It may be a challenge at first for the uninitiated, but so pleasantly complex is David Torn's music that it never fails to intrigue and offer up something new. If you don't think you've ever heard David Torn before, think again - it's unlikely that you haven't seen something that has featured the score work of Carter Burwell (Being John Malkovich, Fargo, Three Kings, and even more mainstream works like Conspiracy Theory, among many, many others) who often employs Torn for other-worldly sounds. Torn himself scored this fall's horror offering The Order, and it's certain that in the future he'll be busy with more score work. You will have heard him somewhere before long - just not on the radio.
For a fascinating read, be sure to check out Torn's Innerview where he describes his life-threatening brain tumor and how his life has changed because of it - and how he's a better producer now with the loss of hearing in one ear because of it.
(More? Unproductivity.)
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Very cool Tom, I've vaguely heard of the guy but never actually heard anything - will have to check it out, right up one of my alleys
2 - Mark Saleski
Torn's a cool player. i like the way he mixes in samples, especially after torturing them into something completely different.
Cloud About Mercury is a good one to check out too.
eric's like of weirdo-guitarists-to-be-investigated is getter longer...first Ribot, now this.
3 - Dave
Polytown is one of my favorite albums of all time, but Cloud About Mercury is his masterpiece.
Also, don't miss his work with Bruford/Levin Upper Extremities.
4 - Dave
...and there's an e-mail list devoted to him as well. Torn himself is a frequent contributor when he's not touring.