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Oren Ambarchi

Oren Ambarchi
Oren Ambarchi, Japan, 2007
Background information
Born1969 (age 55–56)
Sydney, Australia
GenresAvant-garde, free improvisation, jazz, rock music,electronic, ambient, noise
Instrument(s)Guitar, drums
Years active1986–current
Websiteorenambarchi.com

Oren Ambarchi (born 1969) is an Australian musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays mainly electric guitar and percussion.[1]

Biography

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Oren Ambarchi was born in Sydney to an Iraqi Jewish family.[1] Ambarchi has been performing live since 1986. In the late 1980s he played free jazz in Sydney, originally as a drummer.[2] In an interview with ABC Radio broadcaster, Jon Rose, Ambarchi described how he started playing guitar:

There happened to be one laying around in our rehearsal room. I picked it up and starting hitting it with drumsticks and using it in whatever way I wanted to use it in, and one thing led to another. I'm glad I wasn't trained. I've always loved rock music, I grew up listening to pop and rock, so that was in my mind, but I've also been interested in electronics. I never wanted to learn to play it properly, it was an object as much as an instrument. [2]

His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, though he also plays drums and percussion in some of his live performances.

Along with longtime collaborator, drummer Robbie Avenaim, he co-organised the 'What Is Music' Festival in various cities in Australia from 1994-2005. [3]

Ambarchi contributed to drone metal band Sunn O)))'s Black One album in 2005, and became a regular live performer with the band for the next several years, as well as contributing to the Oracle EP and Monoliths & Dimensions album.[4]

In 2009 Ambarchi begins a series of trio performances in Japan with multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke and iconic Japanese musician/singer Keiji Haino. This meeting was recorded and released in 2010 under the title 'Tima Formosa' on Black Truffle records. This trio collaboration continues annually at the renowned Tokyo venue Super Deluxe. Each concert is documented and released on Ambarchi's Black Truffle label. the first one being the acclaimed 'Indeed' in 2011.[5]

In 2017 he began working with American composer Alvin Lucier, performing new compositions for electric guitar.[6]

Ambarchi has run the record label Black Truffle since 2009.

Selected discography

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Oren Ambarchi biography". Touch Music. 2002. Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  2. ^ a b Rose, Jon (2003). "Re-wired Guitar – OREN AMBARCHI". Australia Adlib. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  3. ^ caleb~k (2001). "OREN AMBARCHI INTERVIEW". Angbase. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  4. ^ Stannard, Joseph (8 April 2009). "Sunn O))) Exclusive Interview Transcripts: Oren Ambarchi". The Wire (Issue 302). Wire Magazine. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Oren Ambarchi / Jim O'Rourke: Behold Album Review | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  6. ^ "Sold Out! Works by Alvin Lucier + Record/Book Release: Alvin Lucier, Oren Ambarchi & Gary Schmalzl, Ever Present Orchestra | ISSUE Project Room". issueprojectroom.org. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  7. ^ Currin, Grayson (16 August 2010). "Album Review – Oren Ambarchi / Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke – Tima Formosa". Pitchfork. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
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