GHOSTED III

The third time's the charm! Or
perhaps-the third time's another

charming excursion into the seem-
ingly infinite universe of rhythm

spontaneously created whenever
guitarist Oren Ambarchi, bassist
Johan Berthling, and percussionist
Andreas Werliin plug in together.
However you choose to look at it,
several years into their collaborative
endeavor, and a little more than a

year on from Ghosted II, Ambar-
chi, Berthling and Werliin are back

with a new finding, constituting fresh
developments of their sound-if not
their album-titling ambition (in other
words, if you can't guess it's called
Ghosted III, you're just not paying
enough attention!).

In actuality, the sound of this trio has been all about new developments
since they first started playing together. That's something to be simply
expected when dropping the tonearm on any of their records, which
is a very nice thing. There's also something to be said for constancy,
especially when it produces such stimulating variations of tone and
mood within the trio format. So, all good-since there wasn't anything
broke, there was no need to fix it. Instead, just do it again. With that
credo, Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin returned to Stockholm's
Studio Rymden to continue the incredible standard of capture that
distinguished both Ghosted and Ghosted II.
Although they took more studio time than ever before (three whole
days!), Ghosted III's new development is an increased immediacy in
their performances, something a little looser and wilder than than their
first two albums-and something, no doubt, that's been developed by
their encounters during the several dozen-plus gigs played since their
debut. Thus, their ability to lock in and focus, hanging on to the smallest
of details, is here enhanced by an expansive lightness of being. Such
potentially polar skill sets could well make for uneven chemistry-but
in the hands of these three, a sparkling variety of new jams occurs.
They seem to be available to try anything these days, at times playing
with the exuberance of prog-rockers or new-wave popsters, alongside

the eternal energies of their established styles: ambient neo-jazz, post-
kraut, minimal funk. In the end, their shared instinct shapes the varied

emissions into structure reaching ever further into the ether-giving
Ghosted III a singular quality belonging only to the trio that is Oren
Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin.