Oren Ambarchi
Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK)
Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK)
Member of: Menstruation Sisters, Nazoranai
'MA' LP
Reissue of their legendary first LP, released originally in an edition of 100 in Australia only. Total rock-noise-guitar-percussion-vocal madness that destroys any ideas of what sound and structure should or shouldn't be. Best band ever? Limited to 500 copies.
Treatise
Rare original edition, a few back in stock. ** 300 copies ** Cornelius Cardew's opus magnus Treatise is a 193 page graphic score written between 1963 and 1967 while he was performing with the improvisation group AMM. The score's graphic notation, with its intricately devised graphic lines, shapes and symbols was intended to question the limits of compositional practice. Decisions concerning pitch, timbre and duration, along with the choice of instruments and the number of performers, are left en…
Should Sisters Suck?
i don't know a rabi that yells as high pitched and psycho then nik rizili! and i don't know another guitarist besides oren ambarchi that can make strings sound like yiddish yelling! they do sound like ladies that have their period non stop, since 5 years! and they do sound like they are 456 km away from the hospital while the head of a baby is forcing it's way out of a mangina. so much stress, and strings so loose on a guitar that u can put both your legs and your two arms between the strings an…
Samantha (My Wack Panther)
Menstruation Sisters hail from Sydney, Australia. Basically a duo comprised of wildboy poet ululationist and guitar strangler Nick Kamiussis (aka Rizili aka Riz) and OZ wonderkid Oren Ambarchi (Sunn 0))), Burial Chamber, Grave Temple, John Zorn etc etc), and sometimes aided by Brendan Walls and others. Their first LP, Ma, was in an edition of 100 copies, all of which had razor blades, balloons and hypodermic needles applied to one side. As an objet d'art it became a highly desirable item for noi…
Persona
Originally released in 2000 as a limited vinyl only album, 'Persona' is now available on CD for the first time. Persona' was recorded in February 2000, just a week after the 'Afternoon Tea' collaboration with Fennesz, Pimmon, Pita and Keith Rowe. Utilizing a raw and spontaneous approach like the 'Stacte' series of solo releases, Ambarchi recorded the pieces on 'Persona' at home in a day, only using his guitar, a handful of effect pedals and a boombox as a monitor (!). Considered to be a 'sister'…
Stacte.3
Originally released in 2000 as a limited vinyl only album (on Plate Lunch), 'Stacte.3' is now available on CD for the first time. Described by Wire scribe Jon Dale as Alvin Lucier and Cluster collaborating for Mego, the concept of Oren Ambarchi's 'Stacte' LP series - now comprising of five volumes - began in 1998. The first few 'Stacte' LPs were self-released by Ambarchi and featured his earliest explorations of the guitar and its sonic possibilities after a period known as a drummer in post-pun…
In The Pendulum's Embrace
Oren Ambarchi continues his otherworldly investigations with 'In The Pendulum's Embrace', a dark twin to his landmark 2004 album 'Grapes From The Estate' [Touch # TO:61]. Returning again to the hallowed halls of BJB Studios in Sydney, Ambarchi expands the scope and range of his unique musical language, incorporating an even broader pallette of instrumentsand sensibilities. Despite the use of glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, percussion and guitars, it's startling that the world created is …
A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks
Another ridiculously limited LPs from Table of the Elements celebrating not only their 15th anniversary but also the humble guitar itself. This time we have a one sided, etched blue slab of wax from the unshakable Oren Ambarchi, a man whose name has become synonymous with quality electronic production. In recent years he has been seen next to Stephen O'Malley and the Southern Lord lot, but here we find him back to doing what he does so well - a gorgeous long-form guitar drone piece taking in all…
Destinationless Desire
Oren Ambarchi presents Destinationless Desire: electric guitars, organ, samples, bells, percussion and motorized cymbals recorded at BJB Studios, Sydney with additional overdubs made at home in 2005-2007. Gratitude to Fairport Convention and Boris D Hegenbart.
Worried Friends b/w Nervous Enemies
Released autumn 2007. 300 copies (first edition), 200 copies (second edition). Piano music by Ambarchi and Marhaug. Recorded Oslo november 2006. Reviews: October 2007 release; a pair of 'piano music' pieces, acting as the debut collaborative single from two of contemporary experimental music's most prolific/consistently rewarding practitioners; oren ambarchi and lasse marhaug... those of you expecting something on par with maurizio pollini's reading of satie's gnossiennes might be a little shock…
Variable Resistance (Ten Hours Of Sound From Australia)
An exhibition companion compilation for the exhibit of the same name at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art held September 7-17, 2002. Packaged in a standard jewel case with an O-card and a 24-page booklet.
s/t
Textile is proud to announce the fourth installment in its split 12" series, oren ambarchi / hado ho. oren ambarchi is an electronic guitarist and percussionist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. Born in sydney in 1969, he has been performing live since 1986. his recent solo releases triste (southern lord - usa), and grape from the estate (touch uk) have transcended the guitar into a zone of alien beauty and sonic impossibilities to critical acclaim…
Clockwork
Its initial release - an edition of 100 3CD-Rs on Ambarchi's Jerker Productions label back in 1999 - let it slide by just enough aesthetic radars to register among cognoscenti. Coupled with Ambarchi's solo work from the era, the recording marked a shift from the gonzo-rock of the duo's previous band, Phlegm. Things happen throughout Clockwork that had never really happened before. Recorded in front of a live audience for that 'what we did on our holidays' feel, Avenaim and Ambarchi unravel their…
Squire
Oren Ambarchi (el.guitar) & Keith Rowe (tabletop el.guitar). 'Archival recording of this duo's opening set, recorded live at The Loft in Cologne on March 3, 2002. Lovingly recorded with attention to detail, this release beautifully captures the two guitarists creating their own sonic universe in real-time. Gorgeous audial density to utterly submerge yourself in.
My days are darker than your nights
“Pure drone bliss on offer here from the prolific Australian guitar experimentalist Oren Ambarchi (whom you may already know) and Swedish musician Johan Berthling (a less familiar name -- he's brother to Andreas Berthling,and with him a member of the field recordings group Tape, who are also to be found on Hapna). These two got together in a studio in Stockholm last year with the intent to drone, and drone they did, Ambarchi on electric guitar and Berthling playing the harmonium. They recorded w…
Oystered
Released in DVD case size super jewel box.
Structures with monochromes on reports of the Golden Number 1,618033989.
Recorded July 23, 2002 at Big Jesus Burger, Sydney.Mixed and mastered October/November 2002.
Stacte motors
These pieces continue the Stacte series started in 1998 with ambarchi's first self-released solo recordings. Similar to the 4 previous editions of the series, which explored one idea at length, Stacte Motors is an experiment in exciting instruments with a spinning motor with strings attached. The resulting recordings are metallic walls of minimalist drones, both fearless and dreamy. Produced and recorded at BJB studios in Australia, these one-take acoustic recordings have a very tactile and phys…
Grapes from the estate
Oren Ambarchi acts as a good antithesis to that other great Touch luminary - Fennesz.Both artists use the guitar as a starting point for minimalist discovery and post-abstract innovation, though where Fennesz relies heavily on distortion and catharsis, Ambarchi's focus is on a much more refined, clean building of layers and delicate augmentations. For his third outing on Touch, Ambarchi's immense achievement is through his sense of timing, pace and definition - slowly building pieces up to warm,…
Suspension
Oren Ambarchi acts as a good antithesis to that other great Touch luminary - Fennesz.Both artists use the guitar as a starting point for minimalist discovery and post-abstract innovation, though where Fennesz relies heavily on distortion and catharsis, Ambarchi's focus is on a much more refined, clean building of layers and delicate augmentations. For his third outing on Touch, Ambarchi's immense achievement is through his sense of timing, pace and definition - slowly building pieces up to warm,…
Triste
The recordings of Triste were previously available on limited edition LP (Idea label). This Southern Lord release combines the original LP recordings + some remix collaborations by Tom Recchion. It is available here for the first time in compact disc format. The Triste material is reminiscent of his work on Grapes from the Estate. Oren has transformed the guitar sound/tone into a dark, tonally extreme, percussive instrument. Imagine stripping Sunn0))), or Earth of all its distortion and layers, …