Alright, alright, we know — the chaps above don't look exactly like the average producer or DJ you see adorning the pages of THUMP. And no, you haven't accidentally ended up on the Wire's website, so please don't leave. Those three lads —Samuel Rohrer, Ricard Villalobos collaborator Max Loderbauer and Claudio Puntin— make up the tripped out, dubby, cosmically inclined jazzy trio AMBIQ."Jazz? On THUMP? Are you sure?" I hear you ask. Yes, we are sure. Honestly. Jazz isn't all blokes in corduroy trousers masturbating into trumpets. It can be mediative, deep, dark, and just as rewarding as the latest 4/4 pumper that's blowing up basements down the Kingsland Road night after night. Honestly. Stop thinking about the sketches in The Fast Show, please.AMBIQ's second album —ambitiously titled AMBIQ 2— is one of the most intriguing things we've heard all year. It's a kraut infused jazz workout, an electronica score for a film set in some smokey Soho den of iniquity, a rich, rewarding listen that demands, and deserves, your full attention.Our advice? Whip a beanbag out, get the headphones in and check out the album and interview with the group below:THUMP: How would you describe the sound of AMBIQ?
AMBIQ: It bridges electronic, electroacoustic music, jazz, Krautrock and ends in rhythmically charged, organic explorations. The music comes from a deep pool of influences that includes early electronic music, free improv and spaced out dub.Would this particular musical vision have been impossible to express just with electronic sounds?
We all went musically a long way so far. When we play music it is first of all about listening to each other, then it is about what you hear in your inner ear, then about what you play and with which instruments and sounds you want to create it. This all happens very quickly, there is no time to think. So the result, when you improvise, comes from intuitive action. It is, in its best way, a very personal output of what you are and what you have absorbed in your life and still do absorb in the moment. In the end it is all about listening and insisting. If three people insist long enough in their own ideas, while remain open and flexible and able to listen to each other, you can create wonderful creatures of music together, which are hard or impossible to think of before they appear. The sound design, particular in this case, is a mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. I guess this makes it to what is is and its different to other ensembles. so yes its impossible the achieve this with only electronic sounds.What is improvised and what is not?
It is all 100% improvised. We have many hours of music after a two-day recording session. Then the huge work is to choose and to edit the moments we like.Could you give us some musical references as inspirations?
We have a broad background and lots of influences. From classical music, jazz, pop, electronic and improvised music. We were studying classical as well as jazz music and the fact that we come from very different angles and find a way to create something together, shows us that we have a common taste and huge curiosity for fresh music, which is created in the moment.AMBIQ 2 is out now on arjunamusic records. You can buy it here.
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AMBIQ: It bridges electronic, electroacoustic music, jazz, Krautrock and ends in rhythmically charged, organic explorations. The music comes from a deep pool of influences that includes early electronic music, free improv and spaced out dub.Would this particular musical vision have been impossible to express just with electronic sounds?
We all went musically a long way so far. When we play music it is first of all about listening to each other, then it is about what you hear in your inner ear, then about what you play and with which instruments and sounds you want to create it. This all happens very quickly, there is no time to think. So the result, when you improvise, comes from intuitive action. It is, in its best way, a very personal output of what you are and what you have absorbed in your life and still do absorb in the moment. In the end it is all about listening and insisting. If three people insist long enough in their own ideas, while remain open and flexible and able to listen to each other, you can create wonderful creatures of music together, which are hard or impossible to think of before they appear. The sound design, particular in this case, is a mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. I guess this makes it to what is is and its different to other ensembles. so yes its impossible the achieve this with only electronic sounds.What is improvised and what is not?
It is all 100% improvised. We have many hours of music after a two-day recording session. Then the huge work is to choose and to edit the moments we like.Could you give us some musical references as inspirations?
We have a broad background and lots of influences. From classical music, jazz, pop, electronic and improvised music. We were studying classical as well as jazz music and the fact that we come from very different angles and find a way to create something together, shows us that we have a common taste and huge curiosity for fresh music, which is created in the moment.AMBIQ 2 is out now on arjunamusic records. You can buy it here.