ambarchi/

Thu Dec 9
Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans duo
Werkplaats Walter
Brussels, Belgium
https://www.werkplaatswalter.be/news/

Sat Dec 11
Oren Ambarchi solo
Venue TBC
Poznan, Poland

Wed Dec 15
Oren Ambarchi solo
Arkaoda,
Berlin
Germany
berlin.arkaoda.com/

Live Summer 2021

Wed July 14
Ambarchi/Sollmann/Sprenger trio

Berghain
Berlin
Germany
www.berghain.berlin/en/events/72828/

Wed July 28
Ambarchi/Sollmann/Sprenger trio
OstGut streaming event
Berghain
Berlin
Germany

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hRb9Yv_VXM

Thu July 29
Oren Ambarchi, Will Guthrie, Stephen O’Malley trio

A L’arme festival
RadialSystem
Berlin
Germany
www.radialsystem.de/programme/66215/239041/?lang=en

Tue Aug 10
Oren Ambarchi /Joe Talia duo

KM28
Berlin
Germany
www.km28.de/

Sat Aug 14
crys cole / Oren Ambarchi duo
24 Jaar Ultra Eczema

De Nor
Antwerp
Belgium
denor.be/events

Live Autumn 2020

Sat Aug 28
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ TwoHappy Festival
Funkhaus
Berlin
Germany
www.facebook.com/pg/mapache-152180478156038/community/

Sun Sept 13
Gravetemple – Attila Csihar/Stephen O’Malley/Oren Ambarchi
@ Wiener Fest Wochen
Halle E im Museums Quartier
Vienna
Austria
www.festwochen.at/en/gravetemple

Thu Sept 24
Charlemagne Palestine / Oren Ambarchi / Eric Thielemans trio
@ Kanal
Brussels
Belgium
kanal.brussels/en/events/charlemagne-palestine-oren-ambarchi-eric-thielemans-0

Wed Sept 30
Charles Curtis, Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O’Malley perform Alvin Luicer
@ Le Lieu Unique
Nantes
France
www.lelieuunique.com/en/evenement/stephen-omalley-with-oren-ambarchi-and-charles-curtis/

Thu Oct 1
Charles Curtis, Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O’Malley perform Alvin Luicer
@ Festival Strasbourg
Eglise Saint-Paul
Strasbourg
France
festivalmusica.fr/manifestation/1685/deep-listening

Fri Oct 2
Mats Gustafsson / Oren Ambarchi / Eric Thielemans trio
@ Heart Of Noise festival
Innsbruck
Austria
www.heartofnoise.at/de/2020/home/

Touch: Isolation

20+ new and exclusive tracks recorded by Touch artists. A photographic counterpoint,
the view from Hampstead Heath during the London lockdown. Touch: Isolation is a subscription project that will evolve over the coming weeks. Click here to subscribe.

A time to support independent music while it still exists!

“Please keep your distance, the trail leads from here…”

The cancellation of gigs and festivals has already severely impacted our artists creatively and financially. In addition it has denied you, our audience, the opportunity to see them play and support them. The notion of ‘independent music’ might, in effect, be pushed deeper into the self-isolation mode it is already struggling to break free from. We don’t need studios to the same extent, but we do need a stage, a physical reference and if not, a mental space with which to question the drive to online existence.

We set out to respond to these challenging times in a creative and helpful way. The idea is to present Touch: Isolation whereby a new exclusive track from one of our artists, each with a bespoke photograph/cover image, is presented on a regular basis over the coming weeks. All the income received is collected from your subscriptions and put in a kitty, the proceeds of which are then divided up between the contributing artists.

These new and exclusive interventions will include works by Oren Ambarchi, Richard Chartier, ELEH, farmersmanual, Fennesz, fennesz sakamoto, Bana Haffar, Howlround, Philip Jeck, Bethan Kellough, Daniel Menche, Anthony Moore, Yann Novak, Zachary Paul, Claire M Singer, Geneva Skeen, UnicaZürn, Mark Van Hoen, CM von Hausswolff, Chris Watson, Jana Winderen and others to be confirmed – all expertly mastered by Denis Blackham.

We invite you to take this unique opportunity to support the artists, without whom there would be no alternative to corporate art… support the industries which realise the artists’ creation – the uncredited producers, designers, software developers, distributors, vinyl cutters, mastering engineers, friends and family etc., who all symbiotically depend on the other to bring their works to fruition…

———

The subscription costs £20 for 20 (or more) tracks – please support the artists by investing in the Touch: Isolation project, and expect surprises – good ones for a change.

———

Social distancing. Actual space. If you can get out, you have to get out. Escape velocity – from Brexit, then somehow prevent institutional meltdown? The UK shows the way, in a method that beggars belief.

The photographs were taken on Hampstead Heath during the early days of the UK/London lockdown, 25 March 2020, primarily in West Heath and the area around Golders Hill whose open space minimises the problems of social distancing. The weather, being superb after weeks of high winds and heavy rain, seemed a metaphor for regeneration and recovery, with the trees coming into bloom – in defiance of the scene we witnessed 33 years earlier after the Great Storm of October 1987 when, in the days that followed, the Heath looked like an arboreal graveyard.

The objective is to find a sense of quiet celebration, to look at the balance between the detail and the scaling force of open spaces. Let’s hope they can remain open.

To make 20 (or more) record covers in less than a week for sound and music we had yet to hear, and to then match the photography to each artist’s contribution… If this seems somewhat in the style of the children’s game, ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’, then perhaps that’s more apt than pretending we know how everything fits together at this juncture.

This might also be seen an opportunity to give an early documentation to the mental state of 2020, remembering the year 2000 and the threat of the ‘millennium bug’, this may well become known as the year when x melted into y, to avoid z.

Roughly a dozen years ago, life went broadband. Today we see our reliance on digital systems like never before.

———

‘As a dwindling member of the generation that lived through and served in the Second World War I think in some ways this is much worse. It was possible to live in a country area and apart from rationing see little of the war. Bombing was spasmodic and haphazard, and our defences were really good. After a year, there was very little chance of an invasion and much of life – sport, theatres and radio, continued as before. Restaurants and hotels remained largely open, rationed according to turnover.’ David John Harding, b. 1925.

Further reading:

furtherdot blog
igloo magazine
ambient blog
Broadcasting House, BBC Radio 4
Xenographica

Oren Ambarchi Live – Films by Ivan Weiss

Simian Angel Reissued by Editions Mego | November 2019

Oren Ambarchi – guitars & whatnot
Cyro Baptista – percussion & voice

Recorded by Randall Dunn, Joerg Hiller, Iuri Oriente and Oren Ambarchi.
Edited by Joerg Hiller and Oren Ambarchi at Choose Studios, Berlin.
Mixed by Joe Talia and Oren Ambarchi at Good Mixture, Tokyo.
Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.
Executive Producers: Konrad Sprenger & Dick Wolf.
Photography by Traianos Pakioufakis.
Design by Lasse Marhaug.

After a trilogy of spectacular explorations of relentlessly driving rhythms – Sagittarian Domain (2012), Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016) – Simian Angel finds Oren Ambarchi renewing his focus on his singular approach to the electric guitar, returning in part to the spacious canvases of classic releases like Grapes from the Estate while also following his muse down previously unexplored byways.

Reflecting Ambarchi’s profound love of Brazilian music – an aspect of his omnivorous musical appetite not immediately apparent in his own work until now – Simian Angel features the remarkable percussive talents of the legendary Cyro Baptista, a key part of the Downtown scene who has collaborated with everyone from John Zorn and Derek Bailey to Robert Palmer and Herbie Hancock. Like the music of Nana Vasconcelos and Airto Moreira, Simian Angel places Baptista’s dexterous and rhythmically nuanced handling of traditional Brazilian percussion instruments into an unexpected musical context. On the first side, ‘Palm Sugar Candy’, Baptista’s spare and halting rhythms wind their way through a landscape of gliding electronic tones, gently rising up and momentarily subsiding until the piece’s final minutes leave Ambarchi’s guitar unaccompanied. While the rich, swirling harmonics of Ambarchi’s guitar performance are familiar to listeners from his previous recordings, the subtly wavering, synthetic guitar tone we hear is quite new, coming across at times like an abstracted, splayed-out take on the 80s guitar-synth work of Pat Metheny or Bill Frisell. Equally new is the harmonic complexity of Ambarchi’s playing, which leaves behind the minimalist simplicity of much of his previous work for a constantly-shifting play between lush consonance and uneasy dissonance.

Beginning with a beautiful passage of unaccompanied percussion dominated by the berimbau, the side-long title piece carries on the first side’s exploration of subtle, non-linear dynamic arcs, taking the form of a gently episodic suite, in which distinctive moments, like a lyrical passage of guitar-triggered piano, unexpectedly arise from intervals of drifting tones like dream images suddenly cohering. In the piece’s second half, the piano tones becomes increasingly more clipped and synthetic, scattering themselves into aleatoric melodies that call to mind an imaginary collaboration between Albert Marcoeur and David Behrman, grounded all the while by the pulse of Baptista’s percussion. Subtle yet complex, fleeting yet emotionally affecting, Simian Angel is an essential chapter in Ambarchi’s restlessly exploratory oeuvre.

editionsmego.com/release/EMEGO-264

Oren Ambarchi’s 50th birthday and 10 years of his Black Truffle label | Café Oto May 2019

Delighted to present this special festival celebrating Oren Ambarchi’s 50th birthday and 10 years of his Black Truffle label. Spilling over three unmissable days, the festival (curated by Oren himself) features a packed international bill of special guests, projects and collaborations, all closely associated with Oren and his label.

Oren Ambarchi is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and musical polymath who has been releasing records with the frequency of someone who prefers studio time to sleep. His remarkably prolific and diverse oeuvre since the 90’s has included releases such as “Suspension” (2002), “Grapes From The Estate” (2004), “Audience Of One” & “Sagittarian Domain” (both 2012), “Quixotism” (2014) & “Hubris” (2016).

Ambarchi continues to collaborate with artists the world over and in the last few years his longform compositions have featured many friends and collaborators constituting some of his most adventurous work to date and demonstrating his slippery capacity for stylistic shapeshifting whilst retaining his singular musical language.

Black Truffle Records is an Australian-based label for experimental, improv, noise and abstract music, founded by Oren in 2009. There are around 50 releases to it’s name, featuring the likes of Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine and many more www.blacktrufflerecords.com

Oren is one the musicians we hold highly in our international community of adventurous artists, and we feel privileged to host this unmissable festival.

cafeoto.co.uk/events/oren-ambarchi-50-black-truffle-10-festival/

FOLIO 002 | Various Artists/Jon Wozencroft – “Touch Movements”

76pp full colour book + CD
33 tracks – 78:59
Limited edition of 1000

Release date: 11th December 2017

Track listing:

Into the Open
Mika Vainio – Behind the Radiators
AER – Just Before Dawn
Bethan Kellough – Twelve
Wire – A Year A Second [For BCG]
London in a Week
Carl Michael Von Hausswolff – Sine Missing One
Chris Watson – Deepcar
Jana Winderen – Bronx Tunnel
The Magical Land of the North
Claire M Singer – Storr
Hildur Gudnadottir – Death 200AD
Three 20 – Four Twelve
Philip Jeck – Deed of Gift
Walking on Water
Simon Scott – Storm of the Fens
Eleh – Overt One
The Love Train
Russell Haswell – Demons
Heitor Alvelos – Expectant
I’m a Schoolteacher on Holiday
Johann Johannsson – Mingyun
Mark Van Hoen – Prescient
Fennesz – Paint It Black (remastered)
Sohrab – JV Dream
It’s Enough to Make You Weep
Strafe FR – Virgin
Before The Sea @ Falasarna
Jim O’Rourke – Despite The Water Supply
Situation Stabilised / BJ Nilsen – Atom Mother
Peter Rehberg – Cinecom
Gateway to the Garden
Oren Ambarchi – Testify
The Sound of Eleven

In a 24/7 world there is no greater challenge than “to be in command of one’s own time”. Is it true that the ability to download anything, at any moment, constitutes freedom? Has the ‘value’ of music, art and design been stripped bare? “I Google, therefore I am”…

Touch MOVEMENTS has been compiled over the course of 3 years. It is a response to many requests for Touch to publish a fuller account of Jon Wozencroft’s photography for the cover art of the project. The book follows the music, which was compiled step-by-step, like a jigsaw – there was not an “open call” to the artists, rather a sequential development which gives the CD a special narrative quality. And since our last Touch 30 compilation in 2012, the accuracy of the music has grown and rises to the challenge of what sound can do to transform perceptions about the immediate emotion of musical work and its more difficult, longer term evolution.

Following Touch Folio 001 in 2015, this series is a dedication to finding new ways of audiovisual publishing, somewhere between the twin peaks of a jewel-cased CD and a lavish box-set. The two elements of sound and the visual work in parallel to create the idea of an “Ear-book”, whose interdependency reveals itself over time, and allows the richest of listening and viewing experiences. The music and the photography is fully annotated, alongside a rarely-seen manifesto by the Surrealist film-maker Jan Švankmajer which celebrates the spirit of the creative act.

Order FOLIO 002 | Various Artists/Jon Wozencroft – “Touch Movements” [76pp Book + CD] in the TouchShop

Interview with 5049 Records

Based in Sydney, Australia, Oren Ambarchi is a gifted composer, multi-instrumentalist and improviser who has been traveling the world, crafting a most singular musical vision for the past twenty five years. He’s also an enthusiastic listener and avid record collector, a gourmand and happens to be one of my favorite musicians around. On a quick visit to New York for performances with Alvin Lucier and Loren Connors, Oren dropped by for a candid conversation about his early days as an Hasidic student in NYC, record collecting, learning to play guitar, running his own record label and a whole lot more. I love Oren’s music deeply and am delighted conversation got to happen. After our talk, Oren and I headed over to Russ & Daughters Cafe and gorged on smoked fish and chopped liver.

www.5049records.com/podcast/oren-ambarchi

CRYS COLE & OREN AMBARCHI – “HOTEL RECORD”

Black Truffle BT029

Hotel Record is the second release from the duo/couple of crys cole and Oren Ambarchi, following on from Sonja Henies vei 31 (PLANAM 031LP, 2014). Where their debut recording presented a disquieting portrait of the erotic dimension of romantic intimacy, the follow-up continues to explore the pair’s simultaneously musical and romantic relationship in a more subtle fashion, presenting four long-form pieces that touch on the variety of forms the life of this couple takes: as a musical duo, as a pair of travelers to exotic locations, as opponents in a game of cards… Each of the double LP’s four sides presents a distinct sound-world, yet each manages to attain the same suspended, half-sleeping feeling, outlining a space where improbable combinations of the electronic and the acoustic, of extreme closeness and amorphous distance, occurring with the gentle insistence of a dream.

The opening “Call Myself” calmly unfolds a fabric of long tones from electronic organ and guitar, combining the sliding, aleatoric effects of classic David Behrman with a more hands-on feel. Over the top of this slowly shifting tonal bed, cole’s voice mutters unintelligibly into a Buchla synth, teasing the listener by suggesting a meaning that remains always out of the ear’s reach. “Francis Debacle (Uno)” builds on the foundations of a heavily amplified session of the titular card game, overlaying vocal murmurs and exhalations and mysterious room-sounds to create an impossible aural environment. On “Burrata”, a palette of vintage 1980s digital synthesizer sounds combined with guitars create an irregular texture of lush chords and bubbling melodic details, into which cole’s voice processed by a vocoder, is interwoven, reading fragments of romantic correspondence. Finally, on “Pad Phet Gob”, field recordings made in Thailand become an ambiguously acoustic/electronic rainforest, eventually giving way to a mysterious, wavering electronic tone-field punctuated by sibilant, popping mouth-sounds.

Carving out an intimate and human sonic space across a diverse array of compositional approaches, sound sources, fidelities, and textures, Hotel Record is the latest dispatch from the continuing explorations of a unique duo. Ambarchi and cole reimagine electro-acoustic music, not simply as “abstract” sound, but as a diary, a love poem, a dream.

Comes in deluxe gatefold sleeve with photography by crys cole and LP design via Stephen O’Malley; Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.

from SoundOhm, Italy:

For many, the geography defying partnership of crys cole and Oren Ambarchi is the likely source of envy and awe – a creatively rigorous adventure in sound, egged forward by the romance they share. Ambarchi needs little introduction. Over the last 20 years, he has risen as a leading light of experimental and electroacoustic practice, as recognised for his collaborations with Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Sunn O))), Keith Rowe, Fire!, John Tilburyand countless others, as he is for his solo work. Cole, an artist focused on the constrained limits of sonic possibility, bridging gallery and musical contexts, has increasingly caught the attention of the international experimental music community over the last decade, running a parallel course in her dedication to collaborative and solo work. Following Sonja Henies vei 31, their debut from 2014, an album as much as an abstract diary centred around the “erotic dimension of romantic intimacy”, the duo is back with the stunning LP Hotel Record, continuing the exploration of their musical and romantic relationship, marked by the subtlety of investigation which has defined both of their careers.

Experimental musics tend to be consciously resistant to explicit narrative or location. When attempted, it is rarely done well, or retains the openness which make these territories so striking. These elements might be understood as experimental sound’s the most challenging and under-explored trajectories. They are the conceptual architectures of Hotel Record, and the root of its overwhelming success. Each of its four sides offers a distinct sound-world – subjective renderings of time, space, and geography through the lens of interplay, creative and romantic – locations in the hazy, amorphous expanse of the album’s whole. A world of introspection and cohesive diversity, modeled by the experiences of two constant travelers, forced to see themselves, each other, and their relationship, evolving against a shifting landscape.

Built from improbable combinations of the electronic and acoustic – sonic demarcations of time, place, and emotion, Hotel Record transcends any reductive idea of music. Through synthesis, electronics, field recording, acoustic instrumentation and voice, it is an installment in the duo’s aural diary. A sonic rendering of the transmogrification of self, falling within the undefinable realm between sound-art and and the outer boundaries of how musicality is understood. A rippling, profoundly intimate construction of texture and tone, so beautiful, surprising, and filled with humanity, that it overwhelms the ear. Out via Black Truffle, through Hotel Record , cole and Ambarchi show us what great art is all about – an opening of self, rigor of ideas, and adventure which never ends. An album which will send you excitedly flipping through its four sides for years to come. Not to be missed by any count.

OREN AMBARCHI – “HUBRIS”

eMEGO227

Hubris Parts 1-3
LP, CD & Digital
Release date: 11th November 2016
Label: Editions Mego

Players:
Oren Ambarchi, Crys Cole, Mark Fell, Will Guthrie, Arto Lindsay, Jim O’Rourke, Konrad Sprenger, Joe Talia, Ricardo Villalobos, Keith Fullerton Whitman

Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin, April 2016

Photography by Estelle Hanania
Sculptures by Daniel Druet
Design by Stephen O’Malley

Hubris continues the exploration of relentless, driving rhythms heard on Ambarchi’s Sagittarian Domain (2012) and Quixotism (2014). Where those records looked to Krautrock and techno for their starting points, the sidelong opening track here begins from the perhaps unlikely inspirations of disco and new wave, drawing particularly from Ambarchi’s love of Wang Chung’s soundtrack to William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. Leaving behind the song-forms of these reference points, Ambarchi weaves a sustained and pulsating web of layered palm-muted guitars from which individual voices rise up and recede, eventually setting the stage for some lush guitar synth from Jim O’Rourke. Arnold Dreyblatt collaborator Konrad Sprenger contributes overtone-rich motorized guitar, pushing the piece into a satisfying intersection of shimmering minimalism and rhythmic drive that smoothly builds up until the entrance of Mark Fell’s electronic percussion in its final section.

After a short second part, in which Ambarchi, O’Rourke and Crys Cole pay tribute to the skewed harmonic sense of Albert Marcoeur with a track built from layered bass guitar figures and abstracted speech, the long final piece pushes the concept of the first side into darker and denser areas. Joined by electronic rhythms from Ricardo Villalobos and the twin drums of Joe Talia and Will Guthrie, the layered guitars of the first piece are transformed into a raw and tumbling fusion-funk groove that calls to mind early Weather Report or even the first Golden Palominos LP. As this stellar rhythm section rides a single repeated chord change into oblivion, a series of spectacular events emerge in the foreground: first, aleatoric synthesizer burbles from Keith Fullerton Whitman, then slashing skronk guitar from Arto Lindsay, until finally Ambarchi’s own fuzzed-out guitar harmonics take center stage as the piece builds to an ecstatic frenzy. Few artists could hope to include such an incredible variety of collaborators on one record and still hope for it to have a unique identity, but Ambarchi manages to do just that, crafting three pieces that emerge directly out of his previous work while also pushing ahead into new dimensions.
[Francis Plagne]

editionsmego.com/release/EMEGO-227

Black Truffle releases LP by 3/4HadBeenEliminated

3quarters1

Tracklisting:

1. Nekyia
2. I Am A Prune Cake On A Background Of Corn Semolina

The experimental Italian quartet will to release two-track LP on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle label.

Earlier this year when our Ian Maleney met with Oren Ambarchi in a Dublin pub before the Australian was due to play its small basement, he imparted of his label, “not many people know about a lot of the artists there but I believe the level is extremely high,” before suggesting 2016 was to present a wave of new music. As we enter August, Black Truffle this year has released long players from Charlemagne Palestine, free improve ensemble AMM and Ambarchi’s Pale Calling LP made with Kassel Jaeger and James Rushford. While most recently, Keiji Haino and Jim O’Rourke reconnected with Oren Ambarchi to release another collaborative album entitled I Wonder If You Noticed ”I’m Sorry” Is Such A Lovely Sound It Keeps Things From Getting Worse which follows several a series or irregular long-winded titles translated from Japanese.

Now invited into the Black Truffle stable is 3/4HadBeenEliminated, a trio-turned-quartet since drummer Tony Arrabito was invited to join Claudio Rocchetti, Stefano Pilia and PAN affiliate Valerio Tricoli’s improvisational trinity. Their forthcoming two-track Speak To Me LP presents the group with its sixth album, with Ambarchi and 3/4HadBeenEliminated crossing paths in the past by their involvement with Swedish label Häpna. Said to be recorded in Bologna and Berlin over several years, the album was made using “source material for compositions built up through layering, editing and analog manipulation,” which the label has aligned with the music Teo Macero, Faust and This Heat. Black Truffle further describe Speak To Me as melancholic instrumental ruminations that “sit alongside cracked electronics, concrete sounds and Tricoli’s whispered vocals, drawn together into dense assemblages animated by gradual transformations and sudden jump cuts.”

Secret Thirteen mix

The author of the mix is Oren Ambarchi (b. 1969), an Australian electronic guitarist and percussionist who now lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Ambarchi has been performing live since 1986. Oren Ambarchi’s works are hesitant, tense and extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing, laminal improvisation and minimalism, hushed, pensive songwriting, the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier, and the physicality of slowed down and stripped to its bare bones rock music, abstracted and replaced with pure signal.
http://secretthirteen.org/secret-thirteen-mix-081-oren-ambarchi/

BBC Radio 3 | Criss Cross

Hear and Now – Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley perform Criss Cross by Alvin Lucier