Tag Archives: oren ambarchi

January Residency at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS)

Posted on by
Reply

It was such a great pleasure to be an International Artist in Residence at the incredible MESS in Melbourne Australia this January. What a wonderful way to start the year!

MESS is one of the most unique resources for access to analogue and digital synthesizers and tools in the world. With a roster of over 450 instruments and tools, many of which are incredibly rare and unique (such as the Fairlight, EMS Synthi, Arp, Buchla & Serge systems), members and guest residents have a chance to work with these tools in an indepth and ongoing capacity, with technical support on site and an array of workshops and programs to learn more about working with synthesis and specific tools in the collection. Amazing!

I had my first taste of the incredible array of instruments available at MESS back in the winter of 2019/2020 while recording with my dear friend and collaborator James Rushford for our album Sylva Sylvarum (Ora Clementi). It was an honor to be invited back this January with Oren Ambarchi to begin the process of preparing material for our next duo album.

Here’s a little interview that I did for MESS to share a bit about my work, process and what I was up to there. Link here.

Off to Canada for some very special events October 20 – Nov 5

Posted on by
Reply

This week I head to Saskatoon Canada for the Sounds Like Festival where i will be presenting a program that i have curated for the opening evening on October 20. This program is near & dear to my heart and it has been a long time in the making! Part one will feature a solo presentation of Becoming Oceanic, a longform piece developed through extensive research into psychedlic assisted psychotherapy sessions by musician/composer Sam Dunscombe. Part two will be a program of collaborative works centered around the collaboration of historic American artist/composer David Behrman and composer/performer Cleek Schrey. I am thrilled to bring these wonderful artists to the prairies of Canada to share their unique and beautiful work and i’m grateful to the Sounds Like team for this invitation!

I will also perform a solo concert on the second night of the festival, October 21. Full festival details are up here.

Following Saskatoon I will be joined by Oren Ambarchi for a series of Canadian shows (solo performances):

Looking forward to being back on my old stomping ground to share my work and reconnect with so many great people!

Photos:

David Behrman & Cleek Schrey by Cameron Mcleod

Oren Ambarchi by Greg Clement

crys cole by Seiji Morimoto

Duo with Oren Ambarchi this weekend at Kaoila Festival in Galdakao, Basque Country

Posted on by
Reply

This weekend – Friday, June 3 – Oren and I will perform our duo at the KAOILA Festival just outside of Bilbao in Galdakao, Bizkaia (Basque Country). We are thrilled to return to Basque Country after many years to perform at this wonderful 2-day festival that features so many great musicians and friends!

More details on the festival’s Instagram or Facebook.

A Piece Of Work – LP / Digital – is out TODAY – March 4

Posted on by
Reply

I am thrilled to announce that ‘A Piece Of Work‘ is officially out on LP / Digital today via Berlin based label Second Editions. This piece was originally commissioned for radio broadcast in 2019 by Radiophrenia (Glasgow) and was developed further through live performances in 2019-2021 to conclude in this final version.

The piece features guest appearances by Seiji Morimoto (electronics) and Oren Ambarchi (percussion). Mixed with Joe Talia at Good Mixture and mastered/cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.

I would like to send a BIG thank-you to Malte Jantzen of Second Editions for his support, enthusiasm and patience(!).

The album is available at all the great distributors (EU/US/JP) and can be purchased digitally directly through my bandcamp page HERE.

‘Assembled from fragments collected in Oslo, Berlin, Vienna, Winnipeg, Melbourne and Lisbon, ‘A Piece of Work’ is far more than a travelog or audio diary. cole’s compositions develop more like poetry, resolutely refusing to intone clearly about the exactness of place, but instead representing space, feeling and the joy of investigation. There’s a collage quality to the almost 30-minute composition that flows gently from blustering concrete sounds into warbling tonal drones, subtle crackles and synthesized sputters. But cole’s less interested in hard cuts than imperceptible evolution; her elements shift like sunlight, dipping behind the clouds for a moment, diving from view with perfect, natural timing.’

– Boomkat UK

New Commission w/ Oren Ambarchi presented live this week for Radiophrenia in Glasgow

Posted on by
Reply

On Tuesday February 15 Oren and I will present a new commission in a live to air performance for the wonderful Radiophrenia in Glasgow Scotland. The piece titled ‘1200 Hours AEST / CET‘ was developed during the first extended period that we had been separated by oceans since 2018. 

The backbone of the work is built of momentary daily recordings, mapping each day that we were apart, linking us across great distances and multiple time zones. From Berlin to Australia (Sydney & Melbourne) thirty-one seconds were captured every day at midday for thirty-one days. 

The live performance of the piece draws an additional metaphor for this period of separation and reuniting; we will each play a different sustained tone – one beginning at a higher pitch and the other from a lower pitch, and gradually sweep these tones towards the other until we conclude by meeting at the same destination tone.

The live component of this piece is an homage to the late Alvin Lucier, whose presence, work and ideas we are forever grateful. 

Details about our performance & the rest of this fantastic program here.

Duo this weekend w/ Oren Ambarchi @ FAQ Festival in the Netherlands

Posted on by
Reply

This Saturday November 6 Oren and I will perform our duo at FAQ Festival in ’s- Hertogenbosch. This looks like a lovely 3-day event featuring an entire program of Eliane Radigue works and performances by Russell Haswell, Sven-Åke Johansson & Jan Jelinek, Jessica Ekomane and more. Full festival details here.

‘Certainly’, a new trio LP w/ Leif Elggren & Oren Ambarchi is out on Ultra Eczema!

Posted on by
Reply

In 2016 Oren Ambarchi and I were in a 2-week residency at EMS Stockholm. During this time we completed our LP Hotel Record and created a new work in collaboration with the one and only Leif Elggren (SW). As long-time admirer’s of Leif’s work, spending those days together in Stockholm developing this piece while sharing many meals and strolling around historic Stockholm, was such a treat.

We are so pleased to have the fruits of this collaboration out on LP care of the one-of-a-kind Antwerp based label Ultra Eczema. Huge thanks to Dennis Tyfus for the support and enthusiasm!

“The only thing Australia, Canada and Sweden have in common is taking in an abstract position in a vague situation! In July 2016, a strong arctic wind blew open the windows that separate the mean streets of Stockholm from the city’s legendary EMS Studios. Oren Ambarchi, crys cole and Leif Elggren were the only folks present in the studio at that point; not much could be done besides making the best out of a bad situation.
Ambarchi burned the studio carpet to stay warm; cole made a tower of stones to hide behind; and Elggren, with ice-cold resolve, tried using a microphone to connect with his fellow Elgaland-Vargaland citizens but to no avail. This music sounds like paper, crumbled old candy, and a lot of dust. It sounds like some weather.”

‘Certainly’ is a limited to 300 copies and is available directly through Ultra Eczema here. Available soon in finer record stores and distros.

Certainly-low

Performances and Talks in LA / San Diego

Posted on by
Reply

I will be a giving a talk at the California Institute for the Arts in their Experimental Sound Practices program tomorrow, February 25 (Survey of Sound Art class). In the days following this i will have a performance/talk with Oren Ambarchi at the University of California, San Diego as well as two performances next week in LA with Ora Clementi, my duo with James Rushford. Busy days in sunny California! more details on these events can be found on my upcoming page.