Upcoming Shows | May 2012
Thu May 10
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Aurora New Music Festival
Western Sydney
Australia
www.auroranewmusic.com.au
Sun May 13
Oren Ambarchi/Merzbow duo
@ Aurora New Music Festival
Western Sydney
Australia
www.auroranewmusic.com.au
Upcoming Shows | April 2012
Sun April 1st
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Présences électronique 2012
104 / Cent Quatre
104 rue d'Aubervilliers / 5 rue Curial
75019 Paris
France
http://www.104.fr/
Mon April 2nd
Touch.30
Oren Ambarchi solo
BJNilsen
Daniel Menche
@ Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin Street
London E8 3DL
UK
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/
Tue April 3rd
Charlemagne Palestine & Oren Ambarchi duo
@ Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin Street
London E8 3DL
UK
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/
Wed April 4th
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ Goran Kajfes Subtropic Arkestra
@ Hornstull Strand Etablissement
Hornstulls Strand 4
117 39 Stockholm
Sweden
http://hornstullstrand.se/
Thu April 5th
Afternoon Tea - Ambarchi/Fennesz/Pimmon/Pita/Rowe
@ HAU 2
Berlin
Germany
http://www.ctm-festival.de/ctm-concerts/upcoming-shows/ctm-concerts/article//afternoon-tea-12th-anniversary-reunion-concert.html
Tectonics Music Festival | Iceland 2012
Photo: Kristian Ross
THURSDAY - MARCH 1st
JOHN CAGE PORTRAIT
21:00 ELDBORG MAIN HALL
New work for electric guitar and orchestra
Oren Ambarchi, electric guitar
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Ilan Volkov
Upcoming Shows | March 2012
Thu March 1
Oren Ambarchi in collaboration with Icelandic Symphony Orchestra
'New work for electric guitar and orchestra'
(Ilan Volkov - Conductor)
@ Tectonics Festival
Harpa Concert Hall
Austurbakki 2
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
http://www.tectonicsfestival.com/
Thu Mar 1
Oren Ambarchi, Frank Denyer, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Maya Dunietz, Davíð Þór Jónsson
perform John Cage - "FIVE" + Christian Wolff - "For Five Or Ten People"
@ Tectonics Festival
Norðurljós Recital Hall
Reykjavík
Iceland
http://www.tectonicsfestival.com/
Sat Mar 3
John Tilbury & Oren Ambarchi duo
@ Tectonics Festival
Harpa Concert Hall
Austurbakki 2
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
http://www.tectonicsfestival.com/
KISS KISS
The Outer Church (blog):
When someone tweeted earlier today that Oren Ambarchi had covered Ace Frehley's instrumental 'Fractured Mirror' - the closing track from his magnificent 1978 debut solo album - I had to investigate. I'm happy to confirm that Ambarchi's version is every bit as good as I'd hoped, retaining the bittersweet beauty of the original while making a case for its validity as work of non-canonical minimalism. 'Fractured Mirror' is a special track for me, for reasons I find very interesting and rather unusual. Thing is, the track reminds me of a very specific time in my life - in fact a very specific moment. So far, so nostalgic. But what I find curious is that at that particular point in time, I had not heard this piece of music. It took about a decade for me to discover that Frehley had recorded a composition that reached forward in time to that moment, distilled its essence with pinpoint accuracy, then lay in wait for me to stumble across it and find myself involuntarily transported back to that moment. Suffice to say, this raises some interesting questions concerning the less-than-straightforward relationship between music and nostalgia.
New Publicity Shot by David Gallagher
(A hi-res version can be downloaded here)
TO:83 | Oren Ambarchi "Audience of One"
CD - 4 tracks - 53:51
Artwork & photography: Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Francois Tetaz at Moose, Melbourne
Order in the TouchShop - this item will be shipped the week beginning January 30th 2012
Track listing:
1. Salt - 5:30
2. Knots - 33:23
3. Passage - 6:41
4. Fractured Mirror - 8:20
On "Audience of One", Oren Ambarchi presents a four-part suite which moves from throbbing minimalism to expansive song-craft to ecstatic free-rock. His previous solo albums for Touch exhibited a clear progression towards augmenting and embellishing his signature bass-heavy guitar tones with fragile acoustic instrumentation. Audience of One, while also existing in clear continuity with these recordings, opens the next chapter.
Remarkable in its confidence and breadth, but also in the sensuous immediacy of its details, this is the first time a single record has come close to encapsulating Ambarchi’s musical personality in its full range and singularity. The techniques and strategies developed in his refined improvisational work with Keith Rowe and his explorations of the outer limits of rock with Sunn O))) and Keiji Haino are both in evidence, alongside the meticulous attention to detail and composition of his solo works. And on the cover of Ace Frehley’s ‘Fractured Mirror’ which closes the record, Ambarchi even points to his roots as a classic rock fanatic, in an epic yet faithful version which extends the shimmering guitar patters of the original into a rich field of phase patters reminiscent of the classic American minimalism of Reich and Riley.
The album features a multitude of collaborators, who, far from appearing in incidental roles, are integral to the pieces on which they perform: on ‘Salt’, Ambarchi paints a hypnotic, chiming backdrop for Paul Duncan’s (Warm Ghost) vocals, and Joe Talia’s virtuoso drumming and driving cymbals are at the core of the epic ‘Knots’, in which Ambarchi, alongside a chamber arrangement by Eyvind Kang, weaves a net of frequencies and textures with the organic push and pull of a 70s psych jam, the bass response of a doom metal ritual and the psycho-acoustic precision of an Alvin Lucier composition.
On his previous records, Ambarchi’s signature guitar tone was the ever-present bedrock over which other elements sounded. At moments on Audience of One, this disappears entirely, as on the beautiful ‘Passage’, which, recalling the 70’s Italian non-academic minimalism of Roberto Cacciapaglia and Giusto Pio, is composed of overlapping tones from Hammond organ and wine glasses, Jessika Kenney's voice, various acoustic instruments, and the delicate amplified textures of Canadian sound-artist Crys Cole. Rather than being provided by any particular sound, the unified feel of Audience to One stems simply from the unique, patient sensibility Ambarchi has developed over the last twenty years; abstracting musical forms into their barest forms, while somehow always managing to leave their emotive power intact. [Francis Plagne]
Buy Oren Ambarchi "Audience of One" [CD] in the TouchShop
www.orenambarchi.com
Upcoming Shows | Winter 2011-12
Thu Dec 8
Oren Ambarchi & Joe Talia duo
+ Golden Fur, Marco Fusinato, Sean Baxter
@ What Is Music?
East Brunswick Club
280 Lygon Street
Brunswick East, Melbourne 3057
Australia
http://eastbrunswickclub.com/
Wed Dec 14
Oren Ambarchi & Joe Talia duo
+ Botborg, Cat Hope, Amanda Stewart & more
@ Now Now 2012 Festival Launch
The Red Rattler Theatre
6 Faversham St.
Marrickville
Sydney
Australia
http://redrattler.org/event/379/The+NOW+now+2012+Festival+Program+Launch
2012
Thu Jan 19
Keiji Haino/Jim O'Rourke/Oren Ambarchi +
Charlemagne Palestine
@ The Playhouse
Kitakyushu Performing Arts Centre
River Walk
6F Kitakyushu
Japan
http://www.cca-kitakyushu.org/english/events/index.shtml
Sun Jan 22
Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi duo
+ Crys Cole
@ Urban Guild
3F Le New Kyoto Building,
Kiyamachi, Sanjo-sagaru, Nakagyo-ku,
Kyoto
Japan
http://www.urbanguild.net/
Thu Jan 26
Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi duo
@ SuperDeluxe
3-1-25 NishiAzabu B1F
Minato-ku,
Tokyo
Japan
http://www.super-deluxe.com/
Mon Jan 30
Haino Keiji/Jim O'Rourke/Oren Ambarchi trio
@ SuperDeluxe
3-1-25 NishiAzabu B1F
Minato-ku,
Tokyo
Japan
http://www.super-deluxe.com/
Thu Feb 16
Oren Ambarchi and James Rushford's "Wreckage"
+ Alvin Lucier's "Still Lives"
@ Melbourne Recital Centre,
31 Sturt Street,
Southbank
Melbourne
Australia
http://www.melbournerecital.com.au/whatson/buytix?perfid=3672
Interview in Musique Machine
You can read an interview with Oren Ambarchi by Russell Cuzner here
Upcoming Shows | Autumn 2011
Sun Oct 23
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
+ Tony Conrad, Cut Hands, Mike Watt & more
@ Supersonic Festival
Custard Factory
Birmingham
UK
http://www.supersonicfestival.com/
Mon Oct 24
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
@ CCA 5
Glasgow
Scotland
UK
http://www.cca-glasgow.com/home
Tue Oct 25
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
+ John Wall & Mark Durgan
@ Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol
UK
http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/music/
Wed Oct 26
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
@ The Vortex
11 Gillett Sqaure
London
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/
Thu Oct 27
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
@ The Vortex
11 Gillett Sqaure
London
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/
Sat Oct 29
Fire! with Oren Ambarchi
@ Soy Festival
Château des Ducs de Bretagne - Grande Salle du Harnachement
Nantes
France
http://www.myspace.com/festivalsoy
Sun Oct 30
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Soy Festival
Maison des Compagnons du Devoir - 48 quai Malakoff
Nantes
France
http://www.myspace.com/festivalsoy
Tue Nov 1
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ Alan Licht
@ Batofar
Paris
France
http://www.batofar.org/
Wed Nov 2
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Sonic Lyon
4 quai des Etroits
Lyon
France
http://www.myspace.com/events/View/11553105/Sonic-Lyon/
Sat Nov 5
Oren Ambarchi solo
+ The Necks
@ Kino Siska
Trg prekomorskih brigad 3
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
http://www.kinosiska.si/
Sun Nov 6
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Jubez
Kronenplatz 1
76133 Karlsruhe
Germany
http://www.jubez.de/
Mon Nov 7
Keiji Haino/Stephen O'Malley/Oren Ambarchi trio
@ Hebbel am Ufer
Hallesches Ufer 32
10963 Berlin
Germany
http://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/
Tue Nov 8
Keiji Haino/Stephen O'Malley/Oren Ambarchi trio
+ Lasse Marhaug
@ La Gaite Lyrique
3bis rue Papin
75003 Paris
France
http://www.gaite-lyrique.net/
Sat Nov 12
Oren Ambarchi solo
@ Jolt Festival
Gare du Nord
Schwarzwaldallee 200
4058 Basel
Switzerland
http://www.garedunord.ch/