S/D: Oren Ambarchi (and projects)

john dale: "...Ma is a classic of unexpurgated all-out spastic sound-flail - an Australian equivalent to the wildness of Harry Pussy or Green Monkey"

D: Sun unremixed, Menstruation Sisters - how can anyone consider this anything but shit?, all Phlegm, the disc on Häpna with Andreas Berthling (possibly the most boring recording ever made)

a refined palate? a lack of common sense? i love it.

i want to hear this clockwork disc. where can i find it jwd?

i'll add Oren's solo Mort aux Vaches ("Song of Separation") to my C:s, just because it's a lot more enjoyable on disc than it was live.

wow he is great.

'highway of diamonds' minus the last minute or so is a keeper. i've been mixing it into other tracks and it works really well.

he also has the bestest set of myspace affilates i've ever seen. i wish they were my friends.

grapes from the estate is really great.

New one is good

agree

yeah its excellent

is this the one with Thomas Brinkmann?

no 'audience of one' on touch

Ah, okay. I passed up buying Triste yesterday is that good? I love Brinkmann so I'm thinking about that one. Is 'Audience of One' quite droney?

i wouldnt say so, no. large parts of it are on youtube if youre curious

Triste is good, droney and monolithic. Audience of One takes some risks with his sound and i think pulls it off.

'audience of one' is so so good. i think i need it and fennesz black sea on vinyl.

i agree! about audience of one. love it. got the double vinyl in the mail the other day. i don't always love all his stuff. sometimes i just you know "respect" it or whatever. also got the power trio live thing in the mail with him on drums and o'malley sunnn((((((000000000000 guy on bass and haino on guitar. its okay. mostly for haino guitar solos.

i always catch myself wondering why i don't order from forced exposure like all the time when i browse their site. they're so reasonable! but reasonable is the same as expensive if you're broke. i should uh plan ahead, like budget that shit out. they still have all the soundways lps in stock. *SIGH*

I gather Audience of One is a departure from the pure-tone processed guitar stuff?

I'm just starting to get into last year's Imikuzushi with OA on drums, Haino on guitar, and Jim O'Rourke on bass.

audience of one is a mix of sounds/styles. this is one of the more beautiful things i've heard in a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUa-lVFJlR0

it reminds me of BPB's 'careless love'.. just slightly. agreed it's nice

Audience of One may be the best thing he's done!

I just listened to this today: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17974-oren-ambarchi-keiji-haino-jim-orourke-now-while-its-still-warm-let-us-pour-in-all-the-mystery/

I think it's mostly great, much better imo than Imikuzushi, although maybe I'm something of a conservative/traditionalist for thinking so. I finally feel like their collaboration lives up to their combined talents. Their ideas are cohering into more clearly structured pieces, sometimes even songs with (really good) hooks and bass riffs and grooves. I love Haino's voice.

Btw, what's up with Pitchfork's numerical ratings. I don't think there's a critical word in that review, yet the album only gets a 7.7.

keep perspective, mane; one of the foremost experimental rock combos doesn't merit BNM, what would that do for the brand? :P

they kinda have a hierarchy / capping system in effect for genre work i think, sund4r

album sounds amazing though

(as in it sounds like it would be amazing, not that I've actually heard it)

The 30 minute track on Audience of One reminds me a lot of Supersilent. I'm having trouble finding more messy jazz like this. Are there any other bands I can try?

might suggest burning star core, graveyards, close erase, humcrush, the "object" series records on locust records, selected circle records (infektio, arkades, tower), various rune grammofon releases, both the giovanni domenico/arve henriksen/tatsuhisa yamamoto releases, organum & eddie prevost "flayed", ashtray navigations, alice coltrane's "universal consciousness", the dead c. depends on whether you're after excoriant bedsit 4-track variants or the po-faced scandi fusion type, or the OG impulse records / miles "black beauty live @ fillmore west" / weather report "live in tokyo" varieties.

Not sure what "excoriant bedsit" means, but i think it's more the scandi fusion type I am after.

Thanks for the recommendations. I will check these out.

seemingly i've lost my disc of "suspension". just have an empty cover here. could somebody please tell me what the picture is on the backface of the disc so i know what i'm looking for? (brain says red /orange apples, like the cover, but that seems too easy an answer somehow)

New album Quixotism is very good. Strings, tablas, drummachine, small rhythmic differences. I like it.

i still haven't found my disc of "suspension".
i think i gone done put it in the wrong box.
i'd be obliged if one of y'all generous folks could pop it out & be so kind as to tell me what the picture on the disc is.
it'd be mighty helpful to an old duffer !

Listening to Quixoticism for the first time. Gets off to a slow start (or maybe I was just feeling impatient) but really settles into something nice.

Er, Quixotism.

The new Nazoranai lp is another brilliant release, they have been on fire this year.

Yeah, that Nazorani is wonderful. I finally heard the Haino/O'Rourke/Ambarchi from earlier this year, Only Wanting to Melt Beautifully... and thought it was a little bit of a letdown by comparison (and compared to some of other recent ones from that trio).

Nice. Didn't know about this one.

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS558467-01A-BIG.jpg

this new one with Haino and O'Rourke is good

well the first track on Hubris has some lovely Future Days qualities to it.

The whole album is good, really.

absolutely, only just got to the awesome 3rd track.

album rules

I love how it in album cover, name and song titles seem like a followup to Quixotism. For a musician that does a shitload of projects, he is really good at making them seem as if they make sense.

thanks for the heads up, this new one sounds awesome.

wow, hubris pt. 3 totally just blew me away. can anyone recommend something similar, by ambarchi or others?

i wish i could - it's really, really good

i am not very familiar with his work, but i've been giving myself a crash course because i'm going to see him play next weekend (https://lampo.org/archive/oren-ambarchi-2018/)

new, in a not dissimilar vein

https://a-ton.bandcamp.com/album/panama-suez

ooh, thanks for that.
i'm excited to explore his discography because he seems to be a hub that connects to so many different kinds of musicians and kinds of music, not unlike brian eno.

The Just Reproach, with John Tilbury, is one of my favorite recordings (of either artist)

everything Oren releases is fucking dope

only just now listening for real… i didn't expect 'suez' would be so… wiggly

Where I first encountered him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNXT_SfkLp4

i don't know what it was but my first taste of this guy a decade back (?) really rubbed me the wrong way so i thought he was not my thing when actually he was exactly my thing, live and learn

Gee, I was completely oblivious to Set. Wonder if many other episodes are online... (XP)

https://editionsmego.bandcamp.com/album/hence

+ jim o'rourke, from november

http://editionsmego.com/release/EMEGO-264

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.

His new album is very good (as usual).

Simian Angel? that's the one I'm currently on and it's very nice.

yeah it's fantastic!

that's what the thread revive is about! that's what we're talking about on the internet! the power of message boards!

hah! what do you ppl think of Eli Keszler? his latest ep Empire sort of reminds of this a little bit and he's someone who I've got into a few of his albums now and his shtick is growing on me.

“We Live in Pathetic Temporal Urgency,” that's a good title

huh evidently he was one of ambarchi's four million collaborators, i had missed that one on my last trawl for new releases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywh7Ru6rhlE

really liked eli keszler's stadium from last year, worked away at my subconscious

yeah Stadium is well worth your time.

I saw Eli Keszler live at this year's Rewire Festival (The Hague) and it was and amazing experience. His last EP, Empire, is also worth hearing.

https://thequietus.com/articles/26905-oren-ambarchi-interview-favourite-albums

Really nice list of records. This was a great chat too: http://www.5049records.com/podcast/oren-ambarchi

always happy to see Dark To Themselves and Body Meta getting mentions.

16 minute video to palm sugar candy from the new album. there is something quite meditative and timeless about the music. somehow more than ambient not only because of the beats. a kind of soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPIbw1BLzC0

there are some (!) jim o'rourke records i've never listened to so i'm listening to them and, no big surprise i guess, oren ambarchi's 'rock' records sound like jim o'rourke's 'rock' records

Yes, Black Truffle finally has its own Bandcamp page.

Found out about Live Hubris through the boomkat year end list. How good is this? Can't imagine there was much of a roof left on Oto after part 3. Fucking amazing.

https://orenambarchi.bandcamp.com/album/live-hubris

A couple of mates made it onto the front cover of that. Lovely record.

nuts

Beautiful stuff

this is excellent, thank you for the head's up

Just noticed Big Jim's name on the credits and shit myself thinking he must have been in London. He's 'there' in an early loop apparently. Eiko Ishibashi was there though and Mats Gustafsson. Damn.

really enjoying "ghosted" lately
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0452035601_10.jpg

yeah this one is killer, totally hypnotic.

This is fantastic. The outcome of this combination is what one might expect based on their prior outings, except that it's even better.

throwing onto the praise for this - any recs to dive into for for Berthling/Werliin?

Rideau is my pick for (Berthling's) Tape.

Tonbruket's Nubian Swimtrip would be my suggestion for a Werliin record.

For more minimal improv grooves, Nik Bartsch's Ronin Rhythm Records has a lot of titles worth investigating.

The Time is a Mountain record from 2013 is good - features both Berthling & Werliin.

Good call, Chinaski. This is excellent, kinda like the midpoint of US and UK post-rock.

not involving oren ambarchi but a beautiful release on black truffle

https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/mumbai-04021996

He also released a beautiful new album himself yesterday.

Yeah, Shebang is really great, one of the best in the krautrock stuff he's been doing the last 10 years or so.

his new album is great

This AOTY contender for me, totally beautiful and up there with The Necks' best material.

Yeah, I might like this one even more than Ghosted, which is saying a lot

Was just listening to Ghosted yesterday - such a good record, total speculation but feels like it is at least partly a reflection on the Necks of the mid-to-late 1990s - when they were a little more moored to four square rhythms - guessing Oren would’ve seen em a bunch around that time - Harbourside Brasserie Necks vibe, if anyone happens to be a Sydney local!

I had never heard of this guy, Ghosted and Shebang are both very engaging. Lots going on despite apparent simplicity/minimalism.

Yes both albums and especially Shebang are reminiscent of Hanging Gardens or Drive-By era.

I think I prefer Ghosted by a smidgen, but only because I've spent more time with it than Shebang. Both are rhythmically lovely in a way I wasn't expecting, mostly because I'm more familiar with Oren's more abstract/ambient works. My expectations are likely coloured by the fact that Jim O'Rourke was my initial gateway into Oren's work.

Looking forward to checking out Time Is a Mountain thanks to the suggestion upthread.

Somehow, Shebang wasn't doing it for me when they were dripping out the tracks one at a time, but as a whole piece, I love it.

Well, Ghosted is rad partly just because Berthling & Werliin are such an incredible rhythm section. It's Fire! without Gustafsson which is fine!
And Berthling plays some lovely bass on Shebang too, among the other guests.

I like the acoustic bass on Ghosted.

jeez this is too good

supergroup does partly cloudy skies

the last track burrows into this blue mood where all the twelve strings and abraham's piano feel like they should be framing something, but nothing "central" is there .. just this endlessly shifting, ghostly presence of sound in the middle. i'm always listening for jim o'rourke's contributions in these kinds of situations and that sort of harsh is it ring modulated synth that appears toward the end there is brutal in a way. there's real heart to this, a lot of human presence, but it's also at a remove, its power feels directed toward emphasizing ephemerality.

Shebang is ridiculously good — wow!

really enjoying this

i'm listening to this a lot, it's kind of addicting.

had the stoned thought today that the whole piece feels like it's the soundtrack to a single human life. the brightness at first and then the kinetic deepening, the appearance of the drum strokes which seem to mark days, the longer blend of elements on top that are like strokes of personality, the reoccurence of those strokes, the little eddies throughout, the downshift into the vigor and seriousness of the 3rd and 4th parts, how there isn't really a climax but just this beautiful deepening/opening and then the brief release at the end.

when abraham's piano appears at the beginning of iii, it sounds so urgent - i don't know if i've ever felt such a sense of urgency at the sound of piano before haha.

and one minor quibble with the reynolds review, the last piece is in the same key as the first one, just minor not major afaict

overall a very nice and otm review as usual

which review?

sorry, sherburne, duh, *farts*

this one: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/oren-ambarchi-shebang/

i love how this is both calm and very intricate, with lots of moods represented but at a distance.

is a lot of ecm stuff really like this? divine quiet epic music?

i should go back to those early necks records.

i think oren ambarchi's guitar work is definitely the glue that holds everything together, it's really central to how iv evolves especially.

The last Necks record, ‘Three’, was somewhat in this vein. Otherwise the closest fits are ‘Hanging Gardens’, ‘Drive-By’ and ‘Chemist’ I think.

In terms of ECM, I’d try Nik Bartsch’s Ronin and Mobile projects.

thanks

One of the Mobile albums is even called “Ritual Groove Music” which is a great description of this general style.

oh wow 'ritual groove music' is sounding fantastic

Check the rym list for zen-funk, map. Enjoy the rabbit hole!

I wish "Hubris" was a genre so I could listen to stuff like it all day (now I just listen to "Hubris" all day)

i would like him to come to USA soon

Ghosted II out today. I thought the first one was good but not great; very into this one though.

I loved the first one, this is sounding great too.

OMG i love this so much already

Yeah I love this too. It's basically a Necks album with guitar instead of piano, like fr.

Just getting around to this, and yeah, it's picking up right where Ghosted left off and sounding great

There's a Ghosted III now!

and it's wonderful

this band is tapped in! they could just do one of these records every year for the next 25 years and I'd be happy.

This feels a bit more conventional than the first two, or maybe just a bit less mysterious, but still excellent. I like the tracks that are a study in basslines durable enough to repeat for 6 - 10 min.

Finally getting to see them live this weekend as part of Punkt festival. Oren Ambarchi is also doing a lecture/performance with David Toop.
This kind of jazz/post-rock/ambient/neo-classical minimalism can easily become bland and banal bougie muzak (Nils Frahm, Floating Points et al) but like The Necks, Ghosted have *it*

Aussies just get it. This new one is great, tyler otm

The Punkt schedule is incredible this year. Enjoy, Stew!

Thanks! First time there, so I'm intrigued by the live remix concept and Kristiansand itself. Not so fussed by the Nordic jazz side of it, but Ghosted, Musho, Patricia Brennan and the David Toop helmed lecture/performance programme looks great - Oren and Crys are part of that too.

wow this album! it's very psychedelic in places. and just really exciting to listen to. the drumming / percussion is out of this world. it sounds more like a band than the last album, and what they have here is special. there's a lot of warmth and feeling to it, 'immediate' as the bandcamp description says. spellbinding.

scratch that part about being a band, of course they were a band on the other ghosted releases, i was thinking of shebang which is oren ambarchi's project. what i get for being so touch and go.

this band is tapped in! they could just do one of these records every year for the next 25 years and I'd be happy.

hoping for this too

First track on Ghosted III reminds me (in a good way) of the first Andy Summers/Robert Frip album.

Fripp!

i'm really into andreas werliin's vaguely non-western clickety clackety drums on this release (see especially: "chakar"). does he sound similar on other recordings? should i just spend more time with the first two "ghosted"s?

Haven't spent as much time with the new one, but the first one is still my favorite. Werlin is an incredible percussionist, though. All three of these guys are such imaginative players. I don't recall Werlin playing in that style before, but I'm glad you brought "Chahar" to my attention, because listening now I realize I really need to revisit III. I was initially a little turned off by some of the more conventional (relatively speaking!) guitar playing on a few of these songs, but this one's a jam. As for the drums, it sounds (through laptop speakers, anyway) like Werlin is either doing something crazy with rimshots or has a very, very tight snare.

Hubris pt.3 is the best thing I've listened to this year I think. Loving revisting Shebang too: was in the mood for some heavier Oren after these (beautkful) soft Ghosted albums. Know what you mean about the conventional guitar, the 2nd part of the first track had me a bit dissapointed at first engagement but after a few run throughs of the motif I was buying into what he was selling

Yeah, I suspect that will happen for me, too. If you haven't heard it, the Christer Bothén album just released on Black Truffle is definitely worth your time and pairs well with the Ghosted LPs (he plays on the first album)

https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/christer-both-n-donso-n-goni

Sometimes I think Hubris pt 3 is the best thing I listen to every year

Yeah, I suspect that will happen for me, too. If you haven't heard it, the Christer Bothén album just released on Black Truffle is definitely worth your time and pairs well with the Ghosted LPs (he plays on the first album)

https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/christer-both-n-donso-n-goni

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, September 22, 2025 11:21 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is so what i was looking for, thank you

basically "more music to do yoga to"

Dragon's Return by Oren Ambarchi & Fredrik Rasten

^very good dreamy film soundtrack ambient psychedelia fwiw

^^^ thanks for the heads up, this sounds great

ghosted III is still in heavy rotation for me. this from the bandcamp page has proven to be true in my experience: "The more you listen to Ghosted III, the better your hearing becomes. Or maybe it’s just that you hear more every time you play it."

werliin's drumming is so so good. it's almost a piece of dance music in places. wouldn't be out of place in a particularly deep balearic dj set.

The fact that it is probably my least favorite of the three and I still think it's one of the best albums of 2025 is a good testament to the greatness of this band

i've been listening to 1, 2, 3, and shebang on a little trip i'm on. i think they got better with each one but i know it's totally subjective. i do think that oren's work on 3 is next-level delicate, smooth and chameleonic. and werliin's drumming sounds its best, grooviest and crispest. makes me wanna dance. ii has some great stuff on it in particular though, i love "ii" and that last track, "iv" is pitch-black and devastating, unlike anything else they've done. shebang might be my favorite out of all of them though. the blur of everyone involved is so immaculately crafted. it's so soft, deep, plush, colorful.

there's a section at the end of "i" on shebang that always sounded to me like there were wordless female vocals hovering on top, but i think it might actually be oren ambarchi doing something unworldly with his guitar.

ok i finally have enough of a handle on the ghosted releases to confidently say they're all great and i think each one is better than the last. also i was confusing 1 with 2 above. 1 has the pitch-black last track. 2 is lighter-colored and 3 is the sparkliest. i'm so impressed by the mixing on 3. they really dialed in werliin's drumming in particular. and oren's work has an endless, shimmering quality to it.

^although II is very much up there with III for me, at this point. II is where oren's "wind chime" work first shows up in these. he kind of takes it up a notch in "chahar" on III. i love that effect, and his gentle, meditative sensibility in general. that last track on II is such a treat. i think where III differentiates itself from the rest is that slower, jazzier run of track 2 and track 3, which can sort of float by me sometimes but it def. cooks.

TIL "Chahar" has a gorgeous video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cBlgax01hQ

just getting around to Ghosted III and holy shit the guitar on the first track, haven’t been that wowed by a musical moment for a long time

A parochial observation maybe but in these records I hear Oren living in mid-late 1980s Sydney where the Necks were emerging and ECM records were $2 at Ashwoods in Pitt Street - but in that chiming guitar part I hear an echo of the psychedelic Sydney sound of those years… like The Church or Died Pretty

i like that observation! i should listen to more church.

i was just geeking out trying to arrange a best of ghosteds when i saw this thread revived. i think i'd go with the first half of I, "en," "fyra" and maybe "tre" from II, and probably all of III except for "do" and "seh".

III has such a three-dimensional sound. the mixing is so sharp. it's shockingly alive and weird if you magic-eye (magic-ear?) to it enough, to the details. but also a very easy listen, easy just to throw on, a vibe that's pretty much never unwelcome, at least in my home. itunes says i've listened to it 120 times lol.

shame that this is not released on CD

Agreed. I was really hoping all of these Ghosted album would get CD releases.

Ran into this during my quarterly rewatch of Live Hubris pt. 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TPFqH-lzHA

nice!