Sleepwalker's Conviction Oren Ambarchi

• Limited LP document of a live collaboration of Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi with esteemed conductor Ilan Volkov and members of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Speak Percussion • A work of meditative beauty that touches on the haunted ambience of late period Luigi Nono, the submerged sonics of Gavin Bryars’ Sinking of the Titanic, and the melancholy rituals of Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk’s Mirror • Artwork design by Stephen O’Malley including a cover image from Canadian sound artist crys cole. Vinyl cut made by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin • LP only release, edition of 300  

Sleepwalker’s Conviction documents a 2014 performance by Oren Ambarchi in collaboration with a 20-piece ensemble conducted by Ilan Volkov. Foregoing the rhythmic propulsion and distortion-saturated harmonics that have featured in much of Ambarchi’s recent work, the LP’s single 40-minute piece inhabits a hushed, almost static space of extended tones, percussive shimmer and creaking strings. Rather than adopting the position of a soloist, Ambarchi allows his sub-bass guitar tones and swirling Leslie textures to blend seamlessly with the ensemble, made up of double basses, horns and percussion. The group sound has a near cavernous depth, as waves of low beating tones and distant percussive textures gently wash over one another, coalescing into an undulating mass. Steering clear of bombast and New Music clichés, the result is a work of meditative beauty that touches on the haunted ambience of late Nono, the submerged sonics of Bryars’ Sinking of the Titanic, and the melancholy rituals of Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk’s Mirror, while remaining unmistakably marked by the singular sensibility Ambarchi has developed over countless performances and recordings.   Francis Plagne

Limited edition of 300 

Design by Stephen O’ Malley with cover artwork by crys cole