Bleep

His third album for Touch and tenth solo record (amidst many live works and many, many collaborations), Grapes from the estate represents a major turning point in Oren Ambarchi’s incredibly prolific and expansive discography, breaking new ground with a wider instrumental palette. Merging his signature guitar work with hints of jazz and minimal electronics, the album favours the slow and gentle, working almost as a time lapse of hours of sonic experimentation.

With its longform explorations dominating whole sides of the disc, Grapes from the estate patiently drip feeds sounds into the mix, allowing drones and pithy melodies to unravel in full before each track evolves and eventually departs. An orchestra of telephone dials and swishing drums plays out on ‘Girl With Silver Eyes’, while organ slowly creeps in amongst trickling pendulums of sparkling guitar plucks. ‘Stars Aligned, Web Spun’ slows things down to an even more glacial pace, its monotone two notes tolling over throbbing beds of bass and soft, glitchy atmospherics.

Where the audio clips on ‘Corkscrew’, sine wave organs toss skipping stones, fizzling out in the tranquillity of wavering sonics and deeper bass vibrations. Painterly exchanges between electronic tones, resonating bells, and outstretched strings on ‘Remedios The Beauty’ filter like dappled light through tree leaves, diving into minimalist jazz in its second half with guitar and piano chords tiptoeing in unison, and tones dancing rhythmically alongside swung drums.

Grapes from the estate is a milestone in Oren Ambarchi’s remarkable career, hushed and simplistic yet boldly retracing his manifold influences to beautiful effect.