Between this and the recently released Imikuzushi live collaboration with Keiji Haino and Jim O’Rourke, Ambarchi's work is drifting more and more into the realm of "music" rather than his more abstract tendencies. While the collaboration is a full on psychedelic rock blast, Audience of One is a more restrained, structured affair that features, among other things, an Ace Frehely cover.
Ambarchi has never been one to overly engage in dissonant noise, but his work usually is tinged with an abstract quality.On opener "Salt," the musical bent on here becomes obvious.Ambarchi's guitar work is restrained, tightly clipped notes that are paired with Paul Duncan's heavily multitracked vocals.The piece goes from subtle restraint to more grandiose, sweeping strings that have bombast, but still a delicate sound to it.
"Passage" is cut from a similar cloth, with piano and ringing wine glasses filling wide open spaces.The delicate, beautiful strings (courtesy of Eyvind Kang) give the whole piece a distinct lightness, and more than a hint of the minimalist compositions of Terry Reily or Philip Glass.
The massive "Knots" makes up more than half of the album, clocking in over 33 minutes and it's also a dramatic, sweeping piece.It opens with subtle percussion and reigned in droning instruments, both of which flow together into a tense mixture that continues to build and build in volume and intensity.Horns and dissonant tones swell up to the forefront and then pull back, leaving the sparser moments to return.
As "Knots" goes on, French horns mimic battle cries before, about half-way through, the track just opens up into balls out noise rock, emphasizing Ambarchi's electric guitar and Joe Talia’s driving rhythms.Afterward, the piece falls apart into a fragmented, abstract soundscape that differs greatly from the disciplined, structured opening.
Finally, Audience of One ends on a cover of Ace Frehely's "Fractured Mirror," which is mostly a combination of intertwined acoustic and electric guitars atop a rudimentary vintage drum machine.While the credits state that Ambarchi provided vocals on the track, they're too buried and processed to be recognizable.It’s a surprising cover choice, but a majestic one that is both respectful to its source, while also taking the track in a unique direction.
Ambarchi's Audience of One manages to transform from sparse minimalism to a full on embrace of classic rock, which is a tall order in the span of less than an hour.Even though there seems to be dramatic shifts in style, the pieces all hang together very well, and the change in dynamics works nicely.The greater emphasis on conventional sound was surprising, but as good as it is, I can't complain.
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