Shebang (Drag City)
Oren Ambarchi
Released September 30, 2022
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2022
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Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the same studio air. Expanding on the techniques used on Simian Angel (2019), we can never be entirely sure who is responsible for what we hear, as Ambarchi’s guitar is used to trigger everything from bass lines to driving piano riffs.
Picking up from the staccato guitar patterns that ran through Hubris, Shebang’s single 35-minute track begins with a precisely interwoven lattice of chiming guitar figures, expanding Hubris’ monolithic pulse into a joyous, hyper-rhythmic melodicism that calls up points of reference as disparate as Albert Marcoeur, early Pat Metheny Group, and Henry Kaiser’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Building from isolated single notes into densely layered polyrhythms, the muted guitar tones are joined by subtle touches of shimmering Leslie cabinet tones and guitar synth. Simmering down and funnelling into a single note, the guitar stew is soon thickened by Joe Talia’s propulsive ride cymbal, which blossoms into a beautifully flowing yet rigorously snapped-to fusion funk, whose ever-shifting details skitter across the kit – think 70s heavyweights like Jack DeJohnette or Jon Christensen. An unexpected entry of guttural bass clarinet licks from Sam Dunscombe begins the series of instrumental features that pepper the remainder of the piece. Soon we hear from the legendary British pedal steel player B.J. Cole (hopefully known to some listeners from his outer-limits singer-songwriter masterpiece The New Hovering Dog or, failing that, ‘Tiny Dancer’), whose languorous yet uneasy lines float in and out of a shifting rhythmic foundation supported by a single note bass groove, cut through with aleatoric synth articulations
Though single-mindedly occupying its rhythmic space throughout, Shebang’s dense ensemble sound is carefully composed while drawing on the free flow of improvisation, with individual voices momentarily coming to the fore and subtle changes in harmony and texture. Perhaps the most surprising of these shifts occurs around half-way through when the smoke of a buzzing synth crescendo from Jim O’Rourke clears to reveal something like a piano trio, with Ambarchi’s guitar-triggered piano patterns providing restless accompaniment to flowing melodic lines from Chris Abrahams of The Necks, while Johan Berthling’s double bass and Talia’s drums fill out the bottom end. Before long, things take another left turn as Julia Reidy’s rapidly picked 12-string guitar lines take centre stage, with O’Rourke’s monumental synth clouds hovering in the distance. The ensemble surges through a slow series of harmonic changes before the whole shebang dissolves into a delirious synthetic mirage.
Bridging minimalism, contemporary electronics, and classic ECM stylings, and bringing together a cast of preternaturally talented contributors, Shebang is unmistakably the work of Oren Ambarchi: obsessively detailed, relentlessly rhythmic, unabashedly celebratory.
Track Listing:
1. I 08:00
2. II 10:34
3. III 06:16
4. IV 10:10
Personnel:
Oren Ambarchi: guitars & whatnot
with
Chris Abrahams: piano on III & IV
Johan Berthling: acoustic bass on III
BJ Cole: pedal steel on II & IV
Sam Dunscombe: bass clarinet on I & II
Jim O’Rourke: synths on III & IV
Julia Reidy: 12-string guitar on III & IV
Joe Talia: drums on the whole Shebang
Executive Producers: Konrad Sprenger & Dick Wolf
Recorded at Choose Studios, Berlin, by Joerg Hiller
Additional recording at Challis Studio, Sydney by Chris Abrahams; ‘The Batcave’, Stately Wayne Manor Studios, London by BJ Cole; Summa, Stockholm by Johan Berthling; The Chrystal Ball, Berlin by Sam Dunscombe; Steamroom Japan by Jim O’Rourke; and Good Mixture, Berlin by Joe Talia
Mixed by Joe Talia and Oren Ambarchi
Mastered by Joe Talia
Edited by Joerg Hiller, Oren Ambarchi
Front Cover Cake Photograph: April Pethybridge
Design: Stephen O’Malley
Review:
Shebang follows Oren Ambarchi releases like Quixotism and Hubris, which consist of a single continuous piece divided into movements, threading together contributions from an impressive cast of experimental and electronic music luminaries. Less techno-influenced than those two albums, which included appearances from Thomas Brinkmann and Ricardo Villalobos, Shebang falls somewhere in the vicinity of post-minimalism, ECM-style chamber jazz, and Krautrock, with several instruments and techniques suggesting other far-flung genres. Ambarchi’s tightly wound guitar playing is central to the piece, and as the arrangement becomes deeper and more intricate, the first few minutes suggest that Ambarchi could keep piling on fractured guitar patterns and build an entire world with one instrument. Gradually, other players enter the picture, with Sam Dunscombe’s bass clarinet expanding the atmospheric qualities and Joe Talia’s drumming outlining the rhythm. Like the guitars, the drums never settle into a straightforward pattern, as they’re constantly mutating and hitting different emphasis points. Master pedal steel guitarist B.J. Cole adds a surreal ambient country dimension to the soundscape, as the guitars get knottier and proggier. The piece blooms even more during the second half, as Chris Abrahams’ piano both enhances the rhythm and provides jazzy melodicism, and Johan Berthling’s acoustic bass gives the music a nice propulsion. Jim O’Rourke also provides some sharp modular synth sweeps, and Julia Reidy contributes mesmerizing 12-string guitar playing that could easily be mistaken for zither or hammered dulcimer. As dense as the mix gets, it never suffocates, and all of the instruments are allowed to breathe easily. Shebang is an inventive, vibrant work that constantly surprises and uplifts.
Paul Simpson (AllMusic)
