Oren Ambarchi will release a new album on Editions Mego next month.

Simian Angel follows a trilogy of Ambarchi solo LPs on Peter Rehberg’s Vienna-based label, namely Sagittarian Domain (2012), Quixotism (2014), and Hubris (2016). It finds the Australian artist renewing his focus on his singular approach to the electric guitar, returning to the spacious canvases found on Grapes From The Estate (2004) and In The Pendulum’s Embrace (2007). 

Brazil’s Cyro Baptista performs across the entirety of the record, adding dexterous and rhythmically nuanced percussion that’s said to give Ambarchi a tonality unheard across prior releases. Equally new is the harmonic complexity of Ambarchi’s playing, which leaves behind the minimalist simplicity of much of his previous work for a constantly-shifting play between lush consonance and uneasy dissonance.

Editions Mego adds, “While the rich, swirling harmonics of Ambarchi’s guitar performance are familiar to listeners from his previous recordings, the subtly wavering, synthetic guitar tone you hear is quite new, coming across at times like an abstracted, splayed-out take on the ’80s guitar synth work of Pat Metheny or Bill Frisell.”

Earlier this year, Ambarchi released Patience Soup, a collaborative album with Phew and Jim O’Rourke via Black Truffle. 

Tracklisting

01. Palm Sugar Candy (16:03)

02. Simian Angel (20:14)

Simian Angel LP lands July 5, with an excerpt to stream below and pre-order here.