Australian sound traveler Oren Ambarchi keeps creating mesmerizing, evocative landscapes of sound. With a mixture of electronic and traditional instruments--including strings, chimes, and glass harmonica--he creates a unique, personal sonic world over IN THE PENDULUM'S EMBRACE's 41 minutes. The effect of Ambarchi's recent adventures with various avant headbangers and his affiliation with Southern Lord Records is obvious, and comes through in interesting, subtle ways. The three tracks that make up the album dwell both in the underground drone world of sometime collaborators SunnO))) and a brighter, more crystalline zone of quiet reflection. Altogether, it represents nothing so much as life itself, composed of crushing lows and sweet, gentle highs, and made from equal parts stern technology and warm flesh and blood.