Oren Ambarchi & Martin Ng - Reconnaissance
(Staubgold)
We're coming to know Sydney's Oren Ambarchi as a maverick guitarist who commands an unconventional
tonal and textural palette. Electronic musician and compatriot Martin Ng has surfaced in projects
featuring members of Farmers Manual and Australian electro-acoustic ensemble Machine for Making Sense.
It's significant that Reconnaissance's striking sleeve, created by Mego design specialist Tina Frank,
omits instrumental credits. They're of little relevance on Reconnaissance, a mutual exploration of
acoustic space in the classic Minimalist mold. If the label's invocation of the Sonic Arts Union's
Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, and Gordon Mumma are a wee bit high flung, Reconnaissance
is still an impressive outing. Ambarchi and Ng surrender instrumental identity in the opening
"Procession," seeking common ground in a single, pure tone. Once found, this equivocal note becomes a
springboard for more musical probing. On "Surfacing," the musicians begin to assume roles, one
sketching the perimeters of a three-dimensional listening space with drawn-out drone frequencies,
while the other fills the space with chimes and irregular feedback flutters. A palpable sense of
discovery informs the subtle clashes between Ambarchi and Ng's tones, and the piece's contours are
gently defined by such dissonance. Where "Surfacing" studies the behavior of sonic particles, the
longer title track introduces waves--rafts of billowing sound and smooth feedback fronts--that
collide with one another, ripple, and recede. Your impressions may differ, but I imagine Ambarchi and
Ng situated at opposite ends of the performance space, playing Battleship-like laptop salvoes off each
other in a test for echo. The motivation seems curious rather than combative, and what subtle
antagonistic overtones remain only lend a delicious friction to the recording. Particles and waves
aside, it's best to forget physics and just allow the duo's dynamic volleys to wash over and around
you. Reconnaissance succeeds because it's so uncommonly engaging and alive. More aggressive types may
even feel compelled to interfere, deflecting and disrupting the duo's communications by jumping about
within the soundstream.
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