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Archives: David Torn

2015 3 Mai

Mr. Torn’s Surreal Hour

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Ever-intrepid guitarist, producer, improviser, film composer and soundscape artist, David Torn, returns with „only sky“, an album that explores the sonic edges of what one man and a guitar can create, a solo recording of almost orchestral atmosphere. It is Torn’s first ECM release since 2007’s acclaimed „prezens“, a full-band project, with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Tom Rainey, that Jazzwise described as “a vibrating collage full of shimmering sonic shapes, a dark, urban electronic soundscape – a potent mix of jazz, free-form rock and technology that is both demanding and rewarding.” The same descriptors apply to „only sky“, with its hovering ambient shadows and vaulting flashes of light, its channeling of deep country/blues memories and Burroughsian dreams of North Africa. Recorded in the acoustically apt hall of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in upstate New York (and then sorted and mixed in Torn’s own mad-scientist lair), „only sky“ is an album to get lost in, over and again.

The tracks are simply signposted by „parts2, nine in all, the shortest running to just under seven minutes; the longest, „Part VI“, from Orchard Hall, Tokyo, at just under nine-and-a-half. Austerely presented with a dark cover featuring an abstract painting by Eberhard Ross, a faintly discernible woven texture with slim green and white horizontal flecks, there is a communion of sorts invoked in the atmosphere of each piece, few fireworks in the first two pieces (actually few overall in terms of bravura grandstanding), more the atmosphere of nocturnes, deeply passionate … (Stephen Graham, Marlbank)

 

One solo album done with piano, one with guitar(s) and electric oud. Two instruments with tons of cultural baggage. Keith Jarrett and the big word „Creation“, David Torn and the airy title „Only Sky“. Two covers to look at, two hours to get lost in. I think that the magic decade of Mr. Jarrett were (roughly speakin‘) the 70’s, but, particularly in his solo piano performances, time spans can luckily  be denied, and there have been some dark and shining hours long after the „Köln Concert“ turned into a worldwide „vibe“. „Creation“ is a work of class that doesn’t require the big word on the cover, the texture of the cover painting is more telling.

 

As is the figure in the landscape of „Only Sky“. An impressive variation of a well-known ECM -„signifier“. David Torn once played in a band that accompanied Lou Reed. David Torn reached for the sky (only sky!) several times, since he lost the panoramic scale of listening after a brain surgery – deaf on one ear. I once talked with him on a long evening, one of the unforgettable interviews. He released, for example, the enigmatic magic of „Prezens“. He never really lost the panoramic scale of listening. „Only Sky“ is worth every second. Mr. Torn takes his time. No doubt this belongs to most rewarding guitar albums of recent years, along with Daniel Lanois‘ „Flesh & Machine“ (2014) and Eivind Aarset’s „Dream Logic“ (2012) .

 

Solo recordings are always a dicey proposition; naked, with nobody to hide behind, the artist’s work is laid bare for all to hear. But given that only sky is, according to Torn, „the closest to capturing what I do alone with a guitar at home“, it most accurately approaches who Torn is when he’s unbound by the constraints that most projects, if even inadvertently, impose. The result is a record that is his most idiomatic and individualized. Sonically it’s an expansive record that’s the antithesis of the traditional solo guitar record – (…) everything from harsh angularity to unabashed beauty can be found on only sky … (John Kelman, allaboutjazz)


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