ALVA NOTO Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
Part two of Alva Noto's Xerrox series takes up right where the last one left off, continuing on in a much more buzzy, blissy, droney vein, way more textural and melodic than many of the AN records that have come before. In the review of volume one we mentioned Pop Ambient, and if anything volume 2 is even more washed out and shimmery, right out of the gate, AN offers up a warm wash of muted buzz, and thick gristly whir, softly pulsating, layered and warm, seemingly gone are the harsh tones and glitchy clicks and pops found on most Raster-Noton releases. Could be that Xerrox is just a concept record, but we have to say, as much as we loved the clipped minimalism of other Alva Noto records, the sounds here are quite divine. But this is an Alva Noto record, so even these warm whirls of drifting ambience, are laced with bits of static and hiss, super high end sine waves, but they're woven deftly into the sound, and serve to simply add more texture. There's a brief bit of super minimal beep and rumble, but then it's right back into that gorgeous drifty haze, that could just as soon be a Tim Hecker record.
"Xerrox Meta Phaser" follows suit, at least in the beginning, a soft whirring soundscape, that quickly escalates into an almost Sunn like dirge before exploding into a squall of blown out white noise. And then we're back to the dreamy dronemusic, this time, stretched out strings, smeared into soft summery swells, laced with a patina of gritty hiss, and so it goes, the whole record is a dark swirling expanse of muted minimal melodies, warm textures, mysterious drones, and delicate hazy drifts, the usual glitch and buzz, relegated to accents and filigree, rarely interfering in the rest of the record's blissy sprawl. Any one of these tracks would be right at home on the newest, more Kranky-fied Pop Ambient comp, and thus, this might be the first Raster-Noton record that might just appeal to all the drone and dirge folks as much as the glitch and pop people.
Like all R-N stuff, gorgeously designed and packaged, an oversized diecut, 8 panel sleeve, the cd nestled within the diecuts, the art spare and minimal and striking.
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Phaser Acat 1"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Soma"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Meta Phaser"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Asphodel) cd 13.98
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Raster-Noton) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! Be warned though, that the vinyl version only contains -some- of the music on the cd! Here's what we had to say about that cd:
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Revep (Raster-Noton) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When the dollars-to-minutes ratio eeks close to 1:1, we tend to get a little uncomfortable. Really, what's the big deal about David "Organum" Jackman doubling or even tripling up the sounds on his $15.00 singles that clock in at a couple of minutes? There's also been talk of this marketing psychology from this mathematical ratio due to a pending Boris LP, which is not going to be cheap (not surprising), but also isn't one of their monstrously long drone-doom pieces either... well it's just sorta long. So the question always comes down to the quality of the merchandise, is Boris worth the price of admission? The same question should be asked of the third collaboration between Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) and Ryuichi Sakamoto, which clocks in a little under 20 minutes. Again, the division of labor puts Sakamoto at the piano and Nicolai at the laptop, with Sakamoto providing a series of impressionist clusters of piano notes and elegant repetitions, and Nicolai smudging those sounds through his pixel crunching software. Harmonically crisp and deftly performed, the three pieces on Revep offer a nice variation on the theme set by the first two collaborations Vrioon and Insen. Sakamoto fans will delight that he's offered a new arrangement for his classic piece "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," which Nicolai aerosolizes into a fine mist of digital ephemera and pin-pricked ambience. Certainly as lovely as the first two!
MPEG Stream: "Siisx"
MPEG Stream: "ax Mr. L"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Vrioon (Raster-Noton) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Vrioon" is a collaboration between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto (of Yellow Magic Orchestra) in which Sakamoto provided source material of impressionistic piano pieces to Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), who blurred many of the edges into a beautiful ambience and added clusters of slow-moving rhythms. It's very simple and very effective and very beautiful...
RealAudio clip: "Uoon 1"
RealAudio clip: "Noon"

ALVA NOTO + OPIATE Opto Files (Raster-Noton) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Opto Files" is the surprising combination of the Pole-esque neo-dub work of Denmark's Opiate and the clinically clicked rhythms of Noto (here calling himself Alva Noto, although there hasn't been any discernable difference between the Noto and Alva Noto projects). While Noto has supplied his trademarked glitchs, it is Opiate who offers a wide spectrum of color to Noto's typically neutral tonalities. It may not be a huge jump between the two styles, but it's nice to see a covergence of aesthetics.
RealAudio clip: "Opto File 2"

ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen Live (Raster-Noton) dvd 30.00

ALVA NOTO + SCANNER Uniform (SFMOMA) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This limited edition cd ep was released by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition "010101: Art in Technological Times". Carsten Nicolai (Noto) and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) did a three-hour set as part of the opening of the show, and this cd ep is the result of the two of them editing down and manipulating their live recording into a 26-minute work.
Both the digipak design and the sounds on the cd lean towards the Raster-Noton aesthetic -- minimal clicks and cuts style, starting with a pleasant insectoid buzz and gradually adding layers of crackle and drone (and what sounds like crickets chirping or frogs croaking!). As the piece progresses, these "synthetic late summer night" sounds are augmented by high, wavering electronic tones. Really a gorgeous listen!
RealAudio clip: "Uniform (excerpt1)"
RealAudio clip: "Uniform (excerpt2)"

ALVA NOTO / SIGNAL / BYETONE / KOMET Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is basically the Raster-Noton allstars: Alva Noto, Byetone, Komet, and Signal (which is a collaboration of the aforementioned three artists) recording for Staalplaat's acclaimed "Mort Aux Vaches" series. Alva Noto's piece is a live documentation of the material found on his debut, with its terse electron pinpricks evolving amidst very slowly developing pure-tone, post-techno structures. Nicolai's performance of "Prototypes" clearly incorporates the same sounds found on his studio album, but the arrangement is one very long track and is completely different than the original. Byetone (aka Olaf Bender) is the least prolific of the Raster-Noton founders, with only a couple of releases. His 30 minutes for the Raster "Mort Aux Vaches" is a solid replication of Mika Vainio's crystalline "Metri" album for Sahko, as a surgical presentation of acid house bleeping grooves. Komet, who has recently simply been recording under his given name Frank Bretschneider, is the most effects-happy amongst the Raster-Noton family, warbling his pure tones through ring modulation and ample delay patterns to give the whispered clickery and alarm call bleeps a Frippertronic feel. The Signal recordings may be the weakest amongst the group, Pan Sonic / Goem throwaway tracks with electronic loops are set up and left unchanged, as if nobody amongst the group wanted to change anybody else's sounds. It is the slippages between melody and rhythm that make the Raster-Noton sound so appealing. While the rest of this double set is well worth checking out, Raster-Noton's collaborative efforts prove they are perhaps better as solo artists.
RealAudio clip: ALVA NOTO "Prototypes"
RealAudio clip: BYETONE "1:2"
RealAudio clip: KOMET "Glas"
RealAudio clip: SIGNAL "Light Pipe"

ALVARIUS B Blood Operatives Of The Barium Sunset (Abduction) lp 16.98

ALVARIUS B s/t (Abduction) cd 14.98
It goes without saying that the Sun City Girls often exhibit splashes of hallucinatory brilliance throughout their pseudo-eastern psychedelia mashed with cinematic grandeur and way-fucking-far-out esoterica, but at the same time, the Girls have a bad habit of releasing way too much meanderingly psychotic material that definitely tries the patience of even the most die-hard SCG fan. Curiously enough, the smattering of solo recordings from the Bishop brothers, Sir Richard Bishop and Alvarius B (aka Alan Bishop), have managed to avoid the failings of some of the SCG recordings. The reissue of the first Alvarius B record clearly demonstrates this (as well as the 2005 vinyl-only record Blood Operatives Of The Barium Sunset). Recorded between 1981-1989, many of Alan's severely mangled folk-songs are curiously prescient of the current flourishing of acid folk fingerpicking. At the same time, these fucked-up lo-fi indie-spluttering instrumentals sound like an excessively complex Sebadoh tune played by one guy with a tuneless guitar. Either way you look at it, here's one of the great recordings from one of the Bishop brothers. It went out of print quickly the first time it was released on vinyl back in 1994. We hope it won't happen again.
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Track 11"

ALVARIUS B & DYLAN NYOUKIS Sugar: The Other White Meat (Catsup Plate Recordings) lp 12.98
People had been really excited for this collaboration, and on first listen it was a little difficult to see why. The first handful of tracks come courtesy of Alvarius B, otherwise known as Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls, and sad to say, sound really tossed off and pointless. Sounding alternately like a guitar lesson with two people arguing in the background, someone blowing through a crazy straw, and a guitar with squirrels climbing on it, those tracks had us pretty much ready to give up. Thankfully, we stuck it out until Dylan Nyoukis' 12 minute closing track on side one, a relentless barrage of muted thumb pianos and rubber band/kleenex box guitars that overlap and intersect and eventually become a loping, skipping, Philip Jeck-ian soundscape, warm and sepia toned. Side two fares just as well with Nyoukis and Bishop teaming up for a super abstract half hour of song snippets, transient noise bursts, bizarre sonic disturbances, eastern ragas, rumbling drones, spastic freakouts and subtle melodies. Sounds like the Sun City Girls' recent Sublime Frequencies series of world music recordings, only from some other world entirely.

ALVARIUS B AND CERBERUS SHOAL The Vim And Vigor Of (North East Indie) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Cerberus Shoal wrote a song. Alvarius B wrote a couple songs. All in all, three songs were written. between 1996 and 2002, Alvarius B, who is Alan Bishop from the Sun City Girls, recorded his two songs and the Cerberus Shoal song and Cerberus Shoal, who do their droney folky collective thing with lots of instruments from all over the world way out there in Maine, recorded their song and the two Alvarius B songs. Ok, so that's the story of how this second installment in North East Indie's series of splits came to be (first was " The Whys and Hows of Herman Dune and Cerberus Shoal," upcoming splits in the series will include Magic Carpathians and Guapo). This pairing seems natural; past AQ reviews have compared Cerberus Shoal with Sun City Girls, and each person / group's style suits the songwriting of the other one very nicely. Alvarius B brings warm lo-fi acoustic guitar and vocals; Cerberus Shoal's musical universe, not so overtly "ethnic" here as on some of their other recordings, is populated by banjos, clattering typewriter percussiveness, and a uniquely droll vocal delivery.
Both Cerberus Shoal and Alvarius B contribute darkly surreal lyrical imagery, alternately plaintive and fucked-up, contributing to a psych-folk sound that manages to be simultaneously blackly comic and genuinely moving.
MPEG Stream: CERBERUS SHOAL "The Real Ding"
MPEG Stream: ALVARIUS B "Viking Christmas"

ALVARS ORKESTER Interference (Ash International) cd 14.98
A semi-legendary fixture of the late eighties cassette underground, Alvars Orkester was a noise/drone duo obsessed with "the mysteries of psychic sickness, mental institutions, the industrial music culture and the power of sound". They took their influence from the likely industrial candidates, Test Dept. SPK, Throbbing Gristle and the like, but their sound soon developed into a more minimalist approach to sound, focusing more on the drone. The band split in the nineties only to reunite last year to record this 4 track exploration of paranoia and discord, fear and mortality, sickness and death.
The first track is a ten minute near static drone, dense and layered a high end sine wave hovering above a low end buzz, the two slowly shifting and subtly interacting. Sublime and in its own way quite gorgeous. Track two is much more harsh, an assemblage of digital feed back, harsh slabs of noise, chopped and sequenced into ear piercing rhythmic blocks of sound. Track three "Reality Distortion Field" is a shimmering soundfield of chimes and sinewaves, pulsing instrument hum and far away feedback, a murky backdrop for disembodied voices and strange tape manipulation. Truly creepy stuff. the final near 20 minute "Field Grey" is a super minimal expanse of barely there dark ambience. Low warm tones, ebb and flow, their shifts barely noticeable until near the end of the record when processed percussion swells up beneath the drones, and ultra subtle melodies drift ghost like from the murk. So haunting and lovely. Definitely for the dark drone obsessed, Organum, Lustmord, Chalk, Coleclough and the like.
And as with most releases on Ash International, gorgeously understated and quite striking packaging.
MPEG Stream: "Johannishus"
MPEG Stream: "Cobra Mist"

ALVARS ORKESTER Organic Woodtrip 1991-1992 (Kning Disk) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Woodtrip"
MPEG Stream: "Dance In Halfway Under Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Irenic Urchin"

ALWAYS F.I.S.T. (Nervous Jerk) cd 13.98
Depending on your tastes this is either the most insane and enjoyable record you're gonna hear all year or the record that will drive you utterly and completely crazy. Sounds like a perfect record for AQ no doubt. Always is an a cappella outfit from Australia who loop their vocals to create some super strange and mesmerizingly repetitive sounds. Somehow the human voices become blurred and it begins to sound like you're being swarmed by wild buzzing flies. If each of those flies was whispering the same thing in your ear. Hmmm... In some ways we hear the influence of Steve Reich's early tape pieces but here they end up broken down into shorter tracks that still test the limits of endurance and your tolerance for maddening repetition. Whenever we play this in the store at least a few people end up driven away, yet just as many freak out and need to know what's playing so they can buy it. Listen to the sound samples and figure out which camp you belong in. Just a matter of time before folks like Irwin Chusid and the Incredibly Strange Music brigade freak out to the totally insane sounds of Always.
MPEG Stream: "Gutter Tripp"
MPEG Stream: "Slimed Aztec"
MPEG Stream: "Di-Ye-Yah"

AM Mccleod-ganj (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is Antony Milton's first completely computer based recording, using the sounds of Tibetan instruments that just happened to be laying about. Things start off with what sounds like someone taking a powersaw to a bell, UGLY, but with gorgeous shimmering overtones. As the record progresses we hear lots of wild tribal percussion over a thudding pulse and some low end rumble, banjos chopped up into a digital soup that sounds a bit like a more uneven, more jagged Oval, and syrupy bass melodies and fluttery static over a dreamy, hypnotic dirge with rich swells and seasick melodies. This is a really nice mix of organic and non-organic sounds, computer manipulated into a collection of rich soundscapes, gorgeous ambience and some downright melodic, almost-pop-songs.
RealAudio clip: "Skullbow Handycam"
RealAudio clip: "Dharamsala"

AM More Domestic (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We'll just have to assume that AM stands for Antony Milton, head of Pseudo Arcana. This disc starts off with a three part piece, the sounds of passing traffic, buzzing insects, whirring fans, and sort of lowercase drones with the occasional percussive intrusion of a bumped microphone, or distant clatter. Eventually, strange otherworldly notes are introduced, sounding a bit like horns without reeds, more sound than actual notes, but they manage to add miniscule amounts of soothing melody. Part two sounds like a version of part one, only far away, and with the sound of crickets, that slowly evolves into a buzzing swarm. Part three sounds like a version of part two, but with the addition of doleful lonely melodies played on a bamboo flute. Sounds like some overheard, ancient ceremony being performed fireside. Track 2 is all casio bleeps and blips, that demarcate a warbly uneven synth drone, all dreamy and effevescent. Sounds a bit like a more lo-fi Boards Of Canada. The final track is a noisy assemblage of dissonant clatter and barely discernable melody, tape hiss, and a wild spray of notes and tones, like a Total or Gate record falling apart, slowly deconstructing before your ears. Nice.
RealAudio clip: "Kitchen Sink #2"
RealAudio clip: "Pop. Tape"

AM (ANTONY MILTON) Poerua Acid (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3"cd-r 10.98
One of three new discs in the latest series of lovingly hand made 3" cd-r's from the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis... Don't! label (the other two being Bonecloud and Nigel Wright, reviewed elsewhere on this list). Poerua Acid features two looooong tracks from beloved NZ noisemaker and PseudoArcana label head honcho Antony Milton, and is the perfect mix of his two sides of his sonic personality, one side lilting dreamy and melodic, the other, dense, muted and noisy.
The opening track begins with just guitar, all warbly and slightly out of tune, the tape speed shifting and changing speed, making it sound like the sound on one of those grade school film strips, warm and wreathed in reverb, underneath, strange little swells and swirls drift and shimmer. Over the course of the track, the delicate finger picked melodies sink deeper and deeper into the background, until all that's left is a blown out muddy dronescape of overlapping rumbles and haunting flute like melodies.
The second track is much less restrained, opening up with a thick wall of guitars, dense and tangled, thick with distortion, roiling and overblown, garbled vocals and all manner of mysterious melodies lurk ghostlike beneath an epic expanse of layered guitar grind, like a more blissed out and melodic Sunroof! or Hototogisu.
Packaged in thick textured maroon paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as always, these are SUPER LIMITED, and odds are we won't be able to get more. So don't dawdle...
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"

AMACHER, MARYANNE Sound Characters (Tzadik) cd 15.98
A spectacular release from Tzadik's Composer series! Maryanne Amacher is a reclusive sound sculptor who constructs the aural equivalent of rust to be heard in the reverberant spaces of cathedrals. The sonorities constructed out of mutilated recordings of bells, tape noise, and lots of highly amplified alien noises that would normally be on the quiet side of inaudible.
A beautifully cromulant release.

AMADOU & MARIAM Welcome To Mali (Nonesuch) cd 15.98
While we've always liked what we've heard from this famous musical couple from Mali, it wasn't until this outing of theirs that we fell hard for their lively approach. They craft songs that come from their West African heritage while bringing some modern influences into the mix. Welcome To Mali has an immediacy and urgency in its grooves that swept us away on our first listen. While so many others who try to inject bits of electronics into traditional 'world' music usually fail miserably, creating a sound watered down and glossy beyond recognition, somehow Amadou & Mariam understand how to do so successfully while still staying so true to the roots of their music. This is an electrifying record that makes us move a bit bolder and brighter when we have it on. The way they catch grooves and bring so much energy to their songs is a reminder about how totally potent true dance music can really be!
MPEG Stream: "Ce N'est Pas Bon"
MPEG Stream: "Magosa"
MPEG Stream: "Masiteladi"

AMADOU ET MARIAM Je Pense A Toi (Universal) cd 16.98

AMALGAMATED SONS OF REST s/t (Galaxia) cd ep 9.98
On local / Santa Cruz-based label Galaxia comes this supergroup of sorts. Amalgamated Sons of Rest is Will Oldham of PALACE, Jason Molina of SONGS:OHIA, and Alasdair Roberts of APPENDIX OUT. These guys have basically written the book on broken-voiced, broken-hearted, hollow-eyed, lovely back porch indie twang. A one of a kind 6-song (one more than the lp) session. *Really* nice and even more stripped down than these guys usually are -- harking back to the earliest Songs:Ohia records and the most despairing Palace tracks.
RealAudio clip: "Maa Bonny Lad"

AMALGAMATED SONS OF REST s/t (Galaxia) lp 8.98
On local / Santa Cruz-based label Galaxia comes this supergroup of sorts. Amalgamated Sons of Rest is Will Oldham of PALACE, Jason Molina of SONGS:OHIA, and Alasdair Roberts of APPENDIX OUT. These guys have basically written the book on broken-voiced, broken-hearted, hollow-eyed, lovely back porch indie twang. A one of a kind 5-song session. Nice. Vinyl is one sided with a marine-life themed etching. CD available Sept 10, 2002.

AMANDINE Leave Out The Sad Parts (Fat Cat) cd ep 8.98
Leave Out The Sad Parts is the new cdep from this Swedish foursome who briefly went by the less fitting moniker Wichita Linemen. This U.S.-only release includes one song ("Firefly") from their fine debut album, 2005's This is Where Our Hearts Collide and two tunes previously only available on a UK 7". Amandine's sound is perhaps most characterized by the vocals of Olof Gidlof. He has one of those voices of which it's difficult to discern the gender. We believed it to be a female singer until we checked the band lineup. It sounds as though the weight of the world is preventing him from raising his voice beyond a low, muted register. Some of us thought this was quite reminiscent of '70s heavy hearts such as Bread. It's a disarmingly warm, melancholic assembly of piano, guitar, bass and drums accompanied by accordion, theremin, banjo and trumpet. The final song "Between What He's Saying And What He Regrets" is graced with some suitably sleepy fiddle... a definite highlight!
MPEG Stream: "Firefly"
MPEG Stream: "Between What He's Saying And What He Regrets"

AMANDINE This Is Where Our Hearts Collide (Fat Cat) cd 15.98
After their terrific Leave Out The Sad Parts cdep came out (now quite some time ago), we were left oh so eagerly anticipating the domestic release of this Swedish band's debut full length (which came out overseas in 2005). We waited and waited and waited. The sun came up the sun went down, seasons changed... but no Amandine album surfaced... until now! So if you dug the ep, dig into more of their beautiful, dark country rock characterized by prominent strings and piano and the charmingly caramelized voice of Olof Gidlof. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Firefly"

AMAZEZINE! #5 magazine+7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Canadian zine printed in an edition of 1000 numbered copies. Interviews with Jim O'Rourke, Fly Pan Am, Loren Mazzacane Connors, '60s furntiture designer Verner Panton. Comes with a 7" featuring Loren Mazzacane Connors and Ci Dy.

AMBARCHI / AVENAIM Clockwork (Room 40 / Jerker) cd 15.98

AMBARCHI / FENNESZ / PIMMON / REHBERG / ROWE Afternoon Tea (Ritornell / Mille Plateaux) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The powerbook improv ensemble is a relatively new music performance hybridization that has found little success in attempting to bring the fluidity of free-jazz improvisation to the digital clickery of live hard disc editing. Recorded results we've heard have mostly been boring, self-important collages of inconsequential noodling from alpha male egos who want to upstage their companions rather than to collaborate. While the cavalier Christian Fennesz and the studious Peter Rehberg have been involved in some of more egregious failures of this genre, this, their collaboration with Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, and Paul "Pimmon" Gough is perhaps the first work of true greatness for any powerbook ensemble. The keys to the success for "Afternoon Tea" are the high degree of restraint from each individual collaborator and the indecipherability betwixt the guitars of Ambarchi & Rowe and the computer trickery of the rest. Slow rhythmic creaks, subtle drones, and hacked musique concrete elements form and dissolve various structures, with a lot of room for each of the sounds to breathe. While this tracks in at almost 50 minutes, you really want it to go on for much longer. Nice.

AMBARCHI AND NG Fateless (Asphodel) dvd 17.98

AMBARCHI, OREN A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks (Table Of The Elements) 12" 17.98
Latest in Table Of The Elements new one sided etched 12" series of modern guitar music, and certainly a collection of modern guitar music would not be complete with long time aQ fave Oren Ambarchi. Whose mastery of the guitar seems to know no bounds, teaming up with the Southern Lord stable for various exercises in extreme heaviness, but just as often crafting delicate dreamscapes of hushed strum and blurred riffing. His solo records tend toward the latter, but this piece is something else all together.
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.
Pressed on swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!

AMBARCHI, OREN Der Kleine Konig (Tonschacht) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Australian avant-guitarist Oren Ambarchi wrangles with some Max / MSP patches to craft this single of looped mantras of chopped guitar buzz and dissonant noise drones.

AMBARCHI, OREN Destinationless Desire (Touch) 7" 8.98
Brand new 7" of delicate beauty and haunting songsmithery from Mr. Oren Ambarchi, who hasn't had much time lately for his own music making, as he seems to be a constant part of the Southern Lord / SUNNO))) axis, being a part of at least three groups we know of. But we've pretty much loved every one of Ambarchi's releases and this new single is no different.
Using electric guitars, organ, bells, samples, percussion and motorized cymbal (!), Ambarchi has created to dramatically different pieces. The A side is a woozy, washed out underwater sounding loopscape, peppered with record crackle (unless that's coming from the record player, either way, it sounds great!), like a slightly jauntier, less melancholy Oval, major key melody, all softly sunshine-y, a dreamily hypnotic stretch of soft swirl that could go on forever.
The B side is much darker, long streaks of shimmery low end beneath haunting slowed down vocals, mournful and mysterious, the vocals and the guitar drift and shift, all wound up in and around each other, throughout, bits of electronic glitchery, smears of muted buzz, snippets of conversation and dialogue, but all that stuff seems to be woven into an undulating backdrop for Ambarchi's ghostlike disembodied blues.
As always, packaged in super striking thick matte sleeve with gorgeous photos and layout from Touch head honcho Jon Wozencroft.

AMBARCHI, OREN Grapes From The Estate (Touch) cd 15.98
The notion of musicians hunkered over their laptops, sitting still in the glow of the screen, not moving at all except for their fingers, paints a rather dull performance picture of what is often sonically quite exciting. So when organic/real/live instruments are brought into the mix, it makes the whole thing that much more alive and approachable and personal. Especially when the computer is left out of the equation COMPLETELY. Thus our appreciation of guitar-wielding electronicists (and fellow Touch label recording artists) Christian Fennesz and especially Oren Ambarchi. Fennesz with his sun dappled, "Venice" California sunshine-y shimmer, and Oren Ambarchi with his less-is-more, minimalist pointalism. Both use the guitar, Fennesz to interact with the computer, Ambarchi just to SOUND like it's being run through a computer, whihc is what makes this disc so amazing. Where Fennesz paints lush dense soundscapes, of thick harmonies and dreamy buzz, Ambarchi takes a way more minimal approach on Grapes From The Estate, spreading notes out into lazy barely there melodies, and loose frameworks of subtle glitchery and gentle strum. Occasionally, drums enter the mix, but only as a shuffling afterthought, lending the sound a definite jazzy post rock vibe. Imagine Oval's glitchy and muffled underwater murmer, but played on a guitar instead of being assembled from skipping cds. There is that sort of hiccupping rhythmic element present, but it's much more an innate part of the song, and these are most definitely -songs-. Instead of long 'pieces', these tracks are structured like actual songs, melodies appear and disappear, recur and subtly shift throughout, there are almost-choruses, and some of the motifs are quite catchy (although subtly so). Most of the record is dark and glacial, stepping carefully through a vast expanse of space, except for the album's centerpiece "Remidios The Beauty", where the pace picks up just a bit, and Ambarchi's guitar / effects interface produces an almost bouncy melody, that while being slightly more upbeat, still retains all of its dreamy sleepiness. This is the perfect mix of Kompakt style pop ambient, minimalist post rock, and those dark and rumbling drones we all love so much.
MPEG Stream: "Girl With The Silver Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Corkscrew"

AMBARCHI, OREN Grapes From the Estate (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This long time AQ fave now available on vinyl. A deluxe gatefold double lp, limited to 1000 copies, a handful of which are on purple vinyl, cross your fingers if you care and you might get lucky...
Here's what we had to say about this amazing work:
The notion of musicians hunkered over their laptops, sitting still in the glow of the screen, not moving at all except for their fingers, paints a rather dull performance picture of what is often sonically quite exciting. So when organic/real/live instruments are brought into the mix, it makes the whole thing that much more alive and approachable and personal. Especially when the computer is left out of the equation COMPLETELY. Thus our appreciation of guitar-wielding electronicists (and fellow Touch label recording artists) Christian Fennesz and especially Oren Ambarchi. Fennesz with his sun dappled, "Venice" California sunshine-y shimmer, and Oren Ambarchi with his less-is-more, minimalist pointalism. Both use the guitar, Fennesz to interact with the computer, Ambarchi just to SOUND like it's being run through a computer, whihc is what makes this disc so amazing. Where Fennesz paints lush dense soundscapes, of thick harmonies and dreamy buzz, Ambarchi takes a way more minimal approach on Grapes From The Estate, spreading notes out into lazy barely there melodies, and loose frameworks of subtle glitchery and gentle strum. Occasionally, drums enter the mix, but only as a shuffling afterthought, lending the sound a definite jazzy post rock vibe. Imagine Oval's glitchy and muffled underwater murmer, but played on a guitar instead of being assembled from skipping cds. There is that sort of hiccupping rhythmic element present, but it's much more an innate part of the song, and these are most definitely -songs-. Instead of long 'pieces', these tracks are structured like actual songs, melodies appear and disappear, recur and subtly shift throughout, there are almost-choruses, and some of the motifs are quite catchy (although subtly so). Most of the record is dark and glacial, stepping carefully through a vast expanse of space, except for the album's centerpiece "Remidios The Beauty", where the pace picks up just a bit, and Ambarchi's guitar / effects interface produces an almost bouncy melody, that while being slightly more upbeat, still retains all of its dreamy sleepiness. This is the perfect mix of Kompakt style pop ambient, minimalist post rock, and those dark and rumbling drones we all love so much.
MPEG Stream: "Girl With The Silver Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Corkscrew"

AMBARCHI, OREN Lost Like A Star (Bo'Weavil) lp 32.00
A brand new two track 'album' from Australian guitarist / soundscaper Oren Ambarchi and it's a doozy. Two side long tracks, one composed for a Japanese dance troupe, the other recorded live, both gorgeous.
The 'dance' track takes up all of side A and utilizes electric guitar, bowed instruments, samples, bells, cymbals and percussion. Deep drifts of buzzing sounds drift dreamlike from the speakers, cymbals sizzle like falling rain, bells twinkle like stars in a black sky, very drifty and otherworldly. It eventually builds to a throbbing fever pitch, but instead of getting heavier, it just gets thicker, and more dense and way more intense. Notes throb and pulse, reverberating and beating against one another, creating dense fields of rich overtones, the whole thing very liquid and organic sounding, constantly shifting and changing shape. Would have loved to see the dance that accompanied these sounds.
The B side was recorded live, the instrumentation including electric guitars, cymbals and a motor (!). A much more delicate and haunting piece than the flipside, moody melodies drifting over pulsing buzzing drones, the melodies spaced out and spidery, over a fuzzy shimmery backdrop. About halfway through the track, the sound explodes and becomes a massive, grinding, buzz drenched wall of thick static guitar, layer upon layer, very trancelike and hypnotic, but incredibly fierce and intense, finally culminating in a dreamy fade out of muted tones and a barely there melody.
Nice super textured cardstock, full color sleeves, incredibly thick vinyl, LIMITED TO 650 COPIES, each record hand numbered...

AMBARCHI, OREN Mort Aux Vaches: Song of Separation (Staalplaat) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded for the Dutch radio station VPRO and released as part of Staalplaat's acclaimed "Mort Aux Vaches" series, Oren Ambarchi's "Song of Separation" is a continuation of the ideas previously investigated on his "Suspension" album for Touch. Employing a number of electronic / digital effects to manipulate the shape of his guitar, Ambarchi produces a slowly moving series of pointillistic tonal plucks. Each tone hangs in space before dissolving into the emptiness of silence which in good time is replaced by another sympathetic tone. While Ambarchi has openly stated the influences of Alvin Lucier and Morton Feldman, he approaches this work quite clearly as an improvisation, meandering through time and space rather than controlling it with conceptual restrictions or repetitive melodic stanzas. Limited to 1000 copies.
RealAudio clip: "Song Of Separation Part 1"

AMBARCHI, OREN Pendulum's Embrace (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Space... tones... space. A bass note now and again, and whispering hissssss. A guitar string plucked, muffled by effects, droning into silence. And repeat. Doom paced (as per much on the Southern Lord label, home to SUNNO))) after all), but not "heavy" like doom metal. Talk about slooooooooooooooow though. Soporific this is, in a nice nice dreamy way. Warm and pretty and so, so sad sounding. There's three long tracks here that do indeed wrap you in their embrace, and proceed with the reassuring steadiness of a pendulum's swing. Aussie experimentalist Oren Ambarchi (known for many collaborations, projects, and solo albums, including 2004's wonderful Grapes From The Estate to which this is perhaps offered as sequel) utilizes sounds both fragile and foreboding, from instrumentation including glass harmonica, bells, piano, percussion, and of course guitars. The opening track "Fever, A Warm Poison" sleepwalks glacially, as per the first few sentences of this review. Ambarchi orchestrates the swell of strings, or what could be an accordion's wheeze, into this album's soundworld on the second track, "Inamorata". Utterly gentle & melancholic. As is the 17 minute finale, "Trailing Moss In Mystic Glow", which while blissfully relaxed, might be the "busiest" track of the disc on account of the presence of some quiet, spectral vocals, indistinct but still a suggestion of songiness towards the end of the piece. The guitar melodies are denser here, and there's a hint of glitch. It's gorgeous at any rate. This cd should appeal to fans of Earth's Hex, and Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, and even Boris's gentler moments, as if held under a microscope, volume hushed. Also this very list, we've reviewed the new release from another Ambarchi act, Sun. This could be that Sun album, left out to melt in the (actual) sun, to droop and drip, pooling into a limpid, low-key loveliness...
MPEG Stream: "Fever, A Warm Poison"
MPEG Stream: "Trailing Moss In Mystic Glow"

AMBARCHI, OREN Pendulum's Embrace (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!
Space... tones... space. A bass note now and again, and whispering hissssss. A guitar string plucked, muffled by effects, droning into silence. And repeat. Doom paced (as per much on the Southern Lord label, home to SUNNO))) after all), but not "heavy" like doom metal. Talk about slooooooooooooooow though. Soporific this is, in a nice nice dreamy way. Warm and pretty and so, so sad sounding. There's three long tracks here that do indeed wrap you in their embrace, and proceed with the reassuring steadiness of a pendulum's swing. Aussie experimentalist Oren Ambarchi (known for many collaborations, projects, and solo albums, including 2004's wonderful Grapes From The Estate to which this is perhaps offered as sequel) utilizes sounds both fragile and foreboding, from instrumentation including glass harmonica, bells, piano, percussion, and of course guitars. The opening track "Fever, A Warm Poison" sleepwalks glacially, as per the first few sentences of this review. Ambarchi orchestrates the swell of strings, or what could be an accordion's wheeze, into this album's soundworld on the second track, "Inamorata". Utterly gentle & melancholic. As is the 17 minute finale, "Trailing Moss In Mystic Glow", which while blissfully relaxed, might be the "busiest" track of the disc on account of the presence of some quiet, spectral vocals, indistinct but still a suggestion of songiness towards the end of the piece. The guitar melodies are denser here, and there's a hint of glitch. It's gorgeous at any rate. This cd should appeal to fans of Earth's Hex, and Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, and even Boris's gentler moments, as if held under a microscope, volume hushed. Also this very list [not this one, but the one upon which the cd version of this originally appeared], we've reviewed the new release from another Ambarchi act, Sun. This could be that Sun album, left out to melt in the (actual) sun, to droop and drip, pooling into a limpid, low-key loveliness...
MPEG Stream: "Fever, A Warm Poison"
MPEG Stream: "Trailing Moss In Mystic Glow"

AMBARCHI, OREN Persona (Black Truffle) cd 16.98
One of two new archival reissues from Australian avant guitarist and sometime member of SUNNO))), Oren Ambarchi. Persona was originally released as an ultra limited lp (only 300 copies) in 2000, which sold out quite quickly, but is finally available again, on cd.
Ambarchi's sound is quite varied and fluid, capable of coaxing the sweetest sounds from his axe, as well as using it like some blood flecked weapon, hurling jagged shards of distorted crunch and spitting out thick swaths of viscous buzz. On Persona, the sound is minimal and delicate, droney in places, but also glitchy and spare. The opening track here, and the shortest of the three, is a warm looped low end drone, the guitar transformed into a pulse generator, the sound soothing and softly buzzy. The second track sounds like it could be on Raster-Noton, plenty of low end, but with processed clicks and whirs, clipped percussive thumps and machinelike murmurs, eventually becoming almost silent, leaving just bits of crackle and surface noise, so austere and abstract.
The final track, and the longest at almost 19 minutes, is the prettiest of the bunch, a softly skittering soundscape of Oval like underwater shimmer, lightly laced with glitches and little electronic squelches, but all warm and washed out, and allowed to swirl and drift dreamily, super gorgeous stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Alme"
MPEG Stream: "Vogler"

AMBARCHI, OREN Persona (ERS) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

AMBARCHI, OREN Stacte Motors (Western Vinyl) lp 9.98

AMBARCHI, OREN Stacte.3 (Black Truffle) cd 16.98
One of two new archival reissues from Australian avant guitarist and sometime member of SUNNO))), Oren Ambarchi. Stacte.3 was originally released as an ultra limited lp (only 500 copies) in 2000, which of course went out of print relatively quickly, and remained unavailable until now, with this cd reissue.
Ambarchi's sound is quite varied and fluid, capable of coaxing the sweetest sounds from his axe, as well as using it like some blood flecked weapon, hurling jagged shards of distorted crunch and spitting out thick swaths of viscous buzz. Stacte.3 is one 37 minute track, split into two parts, A and B. A, clocking in at 14 minutes, begins with a looped bit of chiming guitar harmonics, mesmerizing and music box like, that loop soon joined by all manner of swooping bloops and bleeps, a soft barrage of strange melodic fragments and electronic shards, a bit like some malfunctioning synthesizer let loose over that steady music box pulse, eventually, the higher tones drift off, leaving just a couple low tones to shimmer and warble, their overtones creating subtle patterns and pulsating fluctuations, which are eventually joined by some of the stray sounds from earlier on.
The second longer track, begins all buzzing metallic shimmer, what sounds like a room full of bowed cymbals, all sorts of gorgeous overtones, a washed out muted bit of metallic crunch, which eventually dissipates, leaving the bloops and bleeps of part A to return for a playful bit of swooping and swirling, before again, the track slowly shifts into a more minimal phase, playing out in a drift of layered rumbles, dreamy whirs and soft melodic electronic pulses. Quite nice.
MPEG Stream: "Stacte.3A"

AMBARCHI, OREN Suspension (Touch) cd 15.98
Finally back in print!
While Christian Fennesz had been quite active in working with a diverse group of musicians, few of his collaborators exhibited as much of a sonic likemindedness as did Sydney's tinkering guitarist Oren Ambarchi. For both Ambarchi and Fennesz, the guitar is merely the jumping-off point for making ultimately electronic music. Within the oblique electric shards of Fennesz' "Endless Summer," the jangling strum of his guitar is most definitely heard; likewise, a gentle plucking from Ambarchi's guitar still resonates through his work, despite all of the processing. But those distinct guitar sounds are merely a tiny piece of a bigger, more gloriously expansive musical picture. "Suspension" was Ambarchi's second recording for Touch, and stands miles above the his previous album "Insulation." Citing Lucier as an influence (though much more in terms of tonality than methodology, as Lucier is far more interested in the execution of a system than Ambarchi), he has transformed the guitar into a strangely archaic tone generator that chimes with the color of a well weathered bell. A beautiful record in keeping with other essential Touch albums from Hazard and Rafael Toral.
MPEG Stream: "Vogler"
MPEG Stream: "This Evening So Soon"
MPEG Stream: "Gene"

AMBARCHI, OREN Suspension (Staubgold) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While Christian Fennesz has been very active in working with a diverse group of musicians, few of his collaborators have exhibited the likemindedness found in Sydney's tinkering guitarist Oren Ambarchi. For both Ambarchi and Fennesz, the guitar is the jumping-off point for making ultimately electronic music. Within the oblique electric shards of Fennesz' "Endless Summer," the jangling strum of his guitar is certainly heard; likewise, a gentle plucking from Ambarchi's guitar still resonates through his work, despite all of the processing. "Suspension" is Ambarchi's second recording for Touch, and stands miles above his previous album "Insulation." Citing Lucier as an influence (though much more in terms of tonality than methodology, as Lucier is far more interested in the execution of a system than Ambarchi), he has transformed the guitar into a strangely archaic tone generator that chimes with the color of a well weathered bell.
This beautiful record has been licensed from Touch to Staubgold for release on vinyl, which gets a couple of bonus remix treatments from the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Phill Niblock, Brendan Walls, and Micahel J. Schumacher.
RealAudio clip: "Vogler"
RealAudio clip: "This Evening So Soon"
RealAudio clip: "Gene"

AMBARCHI, OREN Triste (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Finally, a cd reissue of this long out of print, previously LP-only release from Australian minimalist guitar improvisor Oren Ambarchi. The reissue comes, oddly enough, from the fine folks at Southern Lord, who until now have pretty much exclusively focused on the heavy and or sludge-y. Not sure if it's because Ambarchi is an outspoken metalhead (he is one of the only non-metal guests on the upcoming SUNNO))) Black 1 album) or if Southern Lord decided they just dug these dark and mysterious soundscapes, either way, it's about time this record made it onto cd, so all you non LP-playing folks can finally get a taste of some of the most gorgeous, understated ambient guitar work we've ever heard. You may remember some time back we made Ambarchi's Grapes From The Estate a record of the week, and damn if this record, released well before Grapes, isn't just as good. A gorgeous and glitchy, shimmering and subtle exploration of the guitar, and not just the strings and the notes and chords coaxed from them, but also the sound of faulty cords, subtle distortion, woozy warbly effects, all deftly interwoven and creating the effect of laptop manipulation, or skipping cd fuckery, but all managed with just a guitar and some pedals. Delicate, barely-there improvisations, wispy and ethereal, floating dreamily from the speakers towards your ears taking thier own sweet time. Notes hang suspended in space shimmering and slowly fading, until another note comes to join it or move it on its way. Eventually, during the last few minutes of the second twenty minute piece, the sounds of the guitar grow into a strangely alien sounding codes of glitch and creak, stutter and drone, equal parts high end skree and pulsing feedback squeals, a surprisingly noisy culmination to such a introspective record. The cd includes the two tracks that were included with the lp as a bonus 7", both remixes by Tom Recchion, who adds Hammond organ, tape loops, synthesizer and cds to the mix, turning the ultra minimal originals into extra dense soundscapes, adding layer upon layer of warble and whir, increasing the drone factor and giving the last two tracks a definite Philip Jeck feel, sounding all warm and washed out. So lovely! Comes packaged in a gorgeous miniature reproduction of the original gatefold sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "One "
MPEG Stream: "Three"

AMBARCHI, OREN Triste (Idea) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another gorgeously packaged, impeccaby recorded piece of modern minimalism from Idea records. We raved about the now out of print COH double lp a few lists back, and this release is just as nice. This time it's Australian Oren Ambarchi, who's delicate, barely-there guitar improvisations are gorgeously wispy and ethereal and float dreamily from the speakers towards your ears taking thier own sweet time. Notes hang suspended in space shimmering and slowly fading, until another note comes to join it or move it on its way. Super thick gatefold sleeve in an extra thick plastic sleeve. Double lp on super heavy 220 gram vinyl. The copies we have also come with a 7" featuring two extended remixes by Tom Rechion of the Los Angeles Free Music Society. So nice.

AMBARCHI, OREN & MARTIN NG Reconnaissance (Staubgold) cd 16.98
Feedback is as much about the context of recording as it is about musicians who set their guitars up against their amps while they step out for a bite to eat. Australia's Oren Ambarchi and Martin Ng have taken great care to find the right space to manufacture the lustrous feedback on Reconnaissance. The feedback here resists the urge to violently screech; rather it floats like the gentle waver of a Theremin. While the complex harmonics from this feedback loop situation might be sufficient for a Phill Niblock or a Bruce Russell recording, Ambarchi & Ng further slipped these recordings through laptops in order to crystallize elements of the feedback into fragile shimmers of high-end tonalities. Reconnaissance is an impressive fusion of guitar exploration and digital trickery.
RealAudio clip: "Procession"
RealAudio clip: "Surfacing"

AMBARCHI, OREN & Z'EV Spirit Transform Me (Tzadik) cd 16.98

AMBARCHI, OREN / GUNTER MULLER / VOICE CRACK Oystered (Audiosphere) cd 15.98
The latest (number six) in Audiosphere's "Invisible Architecture" series of super-sized-jewel-cased collaborative cds brings together up-and-coming Austrialian experimentalist Oren Ambarchi, the veteran Swiss "cracked everyday electronics" duo Voice Crack, and well-known improv percussion/electronics specialist Gunter Muller. Muller and Voice Crack have worked together before, and their aesthetic of mostly quiet, abstract chaos meshes well with Ambarchi's Fennesz-ish guitar and electronics. Not that you can really tell for sure exactly who is making what noises on this recording. Always dense and occasionally building in volume, there's a lot of interesting "microsounds" to catch here. Four tracks, 41 minutes of carefully crackling drone squeak buzz thwump brrr crzz whhhh.
MPEG Stream: "Walking Oysters"