Sun is the coupling of sound artist Oren Ambarchi and musician-producer Chris Townend. The pair have been kindred spirits for many years, with Townend being a sensitive and crucial ear in engineering Ambarchi’s solo recordings. It was their shared love for expansive pop that led them to their first musical collaboration together as Sun in 2001. The self-titled debut was a laidback delight of many melodic charms and artful creation, as sweet as it was wry in its lyricism. Those trademarks continue with I’ll Be The Same, though the songs here are more freewheeling pleasures where an unaffected sense of experimentalism breezes in. There’s a special kind of warmth to I’ll Be The Same that feels easy, a reflection of the state of play when these two come together. And with Ambarchi now residing in Melbourne and Townend’s imminent move to Tasmania, along with multiple touring and recording commitments for both, really the only thing about Sun that isn’t easy is finding the time to make it happen. I’ll Be The Same is finally a beaming signal of more to follow.
Sydney duo Sun is the unusual pairing of world renowned experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and Australian music figurehead Chris Townend. Sun confirms its authors as two truly original music minds, a languid and sweet pop creation, brimming with sly invention in its classicist frame. These songs simply float into the consciousness with a grand air and sublimely delicate touch. There's an easy warmth to SUN as well as some darker surprises for added depth and nuance.
Ambarchi has become a solo performer whose stirring sonic experiments with the guitar have seen him recently record for acclaimed European exploratory music labels Touch and Tzadik, and perform and collaborate with artists such as Fennesz and Otomo Yoshihide, and revered minimalist composer Phill Niblock. Townend once fronted the wild Kiss My Poodle's Donkey, one of the first local groups to mix electronics with rock to crunching effect. He now spends his time as a hired gun helping to perform film scores and running his own studio, Bigjesusburger, where Bristo's Portishead bunkered down to record much of their upcoming album last year. Together as Sun, they have realised a beautifully measured work of restraint and melodic wonder, a sheer pop thrill to sit back and sink into.
Sun Remixes
Available as a bonus disc with Sun.
The self-titled debut album is been remixed in entirety by some of the best names in exploratory and innovative electronica, including Stefan Schneider from To Rococo Rot (as Mapstation), Hrvatski, Rafael Toral, Pluramon and Pimmon. The transformations of Sun’s melodic invention are uniformly stunning, adding another dimension to what’s already been described as “the harmonic strength of the Beach Boys as if they were backed by Low or Tortoise” (Juice).
So, a chance to rediscover or tune in for the first time to what publications from The Wire to The New York Timesare gushing over.
