Richard Pinhas, Oren Ambarchi, Tikkun

When you hear music that corresponds to music you hear in your own head there is a special connection. One of those musics is certainly the album Tikkun (Cuneiform CD & DVD set). It is one of two exceptional recent duet outings featuring guitarist Richard Pinhas. For this one he is joined by guitarist Oren Ambarchi, notable for his work with Sunn.

Tikkun has the ambience of Fripp and Eno at their best but the drive of ultra-psychedelic trance music. Pinhas's Heldon band of the '70s and his later collaboration with noise-ologist Merzbow have something formative to do with this CD work and its live DVD companion. Yet the results here are on an adjacent, yet differing planet.

It is maximalism. It is a thick heady crust of riff, bash, drone, scronk and otherwise feedback drenched sustained electricity. Ambarchi and Pinhas hit it off together. So much so that their playing blends into an orchestral wash such that one cannot tell the two apart. This matters not, because the music is incredibly cosmic.

Ambarchi and Pinhas achieve liftoff immediately and they journey far into space. It is a psychedelic tour de force, something far beyond the ordinary, far outside the realm of normalcy yet incredibly evocative. There are drums and sequencers in the mix, but the thrust comes from the guitars, surely.

Can I just suggest you hear the music at this point? There is where words do not matter. Just listen to this one!