Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who in major plays drums, percussion and electric guitar. He has longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches.
Oren Ambarchi was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to a Jewish family originally from Iraq. He has been performing music live since 1986.
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 recent 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.
Oren 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.
Oren 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 and many more. Since 2004 Ambarchi has worked with American avant metal outfit Sunn 0))) contributing to many of their releases and side-projects including their Black One album from 2005 and the recent Monoliths & Dimensions release.
For 10 years together with Robbie Avenaim of Phlegm, Oren Ambarchi was the co-organiser of the What Is Music? festival, Australia’s premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music. The festival hosted over 200 local and international performers.
Oren 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 recently co-curated the sound program for the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.
Oren Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for international labels such as Touch, Southern Lord, Table Of The Elements and Tzadik. In 2003 his live release Triste received an 'honourary mention' in the Prix Ars Electronica digital music category.
He plays drums and percussion in some of his live performances, though often his work focuses on the exploration of the guitar.
Oren Ambarchi has toured with drone doom band Sunn O))) as well as releasing an vinyl EP with Attila Csihar and Sunn O)))'s Greg Anderson under the name Burial Chamber Trio; whereas with Attila Csihar and Stephen O'Malley, the other half of Sunn O))), they perform as Gravetemple.
Oren Ambarchi also works in popular music contexts and is a drummer for the group Sun with vocalist Chris Townend formerly of Kiss My Poodles Donkey.
In May 2010 Oren Ambarchi performed live with Boris at the Vivid Live Noise Night curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.
