Oren Ambarchi/Will Guthrie + Jazz Bras Dot Com + Retired
The Music Gallery and TONE festival present
Oren Ambarchi/Will Guthrie + Jazz Bras Dot Com + Retired
Part of the Departures series, curated by Tad Michalak
Our final core presentation of the year takes place in the eastward loft space of the Jam Factory where electronic composer / multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi teams up with Australian drummer / percussionist Will Guthrie. Ambarchi and Guthrie gentlemen have known each other for years, first meeting in Melbourne in the 90s where they quickly formed a mutual admiration society. Since then they have worked together often in varying contexts, most recently with Guthrie guesting on Ambarchi’s acclaimed “Hubris” album (Editions Mego 2016) and Ambarchi releasing Guthrie’s mind-boggling “People Pleaser” album on his Black Truffle imprint (2017). The duo thrives on the interplay between Ambarchi’s swirling guitar harmonics and the metronomic pulse and constantly shifting accents of Guthrie’s drumming. They weave a mesmerising net of frequencies, textures and rhythms, fusing the organic push and pull of a ’70s psych jam, the bass response of a doom metal ritual and the psycho-acoustic precision of an Alvin Lucier composition. Building on the foundation of Guthrie’s insistent ride cymbal and propulsive polyrhythms alongside the shifting tonal bed of Ambarchi’s rich, overtone-drenched guitar and buzzsaw harmonics, Ambarchi and Guthrie merge the ‘in-the-moment’ crackling vitality of free improvisation with an overarching compositional framework.
Emergents alum Laura Swankey’s Jazz Bras Dot Com is free and angular and quirky and strange. Fulfilling all the feminist noise hopes, dreams and desires you never knew you had. Featuring Jessica Ackerley (guitar), Laura Swankey (voice), Elisa Thorn (harp)
Toronto free form punk jazz wanderers Retired bring dark eerie forbidding sonic meanderings to life with Percussive movements that cruise seamlessly through ominous bass tones. Guitar growls unhinged, as saxophone splutters a bitter syrup. Like a junkyard creation slowly breaking apart as it races towards an impending destruction that will never come. Becoming more haunting & mangled as it evolves from one form to another. The swing of jazz emanates from what is more like some lost kraut jam.
