Oren Ambarchi:
Hubris

Thursday, July 3, 2025, 7 pm, Festival Boat

Oren Ambarchi: electric guitar
Konrad Sprenger: computer
Sam Dunscombe: bass clarinet
Mats Gustafsson: baritone sax and flute
Jules Reidy, Phillip Sollmann, Fredrik Rasten: electric guitar
Marcus Pal: electric guitar
Johan Berthling: electric bass
Will Guthrie, Andreas Werliin: drums
crys cole: vocal

The origins of Oren Ambarchi’s signature project date back to 2016, when he released the album ‘Hubris’, which he brought to the stage in 2019 with a performance at Café Oto in London. The live recording ‘Live Hubris’ was released in 2021. Ambarchi says about the creation of this group project in the Monheim Papers

‘Many of my albums start with a conceptual idea. With ‘Hubris’, for example, I was listening to a lot of disco and 80s new wave stuff. There’s usually a brief moment on a record that I find incredible, but that moment only lasts a few seconds. For example, one of the first inspirations for ‘Hubris’ was a 10 second section on the instrumental B-side of Tulio De Piscopo’s ‘Stop Bajon’ 12’. Something about the sound and the way the two palm-muted guitars were panned hard left and hard right inspired me, but it only lasted ten seconds. So I said to myself: Why can’t a whole album sound like those ten seconds? That was an initial spark for ‘Hubris’, just like Wang Chung’s ‘To Live & Die in L.A.’ soundtrack. When I hear something inspiring, it’s often the start of a new album.’

At this time, Ambarchi was travelling from gig to gig and living ‘on the road’ for months at a time and the creation of the album ‘Hubris’ reflects this phase, when he visited and recorded with various fellow musicians. Ambarchi: ‘I think the last person I worked with was Jim O’Rourke when I was in Tokyo. So the album grew slowly during my tour - that’s why there are so many different people from all over the world on the record.’

The Monheim Triennale will be the third time that the piece ‘Hubris’ will be heard in concert. Ambarchi has once again put together an extraordinary group for this. ‘All the players are friends and collaborators with whom I enjoy working. On the one hand, this piece has clear parameters and instructions as to how I would like it to be played. But there is also room for improvisation and extended sections for each player’s own interpretation. Each player has a personal voice and brings something unique to the piece.’

With quotes from Monheim Papers 2025, Thomas Venker.