Prezens (Ocrd)

David Torn, Craig Taborn | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 17, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: ECM Records
• ASIN: B000O5902U
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,124 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

David Torn is a musical chameleon, moving effortlessly from soundtrack work to pop projects to edgy improv, extending his guitar with electronic programming, sampling, and overdubs. Here he sets out at the helm of an improvising quartet with some regular partners from the New York Downtown School (saxophonist Tim Berne, keyboard player Craig Taborn, and drummer Tom Rainey) and then transforms the results with live sampling and extended studio tinkerings until the present set of pieces emerge in all their fractured and compound glory. Sounds morph suddenly into other sounds—-funk into heavy metal, guitar into radio wave, drum into bass--and time stretches and contracts. The extended band tracks are scenes of continuous transformation, like "Structural Functions of Prezens" in which the naked acoustic sweetness of Berne's alto is eventually joined by its spectral, sampled other, or the rapid chatter of Rainey's drums is set against a world sinking in time, with tones oozing lower and drifting into stasis. Always a master of compound textures, Torn here extends his guitar and the quartet into a utopian orchestra between the human and the machine. --Stuart Broomer

Product Description

David Torn's eagerly-awaited first ECM recording in 21 years is a sonic voyage that defies categories and blurs boundaries. Prezens is also the debut of a unique band featuring three of the most recognizable names in experimental jazz - Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Tom Rainey. The CD has all of the David Torn trademarks: multi-layered textures, thick chords, disruptions, distortions and hypnotic loops. On this Torn production, or "reconsideration" as he calls it, he wraps his sounds around those of his band mates, often taking apart their improvisations and reassembling them.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars postmodern as anything, May 4, 2007

By 

Kevin Brunkhorst (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prezens (Ocrd) (Audio CD)

To roughly paraphrase an axiom: one's judgments about something say as much about you as about the thing being judged.

If you buy this CD expecting jazz, you might be disappointed. This doesn't adhere to most concepts of jazz. Even the most crucial element of jazz - improvisation - has been mediated by Torn's production and manipulation.

Torn is no longer simply a guitarist on this album. His guitar playing is not always the foreground, and varies between texture and soloing; his blowing chops here are largely in the 'rock' idiom. Here he is the producer and auteur; besides playing the guitar, he 'plays' loopers, samplers, the mixing board, and lots of electronic devices. The band tracks on the disc have been edited, chopped, mangled, distorted, looped, etc., to suit Torn's compositional sense. Teo Macero did a similar thing to Miles' Bitches Brew sessions; that end result was as much Teo's as Miles'. (Apparently, reading the reviews here, Prezens shares a little of Brew's ability to provoke, as well.)

There is little in the way of conventional form here; Torn's choices of juxtapositions and assembly will require a lot of digestion on the part of the listener. There is also little in the way of conventional melody or harmony, but there is a detectable flow of events. In many places it's hard to discern the original source playing from Torn's production. If I have a gripe about it (so far), it would be in allowing more of the individual playing, and less of Torn's assembly. But that would change everything. (That, and sometimes I wanted to hear more clarity and detail in the drum sound.)

Let me approach it Rumsfeld-style:
Is it jazz? In my opinion, not really. But I can't think of any label that fits it.
Is the playing good? Yes.
Is it fun to listen to? For me, yes.
Is it rich, fulfilling, satisfying? So far, for me, yes - there is a lot of content here to take in, and it won't all be revealed in two or six hearings.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound Morphing King, April 25, 2007

By 

Travis Wade Evans (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prezens (Ocrd) (Audio CD)

David Torn is a sound painter similar to Steve Tibbetts. What attracted me to "Prezens" is David's specialized abilities to provide music as he sees it in his mind. As a listener we are forced to try to figure out what was on David's mind at the time of the recording. On the other hand, what David has created is 110 percent original and originality is what I personally like.

I didn't have any specific expectations of what I should hear as this is David's first ECM recording in over 20 years. I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised to hear how wonderful this music is, its expansive mood and sound.

The album contains a series of sound morphing and natural improvised playing. He mixes elements of hard rock, jazz funk, electronic music, and an overall jazz metaphore. This is an adventurous and atmospheric album.

I highly recommend "Prezens"

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitions have vanished, February 22, 2008

By 

Andreas C G "Andreas Carl Georgi" (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prezens (Ocrd) (Audio CD)

"Definitions have vanished"

That's what the unidentified speaking voice repeats in the second track, "Rest & Unrest" (along with other phrases from the "Faith Mind Sutra"), and that line perfectly describes the music throughout this album.

Until recently I was unfamiliar with David Torn. I bought this CD on somewhat of a lark, after it popped up as an Amazon recommendation, and it's my best discovery in a long time. It has been on heavy rotation on my stereo since.

Trying to pidgeon-hole this one into any category or style is impossible. The music moves through all kinds of styles (and simultaneous mixes thereof), sometimes gradually and seamlessly, sometimes with very abrupt transitions. He'll go from ethereal Frippertronics to a grinding Black Sabbath-like metal fuzztone before you know what hit you. Melodic jazz, rock, electronica and minimalist elements meld with noises and sound effects into one. A couple of the tracks are short and focus on one or two main ideas, whereas the longer tracks really are like journeys through an ever-changing landscape. He doesn't necessarily sound like them , but fans of guitarists with a "no boundaries" attitude like Robert Fripp, Nels Cline, Elliott Sharpe, and Fred Frith should definitely check this out.