Guitar Legend David Torn To Tour Us In Support Of New Album

Los Angeles, CA: Ever-intrepid guitarist, producer, improviser, film composer and soundscape artist David Torn will embark on his first solo tour of the US since the mid-nineties (see itinerary below). The 22-city tour is in support of only sky—an album that explores the far sonic edges of what one man and a guitar can create, a solo recording of almost orchestral atmosphere.

only sky is Torn’s first ECM release since 2007’s acclaimed “prezens”, a full-band project, with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Tom Rainey, that Jazzwise described as “a vibrating collage full of shimmering sonic shapes, a dark, urban electronic soundscape— a potent mix of jazz, free-form rock and technology that is both demanding and rewarding.” Many of those same descriptors apply to only sky, with its hovering ambient shadows and vaulting flashes of light, its channeling of deep country/blues memories and Burroughsian dreams of North Africa. Recorded in the acoustically apt hall of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in upstate New York (and then sorted and mixed in Torn’s own mad- scientist lair), “only sky” is an album to get lost in, over and again.

Says David, “For the only sky tour, I'll be performing as I did for the recording: playing the electric guitar, bending its effect to how I might hear it fit these early days of the 21st Century; maybe I'll even convince it to kick some ass, too! Stranger things have happened.”

Across his career, Torn has worked with jazz improvisers (Jan Garbarek, Tim Berne, Don Cherry), film composers (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carter Burwell) and art-pop singers (David Bowie, David Sylvian). He has also composed music for several films including “Friday Night Lights”, “Lars and the Real Girl”, “Everything Must Go”.

“To call him a hero of the electric avant-garde would be accurate but incomplete.” —Nate Chinen, The New York Times

“Go ahead and call the wily guitarist a master of chopped 'n' screwed jazz schema. Onstage the mad scientist and his new pals find a way to balance the aggression with the reflection. Wildly tantalizing textures.” —Village Voice

David Torn tour dates

• May 08 - New York, NY at Subculture
• May 10 - Hamden, CT at The Ballroom at The Outer Space
• May 11 - Marlboro, NY at The Falcon
• May 12 - Dunellen, NJ at NJ Proghouse @ Roxy & Dukes
• May 13 - Cambridge, MA at Regattabar
• May 14 - Philadelphia, PA at Philadelphia Art Alliance
• May 16 - Portland, OR at Holocene
• May 17-18 - Seattle, WA at Storyville (Pike Place)
• May 19 - San Francisco, CA at Slim’s
• May 20 - Sacramento, CA at Gold Lion Arts
• May 21 - Los Angeles, CA at Blue Whale
• May 22 - Denver, CO at Walnut Room
• May 26 - Minneapolis, MN at Cedar Cultural Center
• May 27 - Milwaukee, WI at The Jazz Estate
• May 29 - Chicago, IL at Constellation
• May 30 - Cincinnati, OH at The Monastery
• May 31 - Pittsburgh, PA at Club Café
• June 1 - Washington DC at Union Arts
• June 3 - Baltimore, MD at The Windup Space
• June 4 - Carrboro, NC at Cat’s Cradle
• June 6 - Asheville, NC at Streamside Concerts
• June 7 - Atlanta, GA at Red Light Café

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Ryan Adams’ No Shadow EP – Album Review

The world sits still for no one and nobody seems to know that better than Ryan Adams.

Less than two weeks into 2015, Adams released his newest EP, No Shadow, the latest installment in his Pax-Am series. And this newest record, only comes four months after his critically acclaimed self-titled album.

This three-track release is nothing to overlook and features no other than Johnny Depp on guitar and vocals – a friend and admirer of Adams. It’s no gimmick having Depp play guitar on No Shadow, he’s known for his musical skills. Depp previously appeared on albums of Oasis and Marilyn Manson.

Discussing the inception of these tracks on the label’s website Adams, said “Johnny came rumbling into Pax-Am [Adams’  Studios] one night with this riff and idea of what it was about – a few hours later and one take on a 2 inch 24 track tape machine later we had ‘No Shadow’.”

All three tracks demonstrate the spectrum of Adam’s musical career. The title track, “No Shadow,” reflects his brooding song-writing abilities similar to Ashes & Fire, while “It’s in My Head” is a punkier track which reels in the listener with a heavy bass line, throbbing drums, then a surf-rock-esq riff brings it all together.

The final one-minute song on the album, “Stoned Alone,” comes a bit out of left-field compared to the other two tracks, but nothing too bizarre for the ever-changing Ryan Adams. Its title explains the song in a nutshell – Adams is stoned all alone in a 7-11 parking lot. Also hence, the artwork on the album.

When album dropped, Adams tweeted at 7-11, as Stereogum reported,  “YO @7eleven how high are you cats cause can you glue skittles to those donut glasses with some sugar glue.” In which, they responded by sending him a do-it-yourself kit to construct his request.

Not bad press for a 3-track EP. Give it a listen. Even 7-11 is fan.