PRICE:
$15.50
NOT IN STOCK
NO RESTOCK ESTIMATE
ARTIST
TITLE
Persona
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
BT 002CD BT 002CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
3/3/2009

Originally released on ERS in 2000 as a limited-edition (300 copies), vinyl-only release, Oren Ambarchi's Persona is now available on CD for the first time. Persona was recorded in February 2000, just a week after the Afternoon Tea collaboration with Fennesz, Pimmon, Peter Rehberg and Keith Rowe. Utilizing a raw and spontaneous approach like the Stacte series of solo releases, Ambarchi recorded the pieces on Persona at home in a day, using only his guitar, a handful of effect pedals, and a boombox as a monitor(!). Considered to be a "sister" release to Ambarchi's acclaimed Suspension album on Touch, the material on Persona was only heard by a handful of listeners. From the late '90s, his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique led to a more personal and unique soundworld and Persona was an early document of this direction. Here, the pieces are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; and hushed, pensive songwriting. It recalls the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier, and the physicality of rock music, stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal. Remastered in December 2008, with artwork designed by Stephen O'Malley.