Australian composer and guitarist Oren Ambarchi had a hand in two of the best albums of 2022. Solo effort Shebang was defined by flourishes of intricate, jazzy guitar and a compositional sense that drew from sources as diverse as twentieth-century minimalism, Miles Davis and IDM. This was preceded by Ghosted, on which Ambarchi was joined by a rhythm section of Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin, and whose four tracks grew from a minimal percussive framework to encompass post-rock structures, ambient soundscapes, alien grooves and subtle melodic progressions. These albums felt like twin highlights in a thirty-year career, which has never been anything less than boundary-pushing, so it’s a pleasure to report that the trio who created Ghosted has returned with a sequel of sorts.
Ghosted II, like its predecessor and Shebang, is made up of four meaty tracks. As before, they are numbered from one to four, but this time round in Swedish. Opener En scratches its way into existence, Werliin’s drums sounding like the skitter of insect legs. The guitar paints spacy, stippled patterns: a stream of squeaks which eventually run together to form a disconcerting shimmer. The trio’s trademark groove kicks in at the halfway point as Berthling’s bass becomes more prevalent: it sounds like a particularly experimental krautrock group trying to be in three different places at once. There are no specific moments of transcendence, but a transcendental effect is nonetheless achieved through a nervy sort of growth.
Två is more free-flowing: a gentle, melodic riff, that wouldn’t be out of place on one of those Japanese mallwave albums, slithers through the track’s thirteen minutes, augmented by ruminative, hazy drones and glimmers – the whole thing seems perched on the border between synthetic and organic sound, which is some achievement given the minimal raw materials the band are working with. Deep percussive booms encroach on the serene heart of the piece, making the whole thing seem uneasy and slightly surreal.
Everything here is improvised, and like much improvised music, it embodies an apparent paradox: on the one hand, the relationship between the musicians is deep enough for them to create art out of a place of profound relaxation, but then again, there is always tension, or at least its implication, when a group attempts to make music without preparation or without formal constraint. Ambarchi’s trio seem happy to explore this paradoxical realm, and they do so from a different angle on each composition. Tre is built on a solid bass groove; the drums nibble around the edges and the guitar sounds like liquid glass, scattered in droplets over the quietly imposing core structure. It’s an object lesson in how discipline can be the key to effective improvisation, and it means the strange, bubbling sonic freak-out that comes towards the end is even more satisfying.
Fyra, the final piece, covers the most ground. Again, the bass is rock solid, but the drums seem to skip lightly across a rocky terrain before the introduction of warm cymbal splashes, and Ambarchi’s icy stabs give way to rolling melodic guitar lines. As the track progresses, the bass gets the chance to explore, and in the final minute or two, the whole thing seems to dissolve, lushly and almost greedily, like some deliquescent toadstool returning to the soil. As endings go, it feels loaded with promise, making you instantly crave a third instalment from the trio. But until that happens, we’ve got Ghosted II: an enriching, multi-layered and almost indecently accomplished album.
Ghosted II will be released 26th April 2024 on Drag City.
Pre-order: lnk.to/ghostedii