David Torn

David Torn - David Torn Collection - 1998 - Times Square

Back me against a wall & I’ll be forced to admit (if you stick a gun down my throat) that Torn’s patented polyglot of Hindustani-style articulation, Eastern modality, bebop phrasing, psychedelic fuzzfire, trip hop sampling, country string-bending & ambient ear-aurora is the least self-conscious, most interesting & FUN high-brow hybrid currently mutating across America’s parched musical landscape. If beaten into submission & tortured with thumbscrews, I may even concede that his revelatory yet hilarious guitar pedagogy makes more sense & does more good than 100 bogus books crammed with little black dots & formulas that read like Cardassian hieroglyphs. But admit that Torn ROCKS? You’ll have to KILL me, first. — Guitar Player

While creating ungodly, insect-fear noises by subverting loops & delays to his own weird ends with massive amounts of distortion, he’ll tell you he’s just playin’ the blues: it’s a strange mix of primitive mojo & state-of-the-art technology. — Musician Magazine

Torn creates lush ambient textures that make Pink Floyd’s ‘space music’ sound like third-grade sandbox doodles, & transforms jazz harmonies into impressionist soundscapes; if you appreciate guitar as a vehicle for both out-of-body spiritual quests & raw emotional expression, let Torn be your shamanistic guide. — San Francisco Bay Guardian

Torn, with his loops & sheer psychedelic abandon, is able to create dense textures, screaming intervallic leaps and dark-hued washes of sound that are as ingenious as they are impossible to imitate. — Downbeat

In 1994 and 1997, the readers of Guitar Player magazine voted David the best experimental guitar player. He may be experimental with most of his work but there is a definite method in David Torn’s “madness”. If you think you have heard all the “best” guitarists out there, give this guy a listen. One critic said of this album, “This is an obvious must for anyone who thought for a moment that they knew anything about playing a guitar. He knows how to freak out, and how to tickle a harmonic, and everything in between.” Like the late Frank Zappa, David Torn produces work of startling originality and his guitar skills are phenomenal. As well as his solo works, David has played on many other artists’ albums including David Sylvian, Tori Amos, Sting, Jan Garbarek, kd lang, and Tony Levin. David also played on David Bowie’s “Heathen” and “Reality” albums and Jeff Beck’s “Jeff” album. This album is a good collection, but arguably not necessarily representative of David’s best work. However, to define this guy’s best work is probably impossible. Jon Atack @ http://www.jonatack.com/writings/musics/david_torn.php said that “It has always been the tradition that a master passes on his teaching to at least one successor. Jimi Hendrix had not one, but everyone, as his disciple. His spirit infuses every electric guitarist, but I believe that David Torn is the leading exponent of what he himself has called Hendrix’s ‘burning wall of voodoo’.” David Torn is a “one off” and a true original. Listen to his “Door X” album and check out his website @ http://www.davidtorn.net/ [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 159 Mb]

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1. Shofar – David Torn
2. Jason and Martha – Andy Rinehart
3. Thundergirl Mutation – Mick Karn
4. Rope Ladder to the Moon – Jack Bruce (Music) & Pete Brown (Lyrics)
5. Zavana – Marty Fogel
6. Snail Hair Dune – David Torn, Mick Karn, Terry Bozzio
7. Passenger – David Torn, Mick Karn
8. Drowning Dream –David Torn, Mick Karn
9. Tiny Burns a Bridge – David Torn
10. Kids – Joachim Kuhn
11. Merciful – Mark Nauseef
12. Nursing Emphysema – Wes Martin

MUSICIANS

David Torn (electric & acoustic guitars, pedal steel guitar, bowed guitar, e-guitar, mandolin, piano, kotar, saz, harmonica, hand percussion, programming, textural & rhythmic loops, samples, vocals, additional vocals, voices)
Miroslav Tadic (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar)
Steve Wilson (guitar)
Wes Martin (a & e-guitars, voice)
Mick Karn (bass, fretless bass, keyboards, alto sax, bass clarinet, dida, percussion, lead vocals, vocals, hand claps)
Brand Hauser (bass, fretless bass, clevinger bass)
Jack Bruce (bass, vocals)
Dean Johnson, Mark London Sims (bass)
Detlef Beier (acoustic bass)
Andy Rinehart (piano, accordion, voices)
Joachim Kuhn (piano)
Richard Barbieri (keyboards, synthesizer)
Adam Widoff (Hammond B-3, e-guitar, fretless guitar solo)
Matt Chamberlain, Kurt Wortman (drums, percussion)
Mark Nauseef (drums, gongs, flat gong-spiel, rejong, ching, rin “magic drums”, chinkas, fu in-luo, bamboo)
Michael Shrieve (drums)
Michel Lambert (drums, maikotron)
Leonice Shinneman (percussion drumset)
Gavin Harrison (drums, percussion, programming)
Steve Jansen (acoustic drums, congas)
Terry Bozzio (drums, percussion, 12 notes on the piano)
Trilok Gurtu (tablas, congas, water instruments, gongs, percussion)
Herbert Frosch (“magic drums”, zithers, gran cassa, Peking opera gongs, glassware & metal)
Kamalesh Maitra (sarod, tablatarang)
Jakko Jakszyk (tenor sax, shawm, flute, keyboard & computer programming, samples)
Marty Fogel (tenor & soprano sax, clarinet)
Michael White (trumpet)
Markus Stockhausen (trumpet & flugelhorn)
Walter Quintus (violin, strings)
Natacha Atlas (vocals)

SHORT BIO

New York-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, writer, and self-described "texturalist/guitarist" David Torn lent his distinctive style to numerous films and documentaries and collaborations. He worked with composers Howard Shore, Carter Burwell, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as appeared on recordings from k.d. lang, David Bowie, Jim Carroll, Laurie Anderson, and a host of others. His solo works include Best Laid Plans (1984), Cloud About Mercury (1986), Door X (1990), Tripping Over God (1995), What Means Solid, Traveller? (1996), Splattercell's Oah (2000), the soundtrack to the Heath Ledger thriller The Order (2003), and the ECM release Prezens (2007). ©James Christopher Monger © 2013 Rovi Corp | All Rights Reserved