CD in Digipak
Artwork & design: Jon Wozencroft
Track listing:
1. Intimidator
2. Iron Waves
3. Moving Violation
4. The Strouhal Number
5. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks
Intermission brings together a range of material Oren Ambarchi has contributed to compilations and limited edition vinyl releases between the years 2000 and 2008. Highlights include two live recordings – an early, fragile solo guitar recording taken from a radio broadcast in 2000 and A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks, his powerful 12″ recorded live in Vancouver in 2007 and originally released on Table Of The Elements. Additional tracks include Iron Waves an exclusive track in collaboration with vocalist Paul Duncan and Intimidator featuring Australian pianist/composer Anthony Pateras originally released on Southern Lord.
These are special anomalies in the Ambarchi canon but nonetheless feature the hallmarks of his unique soundworld, all underpinned by his trademark deep guitar tones and meticulous attention to detail. All tracks are newly remastered, many of which are available on CD for first time.
Track notes:
Intimidator Guitars and prepared piano recorded at Jerker House and Enormodome, Melbourne in 2006 Anthony Pateras: Prepared Piano. Originally released on the 2LP version of ‘In The Pendulum’s Embrace’ Southern Lord, USA.
Iron Waves Remix of Paul Duncan’s ‘Parasail’ from the ‘Above The Trees’ CD, Hometapes, USA Guitars, Bells, Cymbals recorded at Jerker House, Melbourne and BJB, Sydney in 2008. Previously unreleased.
Moving Violation Guitars recorded at Jerker House, Melbourne November 2005. A version was originally released on Touch’s 25th anniversary CD, Touch 25, UK.
The Strouhal Number Guitar recorded live at 2SER FM Sydney in 2000 by Tony Dupe’. Originally released on ‘Live & Direct’ CD Spunk/Preservation records, Australia.
A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks Guitar recorded live at Vancouver New Music Festival Oct 17, 2007 by Gary Morgan Bells and motorised cymbal recorded at BJB, Sydney. Originally released as a limited 12″ on Table Of The Elements, USA.
All tracks remastered by Lachlan Carrick at Moose, Melbourne August 2009.
Reviews:
Earlabs (Netherlands):
9/10
A collection of compilation tracks, pieces from rare releases and previously unreleased material. Not really a best of but certainly a great collection.
Australian musician Oren Ambarchi is probably not a strange one to most readers here and with his amazing discography on labels such as Touch, Southern Lord and Room40. With motorized guitars, singing bowls, electronic gadgets and who knows what more he has been delivering great recordings. Some of the pieces he wrote have been released on got released on obscure rare releases, while they could use way more attention than the few lucky ones having those. Because of this British label Touch decided to release some of those on a new compilation: Intermission 2000-2008.
The first track is Intimidator which was first released on the on the 2LP version of In The Pendulum’s Brace on Southern Lord. The sounds here are derived from guitars and a prepared piano played by Anthony Pateras. A very minimal piece of music with soft drones from the guitar and scarce piano notes. The filtered guitar sounds like sine tones running in and out of phase with an occasional glitch when a new string is being touched. The low-end layers waver around the room creating a weird resonance.
The second piece Iron Wave is a remix of the track Parasail by American singer/songwriter Paul Duncan from the album Above the Trees. Some of the original sources do return like the vocals, but Ambarchi creates his own surroundings. To me this is a weird experience because I have been listening to the original version so very often since it got released in 2008, but for those unknown to the music by Paul Duncan this would work very well. It is an interesting combination. Maybe in the future a collaboration between the two of them for a complete album would be nice.
Moving Violation, the third piece was recorded in 2005 for the 25th Anniversary CD of the Touch label. This piece is completely based on filtered guitar sounds. The piece starts out with low-level tones sounding as almost clean sine-tones. Slowly extra tones are added creating small glitches and in an out of phase structures (similar to the first piece). From these Ambarchi works to a climax of more extreme noisy sounds. As the title suggests the sounds move along each other, slowly changing all the time, in the tradition of classical minimal music.
The Strouhal Number, part 4 of this collection comes from a live recording from 2000 for a radio broadcast in Sydney. Again the guitar is the only instrument but this time not only the heavy filtered version of it is used. For this piece there is a major focus on the melodic elements. Small melodies are created and probably run through a delay pedal to create loops. The piece is a light one compared with the other ones in this release but certainly point out a period in the music of Ambarchi that shouldn’t be left out.
This collection finishes of with the track which is the biggest reason why everyone should actually just go grab this cd release. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks was previously released as a limited single sided 12″ on Table of the Elements. This very limited release now goes for double if not triple the price on eBay and such. In this piece Ambarchi plays guitar, which was recorded live at a festival, and combines this with his famous motorised cymbals and bells. This piece is a really diverse recording which contains about all elements Ambarchi has used in his past. From the granular begin to the clean sine tones at the end everything is there.
From all the work I have heard from Ambarchi this is the most impressive one and it is good to see it finally available for a wider audience.
Intermission 2000-2008 is a great compilation which offers a bright fresh look into the music by Oren Ambarchi. As a starting point for his music it is highly recommend, but also for people who just love his music and have missed out on those rare compilations and tracks this one is surely not to be missed out. [Sietse van Erve]
Dusted (USA):
It never fails; the week after you compile your year-end lists, a record turns up that should have been on one. Intermission 2000-2008 certainly deserves more notice than it’s likely to receive given that is is a semi-archival collection with a November release date because even though it is, as the title suggests, a collection of pauses, its five tracks cohere as a weighty statement of just what Ambarchi is about.
The Australian guitarist/percussionist has one of those discographies that is challenging to track. Higher-profile solo releases, mostly on the Touch label, alternate with limited edition efforts, some vinyl-only, some revised from iteration to iteration. Ambarchi is also an inveterate collaborator who is even harder to pin down in communal mode; heard back to back in a blindfold test, not many newcomers would be likely to locate the same musician’s presence on records by Sunn O))), Sun, the Menstruation Sisters, Four Gentlemen Of The Guitar, and Lasse Marhaug. But you ignore these permutations at your peril, since Ambarchi’s on-the-side activities often match or exceed his top of the line solo releases. You might easily have missed Intermission’s contents since they come from the lower-profile side of his work.
First comes “Intimidator,” which vinyl partisans may recognize as the fourth-side bonus track from the Southern Lord version of In The Pendulum’s Embrace. There it maintained an ambivalent relationship with the rest the record’s material, since the metallic (but not at all Metal) sonorities of guest Antony Pateras’s prepared piano kept it from mixing easily with the original Touch CD’s music. But despite the afterthought status apparently conferred by virtue of being the added-on track for a boutique format, it summed up Pendulum’s main point, which is also one driven home by Intermission; that the physical presence of sound, more than any given instrument or tone, is Ambarchi’s real material. You don’t just hear the strike of hammer on strings, it seems to lightly brush your collarbone; wavering sine waves seem to dance between your ears; bass notes weigh upon you like the water at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The pressure of each sound is enormous, and yet as soothing as a Zen garden.
The previously unreleased “Iron Waves” is an anomaly in Ambarchi’s catalog. It’s a remix of “Parasail,” a tune from Texan singer-songwriter Paul Duncan’s Above The Seas CD. But despite the presence of Duncan’s dolorous voice delivering comprehensible lyrics, generally a rarity for Ambarchi (even when he sings with Sun, the vocals are so diffident and negligible that it’s hard to remember them), it’s a natural extension of “Intimidator.” Whining e-bowed guitars and tolling cymbals roll out of the speakers, and if they don’t have the time to press you as strongly as the previous track’s tones they still enshroud you like a weighty jacket. “Moving Violation” previously appeared on Touch 25, a compilation celebrating a significant label birthday. The sounds Ambarchi wields here recall those on Suspension, plump, rounded tones that sound more like the work of an electric piano filtered through the digital effects favored by Clicks & Cuts perpetrators than a guitar. But he coats them in a fine patina of sonic grit, then blows it loose at the end with a rising electronic buzz; one more, the music climaxes with an exertion of pressure. The oldest track here, “The Strouhal Number,” is a live recording from 2000 that previously appeared on a Preservation compilation called Live & Direct. Once more the faux-piano notes fall like a slow-motion rain that gently splashes between the thuds of Ambarchi’s thunderous bass reports. The mastering job on this CD does a fantastic job of rendering Ambarchi’s intended impact and decisively refutes haters who think a compact disc can never match vinyl’s physical sensations.
The album ends with “A Final Kiss On Poison Cheeks,” which aside from some overdubbed bells and cymbals is another live track. Previously issued as a one-sided picture disc by Table Of The Elements, this is where the bathyspheric calm Ambarchi has spent so much time attaining gives way to palpable thrills. Bursts of static and torn high-frequency fragments blow across the rising drones like airborne debris before a gale, building and thickening and blackening for the better part of twenty minutes; if you’ve ever wanted Ambarchi to just rock the fuck out, your wish is granted here. Then the music opens into a plateau of bell and sine tones, serene and gorgeous. The lighter they get, the more distant the tolling bass, the more you feel the pressure remit. Bob Seger sang quite persuasively about “Heavy Music”; Ambarchi makes it. [Bill Meyer]
Brainwashed (USA):
The opening piece, “Intimidator,” is from a 2006 collaboration with Anthony Pateras, who contributes prepared piano. It originally appeared as a vinyl-only bonus track on In The Pendulum’s Embrace and it certainly has a very “bonus track” feel to it. While not bad by any means, it is not particularly attention-grabbing either. The entire track is essentially just Ambarchi’s guitar quietly feeding back with occasional disruptive plinking and clanging metallic stabs from Pateras’s piano. Of course, the feedback subtly oscillates and Oren unleashes some of his trademark sub bass droning, but it is too understated to make much of an impression.
“Iron Waves” is a previously unreleased “remix” of a song by Paul Duncan. It’s a bit more interesting than “intimidator,” as Ambarchi wrests some submerged-sounding bell-tones from his ax, which, coupled with the escalating feedback dissonance and an ominous low drone, evokes quite an atmosphere of menace. It ultimately becomes a pretty odd and confounding work though, as it is basically a decent, by-the-numbers Ambarchi soundscape that is intermittently (and somewhat purposelessly) muddied by guitar and vocal interludes from the original. Duncan is generally a likeable vocalist, but his singing here is too dour and overwrought for my taste. The two clumsily intertwined aesthetics yield less than the sum of their parts; I’m not quite sure why this exists.
The final three songs are sans collaborators and seemingly the better for it. “Moving Violations” (from Touch’s 25th anniversary compilation) is a dense, buzzing, and crackling foray into deep, quivering bass drone that gradually coheres into a dissonant repeating riff of sorts. “The Strouhal Number” is an early live recording (from 2000), yet strangely, it is the most immediately gratifying, melodic, and composed-sounding piece on the album. Naturally, Oren’s omnipresent subterranean drone and quiet crackle are on display, but he pleasingly augments that groundwork with a floating shimmer of bell-like tones (as well as some Pole-esque clicks and pops). It is quite a dream-like and beautiful ambient piece, and conspicuously divergent in tone from everything that surrounds it.
The closing track (“A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks”) is a much more recent live recording (from 2007) and, unsurprisingly, sounds entirely different than its predecessor. As always, the piece’s backbone is a low drone, but it is buried beneath a thick, vibrant, squirming morass of garbled bells, buzzes, and bleeps. It is the album’s longest track (at 20 minutes), and gradually increases in density until it becomes a chittering, grinding industrial roar. Around the halfway point, most of the cacophony drops out, leaving only sustained, clashing feedback tones and an erratically shifting pulse that gradually winnows down to a quiet coda of hissing metallic cymbals, murky swells, and somber bell-tones.
Intermission, aside from “The Strouhal Number,” features very little in the way of melody and depends almost entirely on density and texture (and occasionally raw power). This (along with a similar aversion to rhythm) can make Ambarchi much more difficult to embrace than other experimental guitarist luminaries (such as Fennesz or Jim O’Rourke), as his pieces often lack conspicuous differentiating traits. Nevertheless, his unstated mastery is amply evident to those that listen close enough to find beauty in oscillation.
blog.monsieurdelire.com (France):
Presque tout ce que fait Oren Ambarchi vaut son pesant d’or. Je n’ai donc aucun problème à ce qu’on recueille ses miettes. D’autant plus que les miettes en question, dans ce cas-ci, sont de taille. Intermission 2000-2008 réunit des pièces de compilation et d’éditions limitées sur vinyl signées par le grand guitariste/multi-instrumentiste expérimental-ambiant pendant la décennie qui s’achève. Cinq pièces pour une heure de musique. À souligner: “Iron Waves” un remix d’une chanson de Paul Duncan, superbe; “Intimidator”, une collaboration avec le pianiste Anthony Pateras; “A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks”, un enregistrement live qui avait fait l’objet d’un 12” chez Table of the Elements. Un disque très recommandable, qui offre une moins grande unité thématique que ses autres disques pour Touch, mais qui donne tout de même une intense expérience d’écoute.
(translation:)
Almost everything Oren Ambarchi does is worth its weight in gold. So I don’t mind if he’s reaching to the bottom drawer. Especially since that drawer contained some serious nuggets. Intermission 2000-2008 culls tracks by the great experimental ambiant guitarist/multi-instrumentalist previously released on compilation albums and limited-edition vinyl releases (and one unreleased track). Five tracks for one hour of music. I’ll mention: “Iron Waves”, a remix of a song by Paul Duncan, splendid; “Intimidator”, a collaboration with pianist Anthony Pateras; “A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks”, a live recording released as a 12” on Table of the Elements. Highly recommended. This CD hass less thematic unity as Ambarchi’s previous Touch releases, but it still offers an intense listening experience.
ADA (France):
Figure relativement récente dans le milieu des musiques expérimentales électroniques, Oren Ambarchi triture à l’infini, vers la fin des années 1990, des sons de guitares exclusivement. Il sculpte l’espace avec une précision et une délicatesse inégalables, armé d’une guitare préparée, étirant et superposant des nappes sonores bourdonnantes et ténues en un écheveau complexe où chaque détail fait sens et subtilité. Au fil du temps, Ambarchi élargi peu à peu sa palette instrumentale puisqu’on a pu le voir manier, toujours avec le même brio, des sons qu’il générait à partir de violoncelles, de cloches ou encore d’harmonica de verre ou de percussions.
Les paysages sonores d’Oren Ambarchi sont d’une luxuriance inouïe pour celui qui saura y pénétrer. En effet, une écoute superficielle de son travail pourrait évoquer ennui, monotonie et répétitivité. Or il n’en est rien !… La vie intérieure de ses constructions sonores harmoniques est au contraire d’une vivacité étonnante, d’un fourmillement calme et organisé mais captivant par son intensité atonale.
La finesse de son ascétisme musical a rapidement su attirer l’attention puisqu’il a très rapidement multiplié les collaborations dont notamment Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Jim O’Rourke, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl ou encore le maître du bruit Merzbow.
Cet album, “ntermission 2000 – 2008”, nouvellement sorti sur l’excellentissime label Touch est en fait une rétrospective de ce travail par trop méconnu d’Oren Ambarchi, balayant en 1 CD huit années de recherche de perfection musicale et fixant clairement les limites du domaine d’intervention d’Ambarchi proches de l’infini!
Groove (Norway):
Australske Oren Ambarchi er en av tiårets mest sentrale gitarkunstnere, vel så spennende som Fennesz for å dra en ikke helt irrelevant parallell. Ambarchi har utforsket gitarens muligheter siden slutten av 90-tallet, og skapt en karriere som har strukket seg fra minimalistisk improvisasjon til mer orkesterert og teksturbasert eksperimentering de senere årene. Gå gjerne i butikken og kjøp hans flotte Grapes from the Estate (2004) og In The Pendulum’s Embrace (2007) for å høre eksempel på det.
Intermission 2000-2008 er en oppsummering av hans arbeid i dette tiåret, konkretisert ned i fem spor hentet fra ulikt hold. Intimidator er fra en LP-versjon av In The Pendulum’s Embrace, Moving Violation fra en Touch-samler, A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks fra en begrenset tolvtommer, The Strouhal Number fra en australsk samler, mens Iron Waves er tidligere uutgitt.
De 13 minuttene som utgjør åpningen Intimidator (sammen med Anthony Pateras på behandlet piano) er ikke direkte spennende, hørt med umiddelbare ører. Lang, sammenhengende feedback, med noe metallisk klangbrudd utgjør denne, der balansen mellom de tunge, nærmeste doom-ladde uttrykket og det abstrakte, ambiente forenes. Dette går som en rød tråd gjennom hele platen. Det er også de langstrukne droner som utgjør Iron Waves, som er mer formbasert (ikke akkurat melodisk, men dog) og Moving Violation. Det flotteste øyeblikket her er The Strouhal Number, som stammer helt tilbake til 2000. Her fanger Oren Ambarchi noe av den skjøre magien han også klarer å få ut av gitaren sin og slipper den ut i nærmest drømmeaktige sekvenser. 20 minutter lange A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks starter med forsiktig knitter, som gradvis stiger i intensitet og viser hans forhold til mer støyende toner enn det som tidligere er avslørt her. Etter 14 minutter tones feedbacken ned, kaoset opphører og vi synker inn i avslutningen på en drøy tone som munner ut i varsomme klokkespill og cymbaler.
Intermission er ikke platen jeg ville startet med for å bli kjent med Oren Ambarchi. De allerede innvidde vil nok sikkert ha samlet til seg de fleste av disse sporene allerede, men det er selvsagt greit å ha dem samlet og med oppusset lyd på en CD. Dette er likevel ikke en utgivelse som faller mellom noen stoler. Ambarchis musikk gjør aldri det.
Norman Records (UK):
I snuck in at the weekend to tie up some bits of work-related detritus that we had fallen behind with and was perusing the new stack of promos when I noticed a new thing from experimentalist Oren Ambarchi. I must admit to being slightly nonplussed about the majority of his previous work but pumping this baby up loud in the absence of my twittering colleagues hilarious one-liners and bafflingly banal monologues, I discovered some thoroughly engaging music derived from limited press collaborations, early radio sessions & the like. ‘Intermission 2000-2008 opens with this mesmerising, hovering sound reminiscent of Tibetan singing bowls which draws you into a seriously meditative state. This 12 min+ gentle drone epic apparently includes prepared piano and guitar but you’d be hard pressed to pinpoint those instruments throughout this gorgeous minimal & hypnotic epic. ‘Iron Waves’ continues the peaceful, cerebral vibe the blissful thrum of cymbals being a precursor to some intoxicating, entwining waves of drone and a vocal that recalls Simeon from Silver Apples or maybe an ethereal Jim O’ Rourke. ‘Moving Violation’ is a piece built on fluctuating pulses over a slightly foreboding soundscape, some lovely frequencies that almost sound conversational. A low, discreet wave of fuzz joins the slowly evolving melee to create a really engaging piece. Penultimately you get a sweetly evocative track apparently constructed from treated guitar textures. I love the muted firework crackles throughout and the emotive drift that pins this piece of ambient beauty together. Concluding with a much more abrasive 20+ minute “epic” that sounds jaw droppingly exciting (and probably more innovative than anything Fuck Buttons could muster), this is a CD i’m really looking forward to taking home and treasuring. Who’d have thought an odds ‘n’ sods album could be so riveting? Brilliant throughout. CD only on Touch.
Boomkat (UK):
Oren Ambarchi once again proves why he is one of the most revered and original composers working in the drone/death-ambient environments with this incredible selection of rarities and exclusives from the archives, recorded over the last 8 years.* A wonderful hour-long collection of rare material scattered disparately across Oren Ambarchi’s discography on compilations and limited edition vinyl releases. The collection begins in a sublime, hushed fashion, with ‘Intimidation’, the wonderful joint effort with Anthony Pateras (who mans prepared piano) originally released via Southern Lord on the vinyl edition of ‘In The Pendulum’s Embrace’. It’s a careful and highly detailed composition dominated by typically profound tonal sculptures from Ambarchi, while Pateras’ quietly stabbing metallic interjections reveal a more three-dimensional texture. ‘Moving Violation’ is the only piece to have appeared on a Touch release before – it featured on the label’s 25th anniversary CD, and makes a welcome reappearance lodged in the middle of this disc. It’s nagging, Sahko-like signals border on outright and utterly compelling distortion building to a cacophonous hornet-buzz conclusion. The ensuing track (‘The Strouhal Number’) is a seven-minute oasis of remarkable calm. This is the earliest recording on the album, captured live in Sydney during 2000 and originally released on the Live & Direct CD on Spunk/Preservation. Far more chaotic and macrocosmic in scope is ‘A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks’ (originally released as a limited 12″ on Table Of The Elements), which amplifies Ambarchi’s intricate harmonic exchanges to towering proportions, resounding with fierce overtones and siren-like sustains. Here Ambarchi pits his guitar against bells and motorised cymbal to ear-shredding effect, yet without ever terrorising the listener with heavy-handed noise. There’s also one exclusive track on this selection: ‘Iron Waves’, a collaboration with vocalist Paul Duncan. It’s one of the noisiest entries here, and breaks the almost ecclesiastical tone Ambarchi’s stately low frequency signals tend to conjure. After a quiet first couple of minutes, humming towards a more vibrant, sonorous quality, the piece opens up with quivering overtones and Duncan’s harmonies, which have him sounding almost like Will Oldham in places. It has the feeling of a one-off project – but is all the better for it on this epic collection of tracks. Probably the most crucial release on Touch this year – and a mark of just how engrossing a character Ambarchi is in experimental/electronic music – ‘Intermission’ comes to you with our highest possible recommendation, miss out at your peril.
Rockerilla (Italy):
030 (Germany):
kindamuzik (Netherlands):
Knettergek word je er soms van; al die losse nummers van je favoriete artiest(en) die her en der verschijnen. In de experimenteel-elektronische wereld is men bepaald niet vies van deze gelegenheidsreleases.
Australiër Oren Ambarchi bracht voor de niet-verzamelaar twee van deze verspreide publicaties samen op Intermission 2000-2008, aangevuld met twee livenummers, die eerder op compilaties te vinden waren, plus een exclusieve compositie.
Zo’n verzameling zou als los zand kunnen aanvoelen, vooral gezien de lange overspande periode. In die tijd heeft Ambarchi zich met zachte elektronische drones, ambient en experiment beziggehouden, alsook met luider werk, als helpende hand bij Sunn O))).
Ambarchi en vaardige helpers bedienen zich van gitaren, elektronica, geprepareerde piano en allerlei percussie, al dan niet motorisch getriggerd. Voorop staat Ambarchi’s oor voor detail. Langzaam werkt hij aan een zwellende drone; op de achtergrond omineus, op de voorgrond vervoerend. De spanningsboog staat steevast strak gespannen.
Deze verzamelaar presenteert de nummers los van context, maar ze passen in het geheel van Intermission perfect naast elkaar. Ze vormen een klankbeeld van Ambarchi net buiten zijn normale werk; net buiten de gewoonlijke verwachtingspatronen van de luisteraar. Spannend, overrompelend bij vlagen; vooral: zen; Ambarchi in balans gebracht. [Sven Schlijper]
The Line of Best Fit (UK):
A record by Oren Ambarchi is always instantly recognisable, even if the instrument he is using to create it isn’t. Aside from his collaborations with some of the loudest artists on earth (Sunn O))), Merzbow, Keiji Haino), Ambarchi’s deep solo explorations of the less commonly-harnessed sonic possibilities of the electric guitar have resulted in some quietly engrossing releases on Touch: 2001’s Suspension, 2004’s Grapes From The Estate and 2007’s In The Pendulum’s Embrace. While pattern spotters will already be getting excited about the possibility of a new Ambarchi album in 2010, Touch are taking the time to collect together some of the fragments of the Ambarchi catalogue which escaped their curatorial reach this decade.
Despite the eight year gap between the first and last pieces on this collection, and the fact that some are live recordings and some were created in the studio, Intermission 2000-2008 flows pretty well, thanks to those trademark Ambarchi sounds. The album begins and ends with Tibetan singing bowl, but in between an intense hum pervades, occasionally punctuated with electrical contact click, as if one is hearing the thoughts of a sentient machine from the inside. Over this framework, intriguing details are meticulously arranged; the intimidatory atmospheres of ‘Initimidator’ are occasionally broken by prepared piano clatter from Anthony Pateras, while ‘A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks’ (originally released on gorgeous etched blue vinyl by Table of the Elements) is pockmarked by swirling feedback and radio tones. As is typical from Ambarchi, from these dark, claustrophobic and abstract settings, bursts of melody occasionally emerge, creating surprising juxtpositions. ‘Iron Waves’ features -most unpredictably – vocals from Ambarchi himself, whilst album highlight ‘The Strouhal Number’ twinkles delicately over a background of distant explosions, as if we were listening to the bombs dropping on Iraq from a spot by a swimming pool across the border in a Saudi hotel.
Such eye for detail elevates this collection from being one for Ambarchi completists to being an excellent introduction to his work, one for sonic fetishists everywhere.
Aquarius Records (UK):
Killer collection of unreleased, super limited, out of print tracks from the last 8 years, from guitarist and soundscaper Oren Ambarchi, who besides making incredible records on his own, has been spending lots of time contributing to SUNNO))) and various SUNNO)) related offshoots. But these 5 tracks, all of them looooong, find Ambarchi doing what he does best, transforming his guitar into utterly new shapes and sounds.
“Intimidator” is the bonus track from the lp version of his In The Pendulum’s Embrace album, and is a super minimal arrangement of tones and overtones, a gorgeous ethereal super abstract drone, subtly pulsing and throbbing, occasionally interrupted by an errant strum or bit of glitch, but for the most part, some serious Ikeda style clinical drone minimalism. “Iron Waves” is a remix of a Paul Duncan track, and finds Ambarchi adding guitar, bells and cymbals to the original, the result is a dark and meditative drift, that grows more and more lush, perfectly complimenting the soulful croon of the original, a dark, layered sound art ballad. “Moving Violation” is from a Touch Records comp, and is another gorgeous expanse of dark meditative guitar drift, laced with crackle and glitch, a strange textural patina over an otherwise serene and smooth expanse of muted tones. “The Strouhal Number” is from a live cd released in Australia, and is warm and washed out and beautiful, minus the crackle and distorted grit, this would almost be some super serene meditation music, chiming tones, lilting melodies, dreamlike and so so pretty.
And finally, the 20 minute “A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks” originally released on a clear silkscreened one sided 12″ as part of Table Of The Elements Guitar series, still essentially a dronescape, A Final Kiss is rife with sonic activity, so much so that in lesser hands it would be more of a mess, a sort of pretty-ish noise record, but Ambarchi, takes all manner of buzz and glitch, of scrape and hum, and weaves it into a strangely lyrical arrangement. The core of the piece is a thick, undulating low end drone, a muted Niblockian shimmer, that seems not to change so much as shift, reflecting different colors and sounds depending on the angle. Over this nearly constant thrum, exist a veritable universe of strange sounds, streaks of feedback, cricket like electronic chitter, moaning throbbing swells of guitar rumble, brief blurs of warm soft focus fuzz, layers of crumbling distortion, all of the various elements constantly shifting and blossoming, collapsing and then blooming again, creating a super organic flow, another instance of leaving the instruments on the stage, guitars against amps, amps cranked, although here it seems the instruments have come to life, and we are glimpsing their secret lives, as the communicate musically, telling some sort of story, exchanging mysterious messages, which while indecipherable to human ears, still manage to sound magical.
Guitardrone freaks will, well, freak! Subtly heavy, darkly drone-y, slightly noisy, rich and dense and textural. Really gorgeous. And totally recommended.
Mapsadaisical (UK):
A record by Oren Ambarchi is always instantly recognisable, even if the instrument he is using to create it isn’t. Aside from his collaborations with some of the loudest artists on earth (Sunn O))), Merzbow, Keiji Haino), Ambarchi’s deep solo explorations of the less commonly-harnessed sonic possibilities of the electric guitar have resulted in some quietly engrossing releases on the Touch label: 2001’s Suspension, 2004’s Grapes From The Estate and 2007’s In The Pendulum’s Embrace. While pattern spotters will already be getting excited about the possibility of a new Ambarchi album in 2010, Touch are taking the time to collect together some of the fragments of the Ambarchi catalogue which escaped their curatorial reach this decade.
Despite the eight year gap between the first and last pieces on this collection, and the fact that some are live recordings and some were created in the studio, Intermission 2000-2008 flows pretty well, thanks to those trademark Ambarchi sounds. The album begins and ends with Tibetan singing bowl, but in between an intense hum pervades, occasionally punctuated with electrical contact click, as if one is hearing the thoughts of a sentient machine from the inside. Over this setting, details are meticulously arranged; the intimidatory atmospheres of “Initimidator” are occasionally broken by prepared piano clatter from Anthony Pateras, while “A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks” (originally released on gorgeous etched blue vinyl by Table of the Elements) is pockmarked by swirling feedback and radio tones. As is typical from Ambarchi, from these dark, claustrophobic and abstract settings, bursts of melody occasionally emerge, creating surprising juxtpositions. “Iron Waves” features -most unpredictably – vocals from Ambarchi himself, whilst album highlight “The Strouhal Number” twinkles delicately over a background of distant explosions, as if we were listening to the bombs dropping on Iraq from a spot by a swimming pool across the border in a Saudi hotel.
Such eye for detail elevates this collection from being one for Ambarchi completists to being an excellent introduction to his work, one for sonic fetishists everywhere.
Blow Up (Italy):
de:bug (Germany):
Skug (Austria):
Dark Entries (Belgium):
Wie net als ik nog nooit van Oren Ambarchi gehoord had krijgt dankzij deze compilatie bij Touch de kans om haar/zijn achterstand in te lopen. Blijkbaar al van in de late jaren 90 is de man bezig om uit zijn gitaren geluiden te krijgen waarvoor ze eigenlijk niet gemaakt zijn. Verwacht u hierbij niet aan snarengehak en gratuite feedbackherrie, Ambarchi houdt meer van experimenteren met bijna-stiltes en elektronische sinewaves. In het verleden verkeerde hij hierdoor al in het goede gezelschap van Otomo Yoshihide, Keji Haino, Toshimaru Nakamura, Jim O’Rourke en nog en legertje anderen. Ook had hij reeds de mogelijkheid -vervang ‘mogelijkheid’ door ‘eer’- om materiaal uit te brengen op John Zorn’s Tzadik label.
De nummers die gecompileerd werden zijn stuk voor stuk niet korter dan 7 minuten en het magnus opus van de compilatie gaat zelfs over de kaap van 20 minuten. Niet dat dit saai hoort te zijn. Oren Ambarchi’s (let op die voornaam) vakmanschap is inderdaad van die aard dat je de je het klankenlandschap ingezogen wordt en dat nu eens de combinaties van feedback, klankschalen en ruisende cymbalen en dan weer de zuivere gitaardrones nooit gaan vervelen. Hoewel het lange A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks ronduit imposant is gaat de uiteidnelijk hoofdprijs naar The Strouhal Number. Dit prachtige werkstuk, met trouwens een bedriegelijke hint naar Roads van Portishead, weet de tinkelende koude van deze tijd van het jaar van een perfecte soundtrack te voorzien.
U kan 9/10 een overdreven score vinden, ik vond dat aanvankelijk ook. Wanneer het album na minstens 3 luisterbeurten nog steeds even sterk weet te beklijven, dan weet ik voor mezelf dat die score meer dan terecht is. 9/10 [Jan Denolet]
D-Side (France):
Aftenposten (Norway):
Armchair Dancefloor (UK):
As well as being a solo artist, Melbourne’s Oren Ambarchi has engaged in a huge number of collaborations, the most notable of which are probably those undertaken with Sunn O))): he contributed to both their Black One and Monoliths and Dimensions sets. This retrospective, whose five tracks span an hour, serves as an excellent introduction to his work, and consolidates his position as a fascinating practitioner of guitar abstraction. The understandably named ‘Intimidator’ might seem forbidding at first, but within the brutal constancy of its central tone smaller melodic details can be perceived. It’s white-on-white, no question, but occasional percussive stabs and punches of sub-bass suggest different emphases within the drone, as well as giving the track a glowering momentum.
More conventional emotional triggers can be found on album-exclusive ‘Iron Waves’ (Ambarchi’s remix of Paul Duncan’s ‘Parasail’), the vocal of which rides a queasy wire of muted dissonance. Darker still, ‘Moving Violation’ and ‘The Strouhal Number’ give off a murky light of uncertainty shading into paranoia. They serve to build towards the epic buzzing vistas of ‘A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks’, a literally and figuratively stunning noise symphony that eventually crests and breaks into an extended contemplative fade into silence. [Chris Power]
Laif (Turkey):
Sonic Seducer (Germany):
Gonzo Circus (Belgium):
GMD (France):
Dieu qu’il est bon de retrouver aux affaires un homme tel qu’Oren Ambarchi. Il peut se vanter de disposer d’un des curriculum vitae les plus chargés de la scène expérimentale et ses collaborations feraient pleurer tout amateur de musiques risquées : Fennesz, Pimmon, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Jim O’Rourke, Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl, Evan Parker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Peter Rehberg (mieux connu sous le nom de Pita), Merzbow ou encore Sunn O))) (le groupe ne peut en effet plus se passer des services d’Oren, en témoignent Black One et le récent Monoliths & Dimensions). Tous ont unanimement reconnus les incroyables talents d’Oren Ambarchi, lui qui a réinventé l’usage de la guitare en démontrant son incroyable potentiel une fois mise en contact de la matière électronique. Mais Intermissions 2000-2008 n’est pas tout à fait un nouvel album de l’Australien, il s’agit en effet d’une compilation de raretés, de performances live, de face B quasiment introuvables ou tout simplement de pièces inédites – le tout, sorti sur des labels aussi recommandables que peuvent être Touch, Southern Lord ou Preservation.
Et le festival Oren commence avec « Intimidator », pièce osée de drone qui met en scène un chassé croisé entre des infrabasses écrasantes et des percussions explosant de manière éparses, le tout dans des montées de drones complètement alcooliques : le talent ne prend pas deux secondes à s’exprimer. Et on retrouve cette patte unique à chaque fois exprimée de manière exhaustive, même quand il s’agit de s’attaquer à des pistes plus lyriques, directement empruntées au folk (le remix du « Parasail » de Paul Duncan en est un impressionnant exemple). Car ce qui fait la force d’un homme comme Oren Ambarchi réside dans l’incroyable connaissance de son instrument qui, une fois finalisée, autorise à le dématérialiser totalement pour le réinvestir dans un champ musical tout à fait inédit. Car de la guitare traditionnelle il ne reste plus rien ou presque, plus rien ne différencie son jeu d’oscillations électroniques, de drones en suspension ou de doom-metal sous cloche stérile (on comprend directement que Sunn O))) s’extasie sur son travail). Le reste n’est qu’expériences, tentatives souvent fructueuses d’approfondir encore plus le champ de recherche de tous les techno-monstres amateurs de sciences électroniques (au sens propre comme au sens figuré).
« Moving Violation » reprend les infrabasses et les drones là où il les avait laissées avec « Intimidator », ajoutant craquements et signaux digitaux dans une forêt de grésillements nasillards, « The Strouhal Number » joue de sa mélodie désaccordée pour nous plonger en pleine méditation alors que « A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks » clôture sur vingt-cinq minutes d’angoisse grandissante, jusqu’à son apogée dans la déflagration. Le disque est consumé. Bref, Intermissions 2000-2008 est une remarquable porte d’entrée au monde d’Oren Ambarchi ainsi qu’une collection de perles pour tous les fans du monsieur, une opération double qui consacre une bonne fois pour toutes le caractère essentiel de l’oeuvre de ce géant de l’expérimentation. 7/10 [Simon]
freistil (Austria):
Record of the month:
Von diesem extremen Niveau aus, das Oren Ambarchi erklommen hat und auf dem die Luft schon beängstigend dünn ist, muss wohl spätestens ab jetzt die elektronische Musik rezipiert werden. Keine Ebene drunter. Auf der „Intermission“ versammelt der gelernte Gitarrist seine weit verstreuten Arbeiten für Compilations und kleine, limitierte Vinyl-Editionen. Umrandet wird dieses Sammelalbum von zwei Live-Mitschnitten, einem zarten, in Sidney aufgenommenen namens „The Strouhal Number“, und dem immer brachialer werdenden „A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks“ vom Vancouver New Music Festival. Dazwischen hat der Australier – er ist auch Co-Kurator des „What Is Music?“-Festivals, Kurator der „Maximum Arousal“-Reihe in Melbourne, Co-Produzent der TV-Serie „Subsonics“ über experimentelle Musiken und Co-Kurator für die Yokohama Triennale; seine musikalischen Kollaborationen reichen von Zorn und Otomo über O’Rourke, Haino und Merzbow bis zur ständigen Mitarbeit in der Sunn O)))-Fabrik – noch drei besonders einprägsame Werke positioniert, die man nicht so schnell aus den Ohren verlieren möchte: „Moving Violation“, Ambarchis Beitrag für die 25-Jahre-Jubiläums-CD von Touch Records; „Intimidator“, seine Kooperation mit Anthony Pateras am präparierten Klavier; und „Iron Waves“, einen eigentlich schon überirdischen Remix eines Stücks („Parasail“) des Sängers Paul Duncan. Oren Ambarchi, Intermission 2000-2008: Selten zuvor mündete die Aufhebung stilistischer Grenzen und anderer akustischer Zwänge in so ein unfassbares Ausmaß an intelligenter, hypnotischer Schönheit. [felix]
Ox (Germany):
Westzeit (Germany):
FresStil (Austria):
His Voice (Czechia):
GoMag (Spain):
RifRaf (France):
Rockdelux (Italy):
Trust (Germany):
Earlabs (Netherlands):
Australian musician Oren Ambarchi is probably not a strange one to most readers here and with his amazing discography on labels such as Touch, Southern Lord and Room40. With motorized guitars, singing bowls, electronic gadgets and who knows what more he has been delivering great recordings. Some of the pieces he wrote have been released on got released on obscure rare releases, while they could use way more attention than the few lucky ones having those. Because of this British label Touch decided to release some of those on a new compilation: Intermission 2000-2008.
The first track is Intimidator which was first released on the on the 2LP version of In The Pendulum’s Brace on Southern Lord. The sounds here are derived from guitars and a prepared piano played by Anthony Pateras. A very minimal piece of music with soft drones from the guitar and scarce piano notes. The filtered guitar sounds like sine tones running in and out of phase with an occasional glitch when a new string is being touched. The low-end layers waver around the room creating a weird resonance.
The second piece Iron Wave is a remix of the track Parasail by American singer/songwriter Paul Duncan from the album Above the Trees. Some of the original sources do return like the vocals, but Ambarchi creates his own surroundings. To me this is a weird experience because I have been listening to the original version so very often since it got released in 2008, but for those unknown to the music by Paul Duncan this would work very well. It is an interesting combination. Maybe in the future a collaboration between the two of them for a complete album would be nice.
Moving Violation, the third piece was recorded in 2005 for the 25th Anniversary CD of the Touch label. This piece is completely based on filtered guitar sounds. The piece starts out with low-level tones sounding as almost clean sine-tones. Slowly extra tones are added creating small glitches and in an out of phase structures (similar to the first piece). From these Ambarchi works to a climax of more extreme noisy sounds. As the title suggests the sounds move along each other, slowly changing all the time, in the tradition of classical minimal music.
The Strouhal Number, part 4 of this collection comes from a live recording from 2000 for a radio broadcast in Sydney. Again the guitar is the only instrument but this time not only the heavy filtered version of it is used. For this piece there is a major focus on the melodic elements. Small melodies are created and probably run through a delay pedal to create loops. The piece is a light one compared with the other ones in this release but certainly point out a period in the music of Ambarchi that shouldn’t be left out.
This collection finishes of with the track which is the biggest reason why everyone should actually just go grab this cd release. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks was previously released as a limited single sided 12” on Table of the Elements. This very limited release now goes for double if not triple the price on eBay and such. In this piece Ambarchi plays guitar, which was recorded live at a festival, and combines this with his famous motorised cymbals and bells. This piece is a really diverse recording which contains about all elements Ambarchi has used in his past. From the granular begin to the clean sine tones at the end everything is there. From all the work I have heard from Ambarchi this is the most impressive one and it is good to see it finally available for a wider audience.
Intermission 2000-2008 is a great compilation which offers a bright fresh look into the music by Oren Ambarchi. As a starting point for his music it is highly recommend, but also for people who just love his music and have missed out on those rare compilations and tracks this one is surely not to be missed out.
allmusic.com (USA):
Intermission 2000-2008 features Oren Ambarchi reaching for the bottom drawer, compiling rarities and odd tracks. Rest assured, though, that these are not substandard pieces, not by a long shot. Four of the five lengthy numbers included on this CD have been previously available on compilation CDs or limited-edition vinyl. Out of these, the most notable are “Intimidator,” a quietly rumbling minimalist affair also featuring Anthony Pateras on prepared piano and first released as a bonus track on the two-LP version of Ambarchi’s album In the Pendulum’s Embrace, and “A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks,” a dark yet serene extended track featuring a live guitar improvisation (extremely ambient) with overdubbed bells and “motorised cymbal,” originally released as a limited 12″ on Table of the Elements. However, the highlight of Intermission is the one track that was previously unheard: “Iron Waves,” a remix of a Paul Duncan song (“Parasail,” from Above the Trees), although “remix” is not enough to describe the extent of Ambarchi’s reworking (with added guitars, bells, and cymbals) around Duncan’s rapturing vocal track. This CD has less thematic unity than Ambarchi’s previous albums for Touch, namely Suspension and Grapes from the Estate, but it still offers an intense and immersive listening experience. And considering all the other compilation tracks from that time frame he had to choose from, thematic unity, artistic coherence, and listening curve are clearly all factors that played into the track selection. [François Couture]
Body Space (Portugal):
Oren Ambarchi nem sempre é devidamente aclamado pelo contributo que teve no alargamento estético da música dos Sunn o))). Sem desconsiderar a capacidade de renovação de Stephen O’ Malley e Greg Anderson, há que frisar no percurso dos Sunn o))) uma espécie de pós-Ambarchi (ou pós-Black One), que só ganha com a intrusão de outros elementos entre as habituais machadadas lentas de guitarra. Não foi apenas por sorte que Monoliths & Dimensions surpreendeu pela sua mais ampla vertente orquestral. Oren Ambarchi participou activamente na formação desse último disco de Sunn o))) e os resultados são notórios. Desta vez encontramo-lo numa compilação de cinco longos temas que representam uma amostra do catálogo mais disperso acumulado pelo australiano na década passada.
Logo ao abrir, um título como “Intimidator” é muito adequado para um tema que expõe uma das dinâmicas transversais na música de Oren Ambarchi: aquela que opõe a hostilidade dos sub-graves ao teor mais límpido dos gongos e outros metais. O transe, que eleva estas faixas até um plano maior de espiritualidade, pode até ser associado à circularidade das orações judaicas entoadas por Oren Ambarchi (ele próprio judeu) nas sinagogas durante os seus anos de formação. De igual modo, Keiji Haino (o Deus que mudou a forma de Oren Ambarchi abordar a guitarra) é altamente suspeito por todos os momentos de Intermission, em que o instrumento é muito mais atmosférico do que rigorosamente técnico.
Oren Ambarchi revê as aparas que sobraram da última década (maioritariamente preenchida pelos discos na Touch) e, com isso, obtém um conjunto bem capaz de ilustrar o crescimento do espectro de graves na sua guitarra ao longo da década. Assim, sempre que as paredes abanarem por força de uma cerimónia sísmica como aquela que os Sunn o))) trouxeram até Lisboa, a cordialidade obriga a deixar uma moedinha na admiração por Oren Ambarchi. [Miguel Arsénio]
S & V (Russia):
RifRaf (France):
RifRaf (France):
Popmatters (USA):
Guitarist Oren Ambarchi’s lethargic, often oneiric-seeming productions can at times make Andrei Tarkovsky seem like a speed freak. Yet, like other masters of the methodical and barely active, Ambarchi can take the attentive listener and slow him or her to his time. There’s perhaps very little compositional difference between his work and that of others who dabble in similar electroacoustic spaces, but Ambarchi is a commanding presence, using the physicality of sound’s reaction to the world it bounces off of to drive his work quite literally into the listener.
The aforementioned presence has put Ambarchi in high demand with a number of artists, leading to a series of side projects and collaborations which have mounted atop the already impressive corpus of solo releases, not to mention his status as something of an unofficial third member of black metallurgists Sunn 0)). All this might lead one to believe that the stuff filling in the cracks is probably not likely to garner any gold, but B-sides collection Intermission 2000-2008 is a fine release indeed and should be examined alongside any of the man’s higher profile works.
If anything, those even remotely familiar with his work, as well as those who aren’t, should check out “Iron Waves”. The song is actually a remix of Paul Duncan’s “Parasail”, but a brief eavesdrop of the new arrangement justifies the name change. Ambarchi flattens the post rock of the original into rippling and crashing crests of voltaic texture, leaving in place Duncan’s Scott Walker-esque croon and thereby making a good case for an Ambarchi pop album. “Intimidator” radiates its bass up and down your body and its primitive crashes can take the most wired listener and plant them in the Paleolithic era. “A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks” ends the album with a power grid melting down, a hysterical and oddly confrontational payload for those patient enough to inch along the album’s drudging timeline. [Timothy Gabriele]
Decibel (USA):
A2 (Czechia):
Elergy (France):
Etherreal (France):
Comme le titre le suggère, cet album est un peu à part dans la discographie de l’artiste australien dans la mesure où il s’agit d’un regroupement de raretés, morceaux uniquement disponibles sur des compilations, issus de sorties en éditions limités, ou sessions live. Cette édition au format CD chez Touch est un excellent moyen de rendre ces enregistrements disponibles au plus grand nombre.
En fait mis à part le titre et les quelques éléments de texte cachés sous le disque, l’aspect compilation nous parait complètement anecdotique tellement l’ensemble de l’album est cohérent, et ce malgré les 8 années dont sont extraits ces cinq pièces. Elles ne sont pas présentées ici dans leur ordre chronologique, mais plutôt par affinité musicale et couleur sonore, aidant encore à la cohérence d’ensemble, passant progressivement d’une ambient abstraite à des drones crépitants.
Intimidator ouvre l’album de fort belle manière, minimaliste et improvisé, mêlant épures sinusoïdales et percussions métalliques qui sont en fait des sonorités produites par Anthony Pateras sur un piano préparé. L’ensemble est de toute beauté, doux, ample et contemplatif. On reste sur ce type de tonalités avec Iron Waves qui est en fait un remix du Parasail de Paul Duncan, avec cette fois de véritables coups métalliques proche d’un gong, résonant à l’infini. C’est ici que la guitare d’Oren Ambarchi commence vraiment à se faire entendre sous forme de nappes ondulantes, fragiles, se mariant parfaitement à la voix un peu plaintive de Paul Duncan.
Deux pièces un peu plus courtes ensuite avec dans un premier temps Moving Violation dont une version un peu différente figurait sur la compilation Touch 25. On retrouve ici un certain minimalisme, cette fois à base de drones sourds ponctués de claquements et évoluant vers un son dense et grésillant. Petite rupture avec The Strouhal Number, le titre le plus ancien issu d’une session live sur une radio australienne. Un son clair, éclatant même, doux et fragile, semblant mêler guitare et clavier pour un résultat proche d’une boite à musique, donnant en tout cas envie de s’endormir sur ce sublime morceau.
On terminera avec A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks, une pièce de 20mn qui était quant à elle sortie en édition limitée chez Table of the Elements. On est ici plus proche d’un dense magma sonore, riche et tendu, composé de strates de drones, sifflements, frétillements et craquements électroniques. Finalement le calme retrouve sa place et l’album se termine presque comme il a commencé, tonalité épurée et tintements métalliques épars.
Une musique de toute beauté, une compilation d’une rare cohérence, une excellente initiation à l’univers sonore d’Oren Ambarchi. 7/8 [Fabrice Allard]
MI (Poland):
