Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly unique ambient jazz experiment, August 19, 2001
I bought this album on vinyl back in the 1980s and was thrilled to see it back in print on CD! This album sounds unlike anything else i've heard, including Torn's other work. I can hear Don Cherry's influence on his playing and compositional structure (i wonder if that led to the choice of a trumpeter for a second soloist?). Bruford and Levin do some of their best rhythm section work here, as good as anything they ever did with King Crimson. Bruford's drum sound is especially good... it marked his return to electronic drums after a couple of years of recovery from the Discipline-era Crimson, and Simmons had blessed him with a new, more touch-sensitive kit. Mark Isham is a wonder... very different from the mellow ambience of his soundtracks and Windham Hill work. He really grounds and glues the sound together, providing a coherence often missing from David Torn's playing. I wish he'd join with good horn players more often. But ultimately, this is a David Torn album, and the other three players are there to support him. And he TEARS YOUR HEAD OFF. On one hand, his experiments with looping, digital reverb and pitch shifting, and other electronic effects still sound fresh today. On the other, he attacks distorted lead playing with the fury of the finest blues. He is one of those players who would rather wring a song out of one note with bends, feedback, and tonal colorations, than comp along to slick bop changes. People compare him to Robert Fripp, but i think it's much closer to Adrian Belew. But frankly, David Torn has a sound completely his own, one of the greatest and most personal voices in jazz guitar in the last 20 years.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cloud About Mercury, December 16, 1999
Some musicians are so distinctive that often one note is all you need to identify them. DAVID TORN (guitars/guitar-synth/effects) is undoubtedly a member of this small exclusive group. His extraordinary guitar-work has been pushing back the boundaries of what the instrument can do for some years now and "Cloud About Mercury" is his finest recording to date. Although this album was released back in 1987, it still sounds like the future. Torn is perfectly matched by King Crimson's rhythm-section, BILL BRUFORD (Simmons drum-kit/percussion) and TONY LEVIN (Chapman stick), but the real guest-star turns out to be MARK ISHAM (trumpet/flugelhorn/synth) who is better known as a Hollywood film composer these days but proves himself here to be a fine trumpet-player and an inspired improviser. His warm, expressive tone and melodic flair stand out in sharp relief against the occasionally harsh electronic backdrop, providing enough light and shade for the CD to bear repeated listenings. The music might be described as 21st Century electronic Jazz but draws upon all kinds of influences from the Far East to North Africa and South America; from modern-day Classical music to Miles Davis, King Crimson and beyond. Weird time-signatures and alternative scales blend with memorable tunes and passionate improvisation, and the results, while occasionally extreme, are highly atmospheric. Torn composes most of the material but on "Previous Man" and "Egg Learns to Walk" the whole band contributes and the result is a looser, more spontaneous feel as the musicians good-humouredly play ideas off one another. The latter, for me, is the album's high-point-a perfect blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation which starts out as Jazz but ends up resembling the soundtrack to a Science Fiction movie. Full marks to Manfred Eicher for his crystal clear production which gives everyone plenty of space and perfectly preserves the dynamics. In all these years, I haven't heard another CD that sounds anything like this one. You will love it or hate it but I, for one, think it's time they reassembled this group to record "Cloud About Mercury II".
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
David Torn Comes Into His Own Here, March 8, 2005
This is the disc where David Torn really found his niche and his sounds!
Armed with some up-to-date technology for the time (1987), Dave wrote to Bill Bruford (after seeing him play with King Crimson) and asked him if he'd like to try recording, thankfully, the answer was YES! Before long, Tony Levin came into the picture with his Chapman Stick and so did trumperter Mark Isham.
Improvisation plays a major role in this outing although there are some more composed segments, like the brilliant, "3 Minutes of Pure Entertainment" which in reality is several minutes of fiery brilliance punctuated by a snaky unison melodic figure from Torn and Isham.
Torn alone commands a huge tonal palette utilizing a Steinberger guitar and all manner of digital looping and delay implements, plus an improvised koto-like instrument made out of a junky old guitar (used on the opening cut "Suyafhu Skin/Snapping The Hollow Reed", which also features some very unique percolating melodic figues generated by Bill Bruford on electronic drums. Dave lets loose with grand soaring melodies here before charging into an apocolyptic conclusion. "Mercury Grid", another one of the more structured pieces shines brightly as Mark Isham's trumpet is featured heavily here as Dave unleashes and extrudes other-worldly and ghostly chordal swells underneath.
From "The Previous Man" onwards, the pieces are more loose and improvisational with each musician contributing equally, no-one dominating the proceedings. Dave really puts his looping skills to the test here as well as unleashing searing melodies and angry fusillades of noise at times. The disc however does end on a quiet meditative note.
People who had heard his earlier playing (for example with Everyman Band in the early 80's) sometimes compared him to Allan Holdsworth, NOT SO HERE!!! Dave really found his own style and sounds. Listen to this and have your mind expanded!
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by David Torn 
