Includes digital pre-order of Cooked.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
shipping out on or around September 25, 2026
Purchasable with gift card
$31USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Cooked.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
shipping out on or around September 25, 2026
Purchasable with gift card
$29USDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Cooked.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
shipping out on or around September 25, 2026
Purchasable with gift card
$13USDor more
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Cooked. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Keen listeners who have dug below the surface of Oren Ambarchi’s triple-digit discography know that alongside hypnotic minimalism, veins of irreverent and joyously wayward exploration run deep. Cooked is something of a landmark in Oren’s work, bringing this gloriously cuckoo sensibility right into the heart of his most high-profile solo work. Carrying on the grand Ambarchi tradition of meticulously constructed all-star studio jams (which reached new heights with Shebang, his 2022 Drag City debut), Cooked brings together collaborators from Australia, Germany, Japan and Sweden for two side-long epics where the foot keeps tapping even as the mind boggles.
Beginning with piano ripples from Eiko Ishibashi, after only a few seconds “Hidden Tableau” takes an unexpected turn with the entrance of a groaning synthetic voice (created by Konrad Sprenger, production mastermind at the helm for Shebang and this piece). The first half of the piece develops as an oddly moving concerto for this moaning and growling ghost in the machine and a delicate backdrop of piano, organ-like tones, and Oren’s signature shimmering Leslie guitar. As the beautifully flexible swing of Joe Talia’s drums enters, the harmonies fill out into woozy clouds and the synthetic voice seems to morph into something approaching a mutant trumpet. In a left turn that seems to come out of nowhere yet make an inexplicable kind of sense, the piece is then overtaken by patterns of intricate guitar and synthetic arpeggios. These might be Jim O’Rourke on synth, but who knows? If we learned anything from Simian Angel and Shebang, it’s that almost anything we hear could come from Oren’s guitar.
Cooked is a long way from the spacious, light-dappled grooves of Ghosted, but Oren’s Swedish bandmates play starring roles here, with Johan Berthling’s double bass anchoring both sides, and drummer Andreas Werliin lending his delicate touch to the second piece, “Sleight of Hand”. Beginning with glistening layers of electric 12-string guitar, “Sleight of Hand” takes some key cues from electric Miles touchstones like “Feio” or his epic take on David Crosby’s “Guinnevere”, with Berthling’s sparse basslines punctuating an almost weightless cornucopia of shifting detail, glimmering with subtle contributions from Michiko Ogawa on shō and James Rushford on a panoply of acoustic keyboards. Suddenly, everything is overwhelmed by a knotty, hyper- complex ‘solo’ from Marcus Pal on digital synthesis, teleporting us to an alternate history where Allan Holdsworth traded the SynthAxe for Xenakis’ UPIC. Building with additional drums and percussion from Will Guthrie to a peak of sizzling intensity, the music then goes sideways into a gently surreal coda, where some distinctly Zawinul-esque chords and Fredrik Rasten’s guitar float over a sprightly rhythm box, the avian inventions of Swedish virtuoso whistler Isak Hedtjärn wafting atop the sunlit stew.
It’s certainly Cooked, but not overcooked. Like 10cc in their prime, it layers a dizzying number of elements through intricate studio processes, yet somehow remains open, spontaneous, and intuitive, the whole thing suffused with an omnivorous love of music where everything is up for grabs. It’s a big call, but Cooked might just be the wildest ride that Oren Ambarchi has taken us on yet.
credits
releases September 25, 2026
2026, Drag City
Oren Ambarchi - Guitars and whatnot
Hidden Tableau:
Johan Berthling - Double bass
Eiko Ishibashi - Piano
Jim O'Rourke - Synth
Konrad Sprenger - Voice synthesis, electronics & production
Joe Talia - Drums
Sleight of Hand:
Johan Berthling - Double Bass
Will Guthrie - Gamelan & drums
Isak Hedtjärn - Whistling
Michiko Ogawa - Shō
Marcus Pal - Synthetic Sound
Fredrik Rasten - Guitars
James Rushford - Celeste, piano & portative organ
Andreas Werliin - Drums
Hidden Tableau was made in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger and recorded October 2022-January 2025 at:
Choose studio, Berlin (engineer: Joerg Hiller)
Hoshi To Niji recording studio & Steamroom, Japan (engineer: Jim O'Rourke)
Hello Daydreamer studio, Macedon Ranges, Victoria (engineer: Joe Talia)
Rymden studio, Stockholm (engineer: Daniel Bengston)
Mixed and edited by Joe Talia with Oren Ambarchi February 2025 in Melbourne
Sleight of Hand recorded December 2024-August 2025 at:
Sun Lint studio, Berlin (engineer: Fredrik Rasten)
Rymden studio, Stockholm (engineer: Daniel Bengston)
Brian Brown studio, Melbourne (engineer: Joe Talia)
The Crystal Ball, Berlin (engineer: Sam Dunscombe)
Studio D'En Haut, Nantes (engineer: Lucas Pizzini)
The Marcus Pal Institute of Abstract Epistemology, Berlin (engineer: Marcus Pal)
Edited by Oren Ambarchi at the Shitting Wheel, Berlin
Mixed by Joe Talia with Oren Ambarchi January 2026 in Melbourne
Mastered March 2026 by Joe Talia
Photos by Lasse Marhaug
Sleeve design/Typo/Color tweaking by Stephen O'Malley
Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental
approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK)....more
steady grooves with the sax of josh johnson dancing all over it. and when he takes a break, jeff slides in with something interesting. anna is a rock keeping everything together. the drumming is just perfect. listening to this enhances my life... i work to this, i drive to this, and i play it in shared spaces. lee
I thought Bleed was very good, but not great. Disquiet, however, is greatness. An album of this length is risky, but it works as three disks individually, and as a three hour whole. Rapid Eye Movement and Ghost Net are equally propelling in completely different ways. Causeway is utterly beautiful from the opening notes, and sublimely shocking when the drums finally join in. Warm Running Sunlight seems to suspend time. Disquiet could be even longer if it wanted to.
This is my #5 album of 2025. rvss.eel
Ponytail axeman Wong links up with guitarist, producer, and composer Uhlmann for an experimental pop effort that exudes childlike wonder. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 26, 2024
Dustin Wong returns with another album of brain-melting electronic music that is equal parts dizzying and hallucinatory. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 15, 2018
