Album Review: Connected by Robin Fox

Experimental guitarist/composer Oren Ambarchi and purveyor of cold electronic sounds Robin Fox came together in Melbourne, Australia in early 2011 to collaborate with dance company Chunky Move, soundtracking their otherworldly production Connected. The performance saw dancers interacting with organic sculptural works, sometimes ominously suspended midair. Over the course of the performance, the dancers found themselves wrapped in the sculptures' menacing tentacles, struggling for either escape or assimilation into the pieces.

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Properly, Oren Ambarchi and Robin Fox’s Connected is the soundtrack of a dance and sculpture piece by the Australian dance company Chunky Move. What additional considerations now arise based on this fact? Is the musical aspect of a multimedia work separable and evaluable on its own terms? The utilitarian response to these questions would seem to provide a starting point: If the music works in isolation as a piece unto itself, then no further explanations are necessary. This answer ignores a host of approaches, preferring to engage solely with sound as if it existed in a vacuum.

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It might seem strange to toss the word "patience" around when discussing the work of Oren Ambarchi, especially considering the rapidity with which he released recorded music in 2012. But there's an unflappable air about the Australian musician, a sense that he's carving a serene path through all the chaos. Ambarchi has reached an enviable point, where he can indulge wildly creative urges and find multiple outlets willing to put them out into the world.

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