When it came time to decide which CDs to include in my starters and alternates lists, there was a lot of agonizing over many of the choices. But my top choice came early and easily. In fact, it was all but determined by the end of May, after I listened to David Torn's Prezens a few times.
Unless you delve in the underground genre of experimental rock-jazz guitar, David Torn won't be a household name to you. But with his extensive work as film composer, producer and sideman, his handiwork has likely reached your ears at some point. Whether scoring movies like Friday Night Lights, sessioning for artists such as k.d. lang, adding guitar loops for David Bowie or producing for the likes of Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Torn has put his fingerprints on a lot of major projects from relative obscurity.
Projects like these leave little time for making his own records and Prezens officially marks his first solo album since 1996's What Means Solid, Traveller?, although the two SPLaTTeRCeLL albums at the turn of the millennium are essentially Torn-led projects. It's also his return to the ECM label since his avant-fusion masterpiece Cloud About Mercury from twenty years ago.
Those who have patiently followed Torn all those years will find a lot of his hallmarks in Prezens: an ambient personality clashing with his heavy-metal
side, a propensity to jam at war with his inclination to carefully construct compositions, and most of all, the imaginative textures he processes into the tracks.
At the same time, it's a big leap in Torn's evolving style. While Mercury pioneered combining the artificially created atmospherics of Brian Eno with a harder edge, the songs had a conventional progression to them. 1995's Tripping Over God incorporated more non-Western song structures, particularly East Indian. Prezens, however, retains some modality but otherwise abandons any perceivable framework in his songs. One could even say they are not really songs, but rather, collections of irregular shapes and forms.
As such, it's meant to jolt the listener out of comfort zones and long-held notions of how music is supposed to be played. There are plenty of nods to styles ranging from blues to ambient to heavy metal to Middle Eastern, but the music dwells in none of the places it references. The compositions are all very asymmetrical, but they probably weren't necessarily conceived that way.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Awesome, Pico. I could not have possibly said it better myself. Definitely one of my favorites of the year.
I really hope this is the beginning of a more prolific solo career from Torn - he releases stuff way too rarely (but I'll take what I can get!) I've also read about some immense recording sessions for this album and I'm hoping that maybe something else will emerge from them, not to mention the live shows they embarked on to promote it.
2 - Mark Saleski
great review pico. and yeah, this is a fabulous album, no doubt.
3 - Pico
Thanks very much, TJ. I'm discovering new things about this album even now, after writing the review. It's almost like playing a CD for the first time each time I listen to it. Torn just seems to operate on a different plane from nearly everyone else out there.
4 - Michael J. West
I was just listening to this one today. A hell of a record, and a damn good review of it. I'm glad Torn keeps busy, but it is a drag that his recordings are so few and far between!
5 - Michael J. West
Incidentally, Prezens makes my Top 20 in the year-end Jazz Workshop -- but I think I may have to wait until after New Year's to publish that, just to make sure I don't miss out on something special. :-)
6 - Pico
Michael, I'm highly anticipating yours and Mark's (and Josh's) lists. I think I can guess one more on yours (Robin Eubanks...maybe the Jarrett).
Even though the flow of new releases almost completely shut down in December, I can't blame you for waiting; Miles' Complete Cellar Door Sessions came out between Christmas and New Years a few years ago and that one would have made my list for that year for certain.
7 - Michael J. West
Yeah, in fact there's some incredible stuff out today - including an archival Duke Ellington concert featuring Della Reese(!!!!) on vocals. I'm not sure how it'll be, but I gotta check it out!
8 - El Bicho
I will give it a listen.