David Torn

Sunny Five: Candid

by Glenn Astarita
March 18, 2024

With the ever-evolving tapestry of experimental jazz, striking the perfect balance between familiar echoes and trailblazing sounds can be a delicate act. Intakt's latest release, Sunny Five, not only navigates this tightrope with finesse but also performs a dazzling dance across it. This album serves as a vibrant reminder of the joy and spontaneity that lie at the heart of jazz. Delivered by a collection of renowned New York-based musicians, each a master in their own right, the band offers ...

(Blade of) Carlstedt Motzer Torn: The Flowering Am

by Mark Sullivan
June 8, 2023

The first sound that greets the listener to this new improvisational trio is the familiar strangled whammy bar manipulations of guitarist David Torn, joined by textural sounds by fellow guitarist Tim Motzer. Drummer Jeremy Carlstedt provides only a heartbeat rhythm initially, followed by cymbals and drums that only coalesce into a regular beat about halfway into the opener “Ping." It is the kind of open exploration expected from these adventurous musicians, ranging from calm to stormy and taking the listener ...

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2 - Remixes

by Mark Sullivan
February 3, 2022

Guitarist & composer Stephan Thelen's experimental guitar-fest Fractal Guitar (MoonJune Records, 2019) was followed by Fractal Guitar Remixes And Extra Tracks (MoonJune Records, 2019), a substantially fresh look at the material, as well as an expansion. For the sequel Fractal Guitar 2 (Moonjune Records, 2021) Thelen produced an even more radical approach to contemporary guitar-driven music. The remixes are also a step beyond. To start with, the album could just as well have been titled “Point Of Inflection ...

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2

by Mark Sullivan
April 25, 2021

Guitarist and composer Stephan Thelen's Fractal Guitar (MoonJune Records, 2018) found him stepping outside of his role in the band Sonar in a big way. An absolute feast of multiple guitars with electronic effects, live looping and soundscaping, it also featured a star-studded group of guest guitarists (not to mention a grooving rhythm section). The good news is that almost all of them are back for the second installment, along with some new friends. The original album was largely created ...

Sonar with David Torn: Tranceportation (Volume 2)

by Claudio Bonomi
November 12, 2020

L'avvolgente e ipnotica spirale della ritmica di “Triskaidekaphilia" cattura subito l'orecchio più distratto e trasporta l'ascoltatore nel mondo sotterraneo e potente dei Sonar, quartetto svizzero capitanato da Stephan Thelen che qui, per la terza volta, unisce le proprie forze insieme a quelle di David Torn, improvvisatore e chitarrista sperimentale di fama internazionale il cui sodalizio con il combo elvetico risale al 2018 con l'album Vortex per proseguire con Tranceportation Vol. 1, pubblicato nel 2019 (entrambi sempre sotto l'ombrello della RareNoise ...

Sun of Goldfinger: Congratulations to You

by Mike Jurkovic
October 2, 2020

As if Tim Berne were a pied piper bearing the eleventh hour of democracy solely on his back, on the fourteen-minute opener “Bat Tears" (recorded in 2010) his rebel alto and now-retired baritone saxophones presciently pierce the abhorrent now under which we all labor, with a viscerally ecstatic, David Torn-Dopplered, sweeping, urgency which seizes the senses with all the abstract subtlety of a meat hook. Now that is a boatload to take in, but so is the concept ...

Sonar: Tranceportation (Volume 1)

by Vic Albani
July 13, 2020

Della serie: “Caro signor Torn, siamo una band svizzera molto ispirata dalle opere di quel grande genio dell'immagine che risponde al nome di Maurits Cornelis Escher e più ci pensiamo, più realizziamo che se a lei interessassero le nostre geometrie sonore saremmo davvero contenti di realizzare i nostri sogni sonori con lei." Torn non se lo fa ripetere due volte e risponde che non solo sarebbe disposto a produrre il lavoro della band elvetica ma che—visto che i loro suoni ...

Imagining The Guitar: An Interactive Workshop Weekend With David Torn

Source: Michael Birnbaum
October 24, 2016

Woodstock Sessions Announces Imagining the Guitar: An Interactive Workshop Weekend with David Torn, December 10 & 11 Gear Provided by Fryette and Sound City Amplification Woodstock Sessions today announced a special interactive workshop weekend led by guitar prodigy, David Torn, December 10 & 11. This intimate workshop at Applehead Studios in idyllic Woodstock, NY will present possibilities for participating guitarists to develop their 21st century approach to use of the guitar along orchestrational lines. The workshop will be rooted in ...
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Donna Lewis With UK Release Of "Brand New Day" Featuring Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Produced By David Torn - Out June 17, 2016 + UK Tour

Source: Emma Perry Publicity
May 6, 2016

Brand New Day is available for Pre-Order. “I Love You Always Forever" was such a huge hit for the multi-platinum artist Donna Lewis; a #1 chart hit / dance-pop classic for which people around the globe still have boundless affection—the 1996 song will always be the one for which many fans know her. But the Welsh native is an artist of many dimensions, as she has demonstrated with efforts ranging from “At the Beginning," her charming duet with Richard Marx ...
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Guitar Legend David Torn To Tour Us In Support Of New Album

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James
May 8, 2015

jny: Los Angeles, CA: Ever-intrepid guitarist, producer, improviser, film composer and soundscape artist David Torn will embark on his first solo tour of the US since the mid-nineties (see itinerary below). The 22-city tour is in support of only sky—an album that explores the far sonic edges of what one man and a guitar can create, a solo recording of almost orchestral atmosphere. only sky is Torn’s first ECM release since 2007’s acclaimed “prezens”, a full-band project, with Tim Berne, ...
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Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White - Levin Torn White (2011)

Source: Something Else!
September 23, 2011

By Tom Johnson Something keeps pulling guitarist David Torn and bassist Tony Levin together. It's a partnership that blossomed with 1987's Cloud About Mercury, with drummer Bill Bruford and trumpeter Mark Isham, and, for what seemed like an eternity to fans, felt as if it might be a one-off project. In a way, it was. The two would return together in the late 1990s, along with Bruford, with Chris Botti taking Isham's place, this time as Bruford Levin Upper Extremities. ...
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Debut Album from Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White

Source: JamBase
September 14, 2011

SENSATIONAL DEBUT FROM NEW TRIO OF VETERANS Some combinations are truly unique, a breed apart that stretches even known factors into interesting new spaces. This is absolutely the case with Levin Torn White, the debut collaboration of powerhouse, ultra-high-end players Tony Levin (bass, Chapman stick), David Torn (guitars, textural events) and Alan White (drums, percussion). The album, which arrives today on Lazy Bones Recordings, is a fearless rush that's a bit metallic, a bit avant-garde, a bit groovy, hell, a ...
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David Torn - Prezens (2007)

Source: Something Else!
July 11, 2011

By Mark Saleski There are guitarists with “chops," and there are guitarists with “feel." These are not mutually exclusive categories, though the longstanding argument often revolves around the idea that a player with the former seldom has much of the latter. It's a pointless argument, especially when there are examples that go so far out as to destroy the boundaries of the discussion. Meet David Torn. I'm sure that Mr. Torn has chops. Plenty of feel, too, but neither of ...
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Forgotten Series: David Torn - Tripping Over God (1995)

Source: Something Else!
April 19, 2011

by Tom Johnson David Torn's Tripping Over God is an album that has defied description since the day I bought it in 1995. With only a vague knowledge of the man as a member of David Sylvian's band for the Secrets Of The Beehive album, I happened upon a listening station at the local Tower Records offering the chance to hear the album. Mesmerised within a moment of pressing play, I quickly grabbed a copy. I couldn’t possibly be the ...
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The Jazz Session #190: David Torn

Source: AAJ Staff
August 12, 2010

Here's an interview from the early days of The Jazz Session with guitarist David Torn. This is what I had to say about him back then:

He's a film composer whose music you've heard in Friday Night Lights, Believe In Me, and The Order. He's also contributed tones and textures to films like this years Best Picture winner, The Departed, and the 2000 hit Traffic. Before his film days, he was known for daring musical collaborations on albums such as ...
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Firehouse 12 to Present David Torn's Prezens This Friday 3/14

Source: Improvised Communications
March 11, 2008

On Friday, March 14th, Firehouse 12 will kick off its 13-week Spring Jazz Series with a two-set performance by experimental guitarist David Torn's all-star quartet, Prezens. The group unites Torn with the members of acclaimed saxophonist Tim Berne's electro-acoustic trio, Hard Cell, featuring keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Reney. Prezens is touring the U.S. in March in support of its self-titled 2007 debut, which marked Torn's triumphant return to the ECM Records label.

Critics called Prezens “marvelous" (Barry Witherden, ...
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Guitarist/Producer/Engineer/Soundscapist David Torn Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
October 8, 2007

David Torn has done work in so many capacities in such a variety of musical projects that it's somewhat daunting to try to state just what exactly he is.

Certainly Torn's a guitarist of humbling technique--but he's always been more interested in texture and sound than the kind of electric shredding beloved in guitar-hero-worshiping circles. It was during his tenure as guitarist with the New York-based Everyman Band--a group originally formed to support rock artist Lou Reed--that Torn's unusual, processed ...
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