Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin: Ghosted
Author: Daniel Spicer
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Oren Ambarchi (g) |
Label: |
Drag City |
Magazine Review Date: |
August/2022 |
Media Format: |
CD |
Catalogue Number: |
DC838 |
RecordDate: |
Rec. November 2018 |
Australian polymath Oren Ambarchi added guitar to the 2012 album, In The Mouth – A Hand, by Swedish trio, Fire! Here, on Ghosted, he reconnects with Fire!’s rhythm section, without the input of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson.
Unsurprisingly, this configuration pursues a similar fascination with hypnotic grooves but, shorn of Gustafsson’s muscular histrionics, there’s more room for the musicians to slide deeper inside and fully inhabit the somnolent zones they’re creating. The opening part of this four-track suite enlists fellow Swede, Christer Bothén playing the Malian donso n’goni – or ‘hunter's harp’. His taut, percussive pops and twangs meld with a repetitive four-note bass vamp, evoking Bothén’s past association with the godfather of world-jazz jams, Don Cherry. ‘Part II’ hangs on a cyclical harmonic guitar riff that echoes ‘The Fish’ from Yes’ 1971 prog classic Fragile, with subtle, understated bass and drums summoning an insistent, slow-moving minimalism that suggests a space where Can meets The Necks. ‘Part III’ rolls along on a gorgeously unhurried bass vamp, with Ambarchi adding wafting tones and the whir of distant rotor-blades.
By the time one reaches the funereal plod of the short coda provided by ‘Part IV’, it’s clear that this is an album fully intent on going nowhere beautifully.
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