Okay so I'm arbitrarily posting by geographic location here. Oren Ambarchi is a Melbourne-based musician whose music I would place in the ambient-drone vein--extremely minimalist but carrying with it strong, pulsating basslines redolent of drone compositions. To be honest, I actually didn't know that Ambarchi used an electric guitar as well as drums, piano, and bells for Grapes From The Estate, I had always assumed he used a computer like so many ambient/electronic artists, however I respect him a thousand times more for working with an instrument so often associated with rock and pop to mimic computer-generated sounds. Whether or not I'm correct, I've always seen the electric guitar as having a "masculine" connotation, not that it lends itself better to one gender or the other---but in the sense of it being identified with loud, rough music, and taking center stage in any traditional group setup. However, in Grapes From The Estate, one could easily mistake the guitar for tone generator software.
The reason Ambarchi's music is so lovely is because it doesn't have that glazed-over, juvenile, computer-blip sound. On first listen, the whole album seems so simple--but delving deeper (good headphones help) the tracks are composed of thin, immaculately arranged layers of beeps, crackles, and underlying waves of bass. Because no computer programs are used, Ambarchi's music has a distinctly earthy sound---like dripping water and static shocks, which is both humble and elegant.
One little detail that made me fall in love with this album? The fact that the third track, "Remedios The Beauty" is a reference to an obscure nymphet-like character in Gabriel García Márquez's 100 Years of Solitude, one of my favorite novels. (I also managed to fall asleep in the middle of a grassy park in Rome listening to "Girl With The Silver Eyes", which sounds idyllic except the fact that I didn't get robbed is a miracle.)
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