Table of the Elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the fourth installment in its Guitar Series Vols. 3 & 4. It’s a 12xLP romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including Christian Fennesz, Thurston Moore, and Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley.
There is a vivid breadth to the guitar deconstructions of Australian Oren Ambarchi. Sometimes his work takes a delicate lilt; it can also dive into dark and deep pools of sound when he joins cowl-core ensembles Sunn O))) (with Stephen O’Malley) and Burial Chamber Trio (with Greg Anderson). Whether with those bands, solo, or in collaboration with luminaries ranging from Mike Patton and John Zorn to Christian Fennesz, he consistently reroutes his instrument into zones of arch, alien abstraction. A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks offers a dizzying gaze straight into a chasm of extreme
frequencies – paint-peelingly high and bowel-churningly low – all set atop a sub-strata of menace, angst, and contemplative beauty.
“Oren Ambarchi's resonating, disembodied guitarisms establish a soothing alternate universe. . . Over time, the sprawl unfurls like found inhuman frequencies: Ambarchi's patience in allowing calm tones to live healthy, long lives creates a blinking grid. It's what I imagine a black and white Lite Brite would sound like if it were allowed a temporary whisper.” – PITCHFORK
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