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David Torn

David Torn is a texturalist/guitarist (winner of Guitar Player Magazine's Readers' Poll Award, Experimental category: 1994 & 1997), composer, multi-instrumentalist (live looping, oud, saz, kikuyae, kotar, MacOS, samplers, programming, mandolin, optigan, etc.), producer, writer, occasional singer & sporadically vociferous consultant to technological niches within the musical instrument manufacturing community, among other things.....

Torn’s work on music for film & tv (& soundtrack releases):

Torn's first major soundtrack as sole composer has just been released: The Order, directed by Brian Helgeland and starring Heath Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon, will be in cinemas on September 5th 2003. The soundtrack album is scheduled for release sometime before that date on Superb Records, and will be entirely Torn's score, with one additional track by Adam Smalley. The official site for the motion picture can be found at www.theordermovie.com.

Torn has often been featured as the primary texturalist and/or soloist on films scored by composers Carter Burwell, Mark Isham, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lisa Gerrard, Patrick O’Hearn, Michael Shrieve, Graeme Revell, Michael Whalen, Edward Shearmur, etc., in addition to having begun scoring for films, himself.

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7
Album Review

Sunny Five: Candid

Read "Candid" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


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 ...

6
Album Review

(Blade of) Carlstedt Motzer Torn: The Flowering Am

Read "The Flowering Am" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


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 ...

8
Album Review

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2 - Remixes

Read "Fractal Guitar 2 - Remixes" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


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 ...

6
Album Review

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2

Read "Fractal Guitar 2" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


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 ...

1
Album Review

Sonar with David Torn: Tranceportation (Volume 2)

Read "Tranceportation (Volume 2)" reviewed by Claudio Bonomi


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 ...

9
Album Review

Sun of Goldfinger: Congratulations to You

Read "Congratulations to You" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


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 ...

Album Review

Sonar: Tranceportation (Volume 1)

Read "Tranceportation (Volume 1)" reviewed by Vic Albani


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 ...

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4

Event

Imagining The Guitar: An Interactive Workshop Weekend With David Torn

Imagining The Guitar: An Interactive Workshop Weekend With David Torn

Source: Michael Birnbaum

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 ...

5

Recording

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

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

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 ...

3

Performance / Tour

Guitar Legend David Torn To Tour Us In Support Of New Album

Guitar Legend David Torn To Tour Us In Support Of New Album

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

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, ...

70

Recording

Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White - Levin Torn White (2011)

Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White - Levin Torn White (2011)

Source: Something Else!

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. ...

118

Recording

Debut Album from Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White

Debut Album from Tony Levin, David Torn and Alan White

Source: JamBase

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 ...

108

Recording

David Torn - Prezens (2007)

David Torn - Prezens (2007)

Source: Something Else!

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 ...

123

Recording

Forgotten Series: David Torn - Tripping Over God (1995)

Forgotten Series: David Torn - Tripping Over God (1995)

Source: Something Else!

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 ...

154

Radio

The Jazz Session #190: David Torn

The Jazz Session #190: David Torn

Source: AAJ Staff

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 ...

115

Event

Firehouse 12 to Present David Torn's Prezens This Friday 3/14

Firehouse 12 to Present David Torn's Prezens This Friday 3/14

Source: Improvised Communications

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, ...

136

Interview

Guitarist/Producer/Engineer/Soundscapist David Torn Interviewed at AAJ

Guitarist/Producer/Engineer/Soundscapist David Torn Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

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 ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Candid

Intakt Records
2024

buy

The Flowering Am

1K Recordings
2023

buy

Three Movements

7D Media
2023

buy

Fractal Guitar 2

MoonJune Records
2021

buy

Fractal Guitar 2 -...

MoonJune Records
2021

buy

Summer Synthesis 1978

Self Produced
2020

buy

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