Originally a drummer, Oren Ambarchi took up guitar and electronics after his early free jazz/noise beginnings. The prolific Australian producer has performed with the luminaries of noise and improv, toured with drone group Sunn O))) and released more than twenty albums across labels like Tzadik, Touch and Southern Lord.
 
He has taught improvisation at university, organised a long-running experimental music festival and directed a television series on electronic music. He is a member of the Burial Chamber Trio - Greg Anderson (US), Oren Ambarchi (AU) & Attila Csihar (HU), and Gravetemple with Csihar and Stephen O'Malley. In 2003 his live release 'Triste' received an honorary mention in the Prix Ars Electronica digital music category. His most recent solo release In The Pendulum's Embrace is released on the Touch (UK) and Southern Lord (USA) labels.
 
Born in Sydney, Australia, Ambarchi (1969) started drumming when he was 10 or 11, and has been performing live since 1986. He played drums in several free jazz projects in the late 80s and early 90s. From there he went on to more 'extreme' output in various diverse, noisy projects, most notoriously as guitarist of the free noise/punk group Phlegm. From there he embarked on solo guitar work, beginning with the Stacte (Jercker Records) series of self-released solo productions in 1998, and making his international debut on Tzadik and Touch the following year. In 2001 Ambarchi’s acclaimed sophomore album for Touch was released, 'Suspension', an album of warmly distorted guitar drones that drew comparisons with Fennesz.
 
Ambarchi has been engaged in a hectic live performance schedule ever since, and has performed and collaborated with many of the best noise/improv artists internationally, artist like Martin Ng, Sunn 0)), Christian Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Pimmon, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Rizili, Voice Crack, Sachiko M, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Gunter Muller, Evan Parker and many more.
 
Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim together directed the Australian experimental music festival 'What Is Music?' from 1994 until the last edition in 2004. The event, which began as two evenings of experimental music in a Sydney pub, grew into Australia’s premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music hosting over 200 local and international performers in four cities. Ambarchi also curated the weekly Maximum Arousal series in Melbourne, and co-produced a television series for SBS on experimental music called Subsonics.
 
Ambarchi is involved in many collaborative projects including the song-based duo Sun with Chris Townend (releases on Staubgold, Preservation, Textile & Important records), Burial Chamber Trio together with Greg Anderson of Sunn 0))) and Atilla Csihar of Mayhem (with an LP release on Southern Lord) and Grave Temple with Csihar and Stephen O'Malley of Khanate & Sunn 0))). Long-running duo with Rizili, the Menstruation Sisters, has releases on labels such as Menlo Park, No Fun, Ecstatic Peace and Saucerlike. The Four Gentlemen Of The Guitar is a quartet formed by Keith Rowe of AMM in 2004 featuring Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz, Toshimaru Nakamura & Rowe. Their double album Cloud was released by Erstwhile Records. A duo with turntablist Martin Ng resulted in two albums, Reconnaissance (Staubgold) and Vigil (Quicksilver).
 
In 2008, Ambarchi released a double album, In the Pendulum’s Embrace on Southern Lord, and a CD, Spirit Transform Me on Tzadik.
 
> www.orenambarchi.com
 
Appearances:
> CTM.09 > MOLECULE RAINBOW
> CTM.07 > CODE BLACK