30–31 October 2024
Ghosted is a transcendent collaboration between Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin. The trio connected in 2018 at Stockholm's Studio Rymden, where they began to unravel their musical influences, focusing their powers on the fertile space between 70s ECM jazz, electronic minimalism, African music and so much more. Aussie guitarist Ambarchi is one of the experimental scene's most recognizable figures, with iconic albums on Touch, PAN, Editions Mego and his own Black Truffle label, while Swedish bassist Johan Berthling is best known for founding the Häpna imprint and performing in bands such as Fire! and Tape. Drummer Andreas Werliin completes the puzzle, bringing his varied experience playing with Wildbirds & Peacedrums and Fire! and collaborating with artists like Andrew Bird and Mats Gustafsson. They've been making music together for years, and Ghosted is where everything falls perfectly into place. In early 2022, legendary Chicago label Drag City quietly released the trio’s first release and their second release Ghosted II in April 2024.
Each night will be opened by Kalia Vandever, a Grammy Award Winning trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Marking her first time performing live in the UK, these solo shows by her follow the release of We Fell In Turn, her acclaimed debut solo album, released on AKP Records in March, 2023.
Johan was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm, Sweden in 1973. He started playing the double and electric bass and underwent musicial studies in Jönköping, Skurup and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm. After ending studies in 1998 he’s been working as a freelance musician with jazz, rock, improvised music and music for theatre.
He has worked with many notable musicians, including: Mats Gustafsson, Sten Sandell, Raymond Strid, Paal Nilssen-Love, Akira Sakata, Fredrik Ljungkvist, El Perro del Mar, Jonas Kullhammar, Mette Rasmussen, Goran Kajfes, Oren Ambarchi, Martin Küchen, Steve Noble, Andreas Werliin, Tenniscoats, Bill Wells, Jim O’Rourke, Stina Nordenstam, Anna Ternheim and Titiyo and he has featured on more than 100 recordings.
He’s active in the groups Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, Tape, Angles 9, Nacka Forum, LSB, Arashi and Goran Kajfes Subtropic Arkestra.
Berthling has also worked as a composer for film together with Andreas Söderström, working with swedish directors such as Anders Weidemann, Lisa Langseth, Amanda Adolfsson, Jonas Selberg Augustsén, Thomas Jackson and Axel Petersen and has been hired as a music producer by artists like Weeping Willows, Taxi Taxi, Idiot Kid, Little Children, Santa Maria, ASS, Tenniscoats and the Thing.
He has been running the Häpna record label (together with Klas Augustsson) since 1999.
Andreas Werliin was born 1982 in the vast snow of northern Sweden and later on raised on the west coast village Strömstad, Andreas is now one of the most interesting and well-acclaimed new generation percussionists and record producers in the creative music scene of Scandinavia. He has received a Bachelor in Fine Art from the Program of Improvisational Performance at Gothenburg University. Andreas has developed an exceptionally personal way of playing and is known for his strength, creativity and sensitive listening. Today also working as a record producer and mixing with credits on over hundred albums. With improvisational music at hart he’s today a part of many different groups and projects such as Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, Tonbruket, Time Is A Mountain and Angles 9.
Oren Ambarchi's works are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal. From the late 90's his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique have led to a more personal and unique sound-world incorporating a broader palette of instruments and sensibilities. On releases such as Grapes From The Estate and In The Pendulum’s Embrace, Ambarchi employed glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, drums and percussion, creating fragile textures as light as air which tenuously coexist with the deep, wall-shaking bass tones derived from his guitar.
Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Charlemagne Palestine, Sunn 0)), Thomas Brinkmann, crys cole, Keiji Haino, Alvin Lucier, John Zorn, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Curran, Loren Connors, Manuel Gottsching/Ash Ra, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe, David Rosenboom, Julia Reidy, Akio Suzuki, Phill Niblock, John Tilbury, Richard Pinhas, Evan Parker, Fire! and many more.
Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for labels such as Touch, Editions Mego, Drag City, PAN, Southern Lord, Kranky and Tzadik. His acclaimed trio with Keiji Haino and Jim O'Rourke performs in Tokyo annually with many of their concerts documented on Ambarchi's Black Truffle label. Black Truffle has over 90 releases to date.
In 2003 his live release Triste received an honorary mention in the Prix Ars Electronica digital music category. His release Quixotism was listed in The Wire magazine's top 50 releases of 2014 and that same year Pitchfork named him Experimental Artist Of The Year. His 2016 album Hubris and featured an astonishing cast of players including crys cole, Mark Fell, Arto Lindsay, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Ricardo Villalobos amongst others. Hubris was listed in numerous 'Best Albums Of 2016" listings in renowned magazine's such as The Wire, Rolling Stone, The Quietus and Tiny Mix Tapes. In 2019 Ambarchi was the cover feature for the August #426 issue of the Wire Magazine.
In May 2019 renowned London venue Cafe Oto celebrated Ambarchi's 50th birthday and the 10 year anniversary of his Black Truffle label with a 3-day festival featuring a packed international bill of special guests, projects and collaborations, all closely associated with Oren and his label. The Live Hubris release on Black Truffle documents the final performance from this event, featuring fifteen of Ambarchi's close collaborators.
Kalia Vandever is a Grammy Award Winning trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her approach to the trombone is distinctive and defined by her sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational voice. She leans into the challenges of the instrument and allows patience and melody guide her process.
In her compositional practice, Kalia draws from her love of songs and improvisation, creating a landscape of sounds that resonate in the body and hold the listener. She released her debut ensemble album, "In Bloom" in 2019 which has been described as "the rise of an exciting voice for the music" (Seton Hawkins, Hot House Jazz Magazine). Her sophomore album, Regrowth released in May, 2022 on New Amsterdam Records and "confirms her strengths as a composer and bandleader with a distinctly contemporary point of view." (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz) Her debut solo album,We Fell In Turn featuring her works for trombone, voice and electronics released on AKP Records in March, 2023.
