This singular trio composed of Australian avant-guitar visionary Oren Ambarchi and the rhythm section from Sweden’s Fire!/Fire! Orchestra first surfaced back in 2022 with Ghosted and they are now back with an aptly named sequel. While that earlier album was inconveniently eclipsed by Ambarchi’s solo Shebang album for me that year, I connect quite a bit more with Ghosted II, as the trio’s vision seems to have fully blossomed this time around. I have admittedly grumbled in the past about my preference for Ambarchi’s earlier, more abstract work over his more recent jazz/fusion/krautrock-inspired rhythmic excursions, but this album happily strikes a near-perfect balance of those two sides, as drummer Andreas Werliin’s Latin-esque percussion workouts are an ideal backdrop for Ambarchi’s flickering and impressionistic guitar phantasms. Also, I think I finally grasped that “ghosted” is a perfect description of Ambarchi’s guitar aesthetic in this context, as his playing is abstracted into an incorporeal shimmer in nearly every piece (and the few well-chosen exceptions make quite an impact).
I have quickly grown to love this album, but It took me some time to warm to the opening “en,” as Ambarchi’s playing is primarily limited to gently warbling and painterly smears while Johan Berthling’s bass playing is seemingly relegated to just a single jazzy yet endlessly repeating riff. Once I listened to it on headphones, however, I quickly understood that the piece was essentially a killer drum showcase for Werliin: Ambarchi is providing subtle coloration, Berthling is holding down the pulse, and Werliin is absolutely tearing it up on a rolling and clattering groove. As I am always a fan of great drummers given space to go off, merely shifting my focus to Werliin instantly worked wonders in deepening my appreciation for the piece. I found some other quiet delights as well (the way Ambarchi’s guitar sometimes sounds like an organ fading in and out of focus, the way the final fade out reveals new details in the bass line, etc.), but the other three pieces still feel stronger simply because they are more of a full-band effort. In the following “två,” for example, Berthling’s lovely bass harmonic motif is the heart of a stellar foray into a simmering and austere Tortoise-esque groove. Ambarchi’s contribution is still quite muted (woozy vapor trails, gently oscillating shimmer), but the trio make the most out of the piece’s spaciousness, as the vacuum of space makes a mere kick drum thump or bass throb feel sensual and significant.
That said, I am first and foremost an Oren Ambarchi fan, so the album’s second half is where Ghosted II truly catches fire for me, as he finally emerges from ”ambient haze” mode to unleash some extremely cool motifs of his own. On “tre,” a wonderfully warm double bass hook and a stumbling off-kilter beat provide a backdrop for Ambarchi’s journey from Boards of Canada-esque heat haze to a gorgeous and vaguely Japanese-sounding cascade of harp-like harmonics. The closing “fyra” features still more harmonic magic, as Ambarchi’s gently jangling and chiming strums provide the lovely central motif. Werliin is in especially fine form on that piece as well, gamely unleashing yet another quiet storm of clattering and rolling fills.
Aside from that, “fyra” also features the single biggest twist on the entire album: a guitar motif that actually sounds like a guitar. Notably, said motif is essentially just two arpeggiated chords, but Ambarchi seems to have stumbled upon two of the most magical chords that a guitar can possibly produce, as it feels like I am being drawn deeper and deeper into a psychotropic rabbit hole every time they surface. In fact, listening to “fyra” feels a lot like the aftermath of looking at the sun for too long: the recognizable world is still there, but it has the feel of a shimmering mirage and the colors all feel newly strange and unfamiliar. To lesser degree, the same thing could be said of the entire album: the subtly funky bass and drum grooves are strong enough to be satisfying on their own, but Ambarchi’s beautifully understated and spectral playing elevates what would otherwise be a cool jazz trio album into something deliciously elusive, dreamlike, and unique.
