For its 50th release, Black Truffle presents the 9th album from one of the label's core ensembles, the power trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi.
Drawn from a November 2015 performance at Tokyo's now-defunct SuperDeluxe, the record's opening piece drops us immediately into the maelstrom, abruptly cutting into an extended episode of Ambarchi's pummelling drums, O'Rourke's fuzzed-out 6 string bass and Haino's roaring guitar and electronics. Eventually settling into a hypnotic bass and drum groove over which Haino unleashes some almost Ray Russell-eque skittering atonal screech, these opening 13 minutes act as a potent reminder of the trio's power.
Sides two and three are given over to slow-burning, multi-part epics that range from spacious reflection to furious tumult whilst the fourth side returns to the hypnotic grooves of the opening piece, fixing on an relentless riff and riding it into oblivion under Haino's roaming psychedelic soloing and jagged chordal slashes.
The work of
underground musician Keiji Haino (born 1952 in Chiba, Japan, lives and works in Tokyo) has included rock, free improvisation, noise, percussion, psychedelic music, minimalism and drones. Besides his legendary bands Fushitsusha and Lost Aaraaff, he has worked with artists and bands like Boris, The Melvins,
Jim O'Rourke,
Oren Ambarchi,
Peter Brötzmann and
Steve Noble.
See also
Bruno Fernandès: Vocations de l'ombre – Haino Keiji – Une autre voix/voie du rock.
Musician, composer, improviser and producer, Jim O'Rourke (born in 1969 in Chicago, lives and works in Tokyo) is an essential figure of the American independent rock and post-rock scene (his solo records released on Drag City or in groups with Gastr Del Sol and
Sonic Youth have all become classics of the 1990s and 2000s) as well as experimental and electroacoustic music. His collaborations are countless: Illusion Of Safety,
Christoph Heemann,
David Grubbs,
Loren Connors, Wilco, Henry Kaiser, K.K. Null, Günter Müller, Voice Crack,
Evan Parker,
Phill Niblock, Mats Gustafsson,
Tony Conrad, Faust, Space Streakings, Loose Fur,
Fennesz, Diskaholics Anonymous Trio, Carlos Giffoni,
Keiji Haino,
Masami Akita, Masaya Nakahara,
Takehisa Kosugi, Fire!, Akira Sakata,
Oren Ambarchi,
Stephen O'Malley,
Kassel Jaeger,
Anthony Burr, John Fahey, Tortoise, Stereolab, Red Crayola, Guided By Voices,
Merzbow...
Oren Ambarchi (born 1969 in Australia) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it's no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it's a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (
The Wire, UK).
Oren Ambarchi's works are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as
Morton Feldman and
Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal.
From the late 90's his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique have led to a more personal and unique sound-world incorporating a broader palette of instruments and sensibilities. On releases such as
Grapes From The Estate and
In The Pendulum's Embrace Ambarchi has employed glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, drums and percussion, creating fragile textures as light as air which tenuously coexist with the deep, wall-shaking bass tones derived from his guitar.
Ambarchi works with simple constructs and parameters; exploring one idea over an extended duration and patiently teasing every nuance and implication from each texture; the phenomena of sum and difference tones; carefully tended arrangements that unravel gently; unprepossessing melodies that slowly work their way through various permutations; resulting in an otherworldly, cumulative impact of patiently unfolding compositions.
Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as
Fennesz,
Otomo Yoshihide, Pimmon,
Keiji Haino,
John Zorn, Rizili, Voice Crack,
Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe,
Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl, Gunter Muller,
Evan Parker,
z'ev, Toshimaru Nakamura,
Peter Rehberg,
Merzbow,
Kassel Jaeger,
Anthony Pateras,
Crys Cole,
Giuseppe Ielasi,
Judith Hamann, Sunn 0))),
James Rushford,
Stephen O'Malley and many more.
For 10 years together with Robbie Avenaim, Ambarchi was the co-organiser of the What Is Music? festival, Australia's premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music. Ambarchi now curates the Maximum Arousal series at The Toff In Town in Melbourne and has recently co-produced an Australian television series on experimental music called Subsonics. Ambarchi co-curated the sound program for the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.
Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for international labels such as
Touch, Southern Lord, Table Of The Elements and Tzadik. He is the founder of
Black Truffle Records.
