finetune artist: David Torn

b. 26 May 1953, Amityville, New York, USA. A guitar practitioner of what he describes as "arrogant ambient music", Torn enjoys the conflict between sounds that are hypnotic and sounds that are "like giant mosquitoes from hell, attacking." He says, "If I play something that's too pretty I feel compelled to go after it with razorblades." Jazz-educated, inspired by the minimalism of Terry Riley, a veteran of half a dozen rock and jazz rock groups, former leader of the Everyman Band, film-music composer and guitarist, Torn is a gifted player still in search of the optimum context. He contributed usefully to Jan Garbarek's and David Sylvian's touring bands; his own records have found him playing idiosyncratic neo-fusion (Cloud About Mercury) and, rather ill-advisedly, singing Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" (Door X). In 1991, he launched a new "improvising rock" group with Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, and Mick Karn, all ex-members of Japan and Rain Tree Crow. Torn also freelances as a record producer, with albums by Bill Bruford, Mick Karn and others to his credit. Tripping Over God in 1995 was a pure solo outing; in his words, it was "my public meditation on the insanely unspeakable beauty inherent in the harshness of our mortality, a meditation on limitations: no, I take that back, hand me a beer would you?". Torn returned to ECM in 2007 with Prezens, another uncompromising work or as DownBeat described the experience, "somewhere between the rainbow bridge and the gates of hell".

Listen to David Torn at Finetune.

The Others
Palms for Lester
L-O-V-E
bowling with margo
The Mercury Grid