Chris Abrahams / Oren Ambarchi / Robbie Avenaim: Placelessness

Sometimes an album comes along that is so intoxicating and deeply hypnotic that it’s difficult to find the right words to do it justice. Even for those of us who write every day, there are those few moments throughout the year whereby trying to transfer the soundwaves heard into some logical word form turns your brain into mush.

Placelessness, the debut collaboration album between Australian trio and experimental force, Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim, is one of those records. An album that boasts the kind of multi-coloured textures and vivid sketches that become purer with each listen.

The Necks: Travel

Prior to their first live performance in 2017 at Unsound Adelaide, the trio had known one another for years; all prominent in the ’90s Sydney underground music scene, Ambarchi and Avenaim went to high school together and had played in Phlegm before founding the experimental WHAT IS MUSIC Festival.

Since then, all three have spent decades spinning their own plates, both immersed in and creating their own sound worlds. Abrahams, a constant creator both in a solo capacity and as the driving force behind doom-jazz legends, The Necks, and most recently via his collaboration with Gareth Liddiard and Jim White as Springtime; Ambarchi, not only a prolific performer and collaborator, but also the founder of experimental label, Black Truffle; Avenaim, a student of New York composer, John Zorn, and also the founder of ((( SAFE IN SOUND ))) – the in-home live music program making experimental music accessible to people with disabilities.

Together, on Placelessness they conjure up something magical. Through Abrahams’ doom-laden keys, Avenaim’s innovative techniques and outer-world robotic drumkit modifications, and Ambarchi’s modular noodlings, the trio create a freedom of movement that forms one of the most compelling sound portals explored this year. A crystallised dream state that is beautifully untethered.

It all begins with Placelessness I. A slow, hushed crawl of Abrahams’ piano that so often sets the mood when taking those perilous journeys with The Necks. And the same continues here, as the sound is like a black cloud from hell, creating those doom-scaped atmospheres that are completely his own. And as Ambarchi’s metallic guitar plinking and off-kilter noise combines with Avenaim’s spidery percussion, it’s the kind of incongruous noise that juxtaposes the spatial intensity created by Abrahams from behind the keys.

Total Eclipse: An Interview with Oren Ambarchi

On Placelessness II, Avenaim takes centre stage with the kind of dynamism that produces colours and sounds. Like pistons working double overtime, this frenetic improv’ freakout is also of the ilk that freezes time. As Ambarchi peppers the track with more fragments of noise, amid the tension and blurry explosion of speed between Abrahams’ piano and Avenaim’s militant drum rolls, it’s a composition fit for the gods.

And on the whole, the same could be said Placelessness. Collaborations like this don’t always replicate the majesty one sees on paper. That’s not the case here, and with beautiful tempo shifts and effortless movement through sound worlds, the Australian experimental alumni capture the kind of burning intensity that feels like lighting coursing through your veins. A constellation that cannot be replicated, and for 39 minutes, Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim produce one of the year’s finest albums. 

Placelessness is out now via Ideologic Organ. Purchase from Bandcamp.