Oren Ambarchi (Interview)

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Oren Ambarchi, a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Sydney. We previously recommended his music about two years ago. As he recounts below, his first musical instruments were drums and effects pedals; in his early ‘20s when he got his first guitar, he viewed it purely as an electric “sound generator.” Since the late ‘90s, Ambarchi’s original pieces have centered the guitar but extracted from it unusual and sublime sounds. We’re playing the two installments of Ghosted, his improvisations with Johan Berthling (bass) and Andreas Werliin (drums), the second of which came out in April. An interview with Ambarchi follows the streaming links.

Ghosted II - Oren Ambarchi (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Ghosted - Oren Ambarchi (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What's your earliest memory of music?

Obsessively sitting at my portable turntable endlessly listening to 7”s by Led Zep, Wings, The Who, 10cc as a three year old. It’s all I was interested in.

We've read about your somewhat spontaneous transition from percussionist to guitar artist – could you reflect on that transition and how it makes your guitar sound different from traditional recordings?

I grew up playing drums from a young age but I was also interested in electronics. I had access to effect pedals, reel-to-reel players, mics etc when I was 9 or 10 and I would make lo-fi “experimental” recordings in my bedroom. They were terrible, but I learned a lot about recording, electronic manipulation of sound etc etc. So the interest in electronics and playing drums in bands etc was happening concurrently in my teens. In my early 20s I switched to guitar after being “gifted” a shitty Washburn guitar, but in a way the guitar was used more as a sound generator and became an extension of my ongoing interest in electronics/effects. This was around the time that I was discovering and becoming completely infatuated with experimental music (after playing drums in more free jazz contexts). I couldn’t really play the guitar conventionally and wasn’t interested in doing that. I was more interested in emulating the experimental electronic sounds I was listening to on records and working out how to do that with the limitations of the shitty guitar and effect pedals I had.

On Ghosted I and II, there's a cool, improvisatory session vibe similar to Miles Davis Shhh / Peaceful or Can albums. How does the trio start their sessions from scratch, and ultimately arrive at these recordings?

I guess we are all on the same page and dig playing together. We don’t really need to speak about details too much, we just play and it seems to flow. There’s a relaxed, easygoing vibe and we all like each other as people which really helps haha. We’ve also known each other for a long time - Johan and I first worked together in 2002, a long time ago! We have similar influences and interests and everyone is quote open and have wide ranging tastes which somehow influence the musical outcome.

Who are the influences you personally trace on the Ghosted records?

In my teens I endlessly listened to loads of ECM releases, they are part of my DNA. A big one was the Gateway trio with Abercrombie, Holland and DeJohnette. I love the openness of the guitar/bass/drums format on those ECM records. Early Frisell, Metheny, Rypdal, all that stuff is huge for me. I don’t think we are emulating that music per se but it’s definitely there subconsciously.

"Hubris, Pt. 1" is one of our favorite pieces of music of the past decade. How did you compose that and perform it? What exactly is happening with the guitar?

There’s sooooooooo many guitars on that piece. I can’t remember how many tracks there were but it was kind of bonkers and insane to mix. The guitars are all playing different rhythms that somehow lock together.

It was a studio creation recorded all over the place with lots of friends. Later we somehow translated into a live piece with a large ensemble which was super fun to do.

That piece was really influenced by my love of extended disco 12”s (like the instrumental version of Tullio De Piscopo’s “Stop Bajon”) and some new wave stuff like Wang Chung’s To Live And Die In LA soundtrack (specifically the “Black-Blue-White” track). I would hear a palm-muted guitar part on a 12” that sounded so hot but unfortunately it wouldn’t last very long which really frustrated me. So I thought, “Why can’t a whole album just be an extended version of that short guitar part?” Why not extend that idea and explore it over a long duration? Like looking at something through a microscope and blowing it up so it’s 100 times bigger, where all this crazy detail is revealed.

Tell us about your time with Sunn O))), recording and performing with them.

That was fun. I learned a lot about sound/volume and exploring pieces over a long duration, really slowly, which is something that I was already interested in, especially in my solo work at the time.

Recording was especially fun as there was plenty of experimentation in the studio.

What music do you listen to while doing busywork, like answering emails – if any?

Music is always playing non-stop in our household. I’m listening to a newly discovered Derek Bailey/Sabu Toyozumi recording as I type, it sounds awesome.

Name an underrated musician from the past 50 years.

Eduardo Mateo

What are you working on next?

Slowly gearing up for work on a solo record. I’ll be working closely with maestro Konrad Sprenger in Berlin. Who knows how long it will take but I’m excited to get things moving.