SONAR

By the way I like Stephan Thelen's solo stuff even a little but more with a lot of the same musicians but I like the different guitarists he brings in, so much talent including Torn's involvement. This live document is over 56 minutes spanning six tracks. Of course "Vortex" is featured here with three of the songs being from that record. They also open with "Twofold Covering" from "Static Motion" and a great example of how much better this song sounds with Torn on board.

I love every song here but man the opener is amazing. A quiet start and when the drums arrive around 1 1/2 minutes I'm thinking this is SONAR! So good. Love when the guitar escapes from the herd sort of speak around 7 1/2 minutes. I like the drums late at 10 1/2 minutes. "Waves & Particles" from "Vortex" is next then another from that album called "Red Shift" yeah a very good electronic band and this song is a killer. The crunchy bass is outstanding and it's really a song where they push the envelope. How good is this before 5 minutes as it rises up.

"Tromso" is from the debut and maybe the best bass track but I like that energy late. "For Lost Sailors" is a Torn piece not on any of SONAR's studio records. Check out those guitar expressions after 4 minutes. Oh my! It then descends into atmosphere only before picked guitar joins in to the end. "Lookface!" from "Vortex" is the perfect closer, the shortest piece at over 5 minutes but the most powerful as well. Aggressive music here from the guitars especially and after a calm mid-way through it kicks in hard at 4 minutes.

Yeah I'm a fanboy for sure but you have to hear this stuff. Tritone guitars and bass plus Torn's inventive soundscapes make this a band that has rocketed to near the top of my all time favourites. Headphone music all the way.

1. "Movement 1" (16:20) the presence and influence of keyboard/electronics expert J. Peter Schwalm is felt immediately in the much more expanded spectrum of sound presented here; the SONAR sound field by these Math Rockers is typically far-more sparse than this. David Torn's first solo feels forced, too rooted in rock norms, not as expressive of his own highly unique sonic intuition. Luckily, this style is short-lived: the band goes back into more Math Rock polyrhythmic mode, several times building to full-band weave crescendos before devolving into a more open, passive, and spacey soundscape in the thirteenth minute. Christian Kuntner's Tony Levin-like low bass "thrums" always get me--and he times them perfectly (though selectively) throughout this. The tribal-rhythms and beats of the fourteenth and fifteenth minutes are so PETER GABRIEL Passion like! ("Of These, Hope") It's wonderful! Great tune! Welcome J. Peter! (27/30)

2. "Movement 2" (11:00) more industrial space synth sounds open this before the mathematical note- and arpeggio play of the stringed instruments slowly enter and begin to mesh and interweave. It's an awesome weave with a MASERATI-like earworm part in the seventh minute--that is carried forward with some regularity and shadow echoes into the ninth minute. Man! J. Peter Schwalm's electronics makes a huge difference! (18.5/20)

3. "Movement 3" (15:08) opening with more typical SONAR Math Rock guitar weave, joined first by the deep bass thrums of Christian Kuntner and then Van de Graaf generator-like electronic inputs from J. Peter Schwalm's synths. The inputs of David Torn and J. Peter Schwalm are felt in bursts and waves over the course of the next four minutes until the music swells and then clears out for some very deep electronic (bass?) waves. The have no real change in structure or flow until the ninth minute when drummer Manuel Pasquinellil begins to go to town over his cymbals and then entire drum kit--then everybody else seems to jump on the dynamic wagon, though Manuel remains the most impressive. (26.5/30)

Total Time 42:28

The addition of a keyboard/electronics expert certainly does add a lot of breadth to the sonic landscapes of Stephan Thelen and company. Though still built around King Crimson "Discipline"-like Math Rock polyrhythms, the music is far more spacey, less sparse.

A-/4.5 stars; another amazing album of "future world" music from Switzerland's greatest progressive rock export; highly recommended to all prog lovers: this might very well be the best SONAR release yet--even better than 2018's Vortex!

Barry Cleveland and Benno Kaiser are both thanked for lending equipment and Markus Reuter and Trey Gunn are thanked for support and advice. Reuter also mixed this record with Stephan Thelen doing the digital editing, mix preparation and mastering. This really is one long piece divided into three movements worth 42 1/2 minutes. I love this stuff. There is so much atmosphere on this record but also this urgency created by the bass and drums. Once again David Torn does his thing and I like the review in the liner notes from the Buffalo News where he says "Atop it all sits iconoclastic guitarist David Torn, like the Buddha on the mountaintop, offering shards of audio poetry in a language you've never heard and yet are somehow familiar with."

Man this works awesome as background music but even better when you immerse yourself in it. Get those headphones on! I have to admit it hard to know what is making all these sounds when you have these three talented guitarists along with the electronics guy laying down soundscapes and lots of atmosphere. Those beautiful high pitched notes that remind me so much of BAUER half way through the "Second Movement" are my highlight but there's so much that continues to unfold on repeated listens. The melancholic synths before 2 minutes on the opener along with those guitar expressions. Repeated themes too.

The "Second Movement" might be my favourite of the three. Check out the atmosphere, so thick to start as high pitched tones come and go. It starts to move around 1 1/2 minutes and turns lush after some abrasive sounds. The 15 minute closer reminded me of both previous tracks which I thought was pretty cool the way this album has a uniform sound to it. Some depth and nastiness comes and goes after 2 minutes and they will return later but this is such an interesting closer the way it plays out especially later on.

Can't say it's my favourite SONAR recording, time will tell but this is a top ten album for me for 2023.

There is no doubt that King Crimson are a major impact on Sonar, as are the likes of Trey Gunn and Marcus Reuter, while Thelen also references the compositional rigour of Nik Bärtsch, and minimalist composer Steve Reich, but surely the most apposite quote must be where he says realistically this is, "Duane Eddy Meets Jackson Pollock." Polyrhythms, strange time signatures and tuning, this is music which really is quite nothing else around and it is not surprising that Thelen continues to be an in-demand collaborator with likeminded musicians who want to keep pushing the musical boundaries and refusing to accept any type of normality. This is not something to sit and relax to, as it is all about changing our expectations of what music is supposed to be about and never sits comfortably and instead has us on an edge as we know that whatever is coming is something we need to pay close attention to, so we get the best from it. In recent years Sonar have been releasing albums with David Torn, and this 2015 album was the last they recorded (to date) as a quartet and is worthy of investigation by those who want to walk down musical paths less travelled.

1. "Labyrinth" (14:26) the tension presented in this song is sublime! The low bass-dominated primary weave is incredibly engaging (engulfing!) In the fifth, eighth, eleventh, and thirteeth-into-fourteenth minutes David Torn reaches new heights with his guitar's creative, primal, animalistic screams. And the other guitarists take a more aggressive, attention-grabbing approach than is typical of their performances (they usually stay in the underground, hidden within the foundational weaves that David solos over). Even the drumming somehow reaches out to grab you and suck you in. Probably my favorite Sonar song ever. (28.5/30)

2. "Partitions" (5:37) opening with a wonderful spacey aural field--one that stays in the song's bottom end throughout. The star-spangling guitar interplay is absolutely wonderful--both with individual notes and, later, beneath David Torn's swooning guitar play, with staccato chord strums and then ascending chord arpeggi. (10/10)

3. "Red Sky" (11:14) percussion noises from the drum coupled with spacey guitar loops are soon joined with the lead blues-bending notes of David Torn's southern-infused guitar. Very cool. At 1:53 another guitar approach is introduced. Christian Kuntner's thick, heavy, low-end dominating bass does not enter until 2:19, over which David's bayou-bluesy guitar returns--all over some intricately-played quick note staccato guitar interplay. The rolling bass line only contributes further to the bayou-bluesy feel of this one. I'm not usually into bluesy rock soundscapes but this one is intriguing, at times mesmerizing. An interesting rhythmic shift occurs at the end of the sixth minute--one that ushers in a change in the expression of all the band members--as if all are suddenly pointed in a march toward a fixed point on the horizon. The progress they make--both as individuals and a collective unit--is quite exciting--especially in the drums' and David Torn's contributions. I like the second half much more than the first. (17.5/20)

4. "Tunnel Drive" (7:42) the band very quickly establish a very unusual, syncopated rhythm over which to create their weave. David Torn's indvidualistic contributions really don't begin to emerge to the forefront until the second half, making this much more of an "old" Sonar Math Rock song than the others. (13/15)

Total Time 38:59

A-/five stars; a masterpiece of spacey Math Rock and an essential addition to any prog lover's music collection.

1. "Triskaidekaphilia" (9:43) a fairly thin and surprisingly simple weave over which David Torn shreds and shrieks while the other guitarists pick and pluck their way in their own delicately staccato fashions. It goes by so fast that I find myself a bit underwhelmed by the little and infrequent high points. (16.75/20)

2. "Tranceportation" (12:39) deep bass notes fill the bottom end from the start while syncopated snare and hi-hat hits and pin-dropping guitar notes slowly join in and populate the starry aural field. Interesting how for the first three minutes the bass of Christian Kuntner and drums of Manuel Pasquinelli really get top billing; it's only in the fourth minute that David Torn's note-bending Southern-fried guitar takes the lead. Meanwhile, Christian's bass moves more and more and the other guitars' pin-droppings become more prominent. Unfortunately, I really am not a fan of the style and sound David is projecting with this performance, yet the bass and drums really make this one different and interesting. I love the ninth and tenth minutes when the pin-pricking guitars get more lead time: it's like the sound of stars twinkling in the sky. Finally, in the tenth minute, David's guitar sound and soloing style become interesting and enjoyable to me. And then, for the final two minutes, everybody individually begins to experiment with slow decay into chaotic "death." Quite interesting! (22/25)

3. "Slowburn" (10:01) A nice, full polyrhythmic fabric is established over the first three minutes before David begins his display of pyrotechnics--a quite wonderful one, in fact. Then the music softens for a bit during a return to the opening weave, but all stops are unleashed at the five-minute mark with another foray into the thicker, "B" motif. Great guitar "conversation" in the seventh minute. Drums begin to make themselves known around the eight-minute mark, seemingly goading the others into more aggressive and dynamic expressions--and boy does it work. My favorite section on the album! David Torn really unleashes. But then there is a sudden shutdown at the nine-minute mark and a long, slow decay into silence. Too bad! I wish that aggressive section would have/could have continued. Definitely the most interesting and dynamic composition on the album. (18.25/20)

4. "Cloud Chamber" (9:37) steady bass, rim hits, and sparse polyrhythmic guitar picks open this one before spacey electronics and more guitar lines enter and begin to further shape and re-shape this one. The regular stop and re-start every six, seven, or eight measures (it seems to vary) is a bit too formulaic for me--or rather, a bit too reminiscent of rudimentary bluesy rock'n'roll for my tastes. The intersting stuff in the sonic field is really only subtle and nuanced until about the sixth minute when David's soaring wails and screeches become more prominent and insistent. Again we are treated to a long, slow, spacey decay into silence. (17.5/20)

Total Time 42:00

David is "on" again with some truly remarkable solo displays of shredding, I just wish his lead contributions filled a greater percentage of the songs' lengths. To my ears, bassist Christian Kuntner comes out as the surprise star of this show.

B+/4.5 stars; a wonderful addition to any prog lover's music collection.

2019's "Fractal Guitar" by SONAR's leader Stephan Thelen is a five star affair where Torn and many other guitarists show their unique skills. Love that record and my favourite from that year. Finally "Tranceportaion II" from SONAR released in 2020 makes such a great trio of like-minded albums but with each having it's own flavour and this third record I'm mentioning again has Torn on it but it's the other two guitarists and the bass player using tritone instruments that sounds so incredible.

The music here was recorded live in studio over three days in Switzerland and I'm so glad Torn was there and not just mailing in his parts. In fact Torn produced and mixed this recording. Again Thelen is the main composer here but everyone chips in when it comes to that. So we get three guitarists, a bass player and a drummer. The liner notes are nothing but pictures of the band at the studio and they are meaningful and show a real bond already between Torn and the rest of the guys. This is such a consistent record which I like, in fact five of the six tracks I'd rate at 5 stars leaving "Monolith" as the one lone non-killer track. Still really good and the longest at almost 11 minutes but man those other five have me scratching my head as to which one is the best, or even a top three.

I was always drawn to the closer "Lookface!" as it hits the ground running while the others usually build. A heavy rhythm section on this one with Torn soloing over top. "Red Shift" has to be a tip of the hat to that Space Rock band from the UK. Strummed guitar is different to open but it works as drums and bass kick in. This trips along mid-paced and it sounds amazing. Love when the guitar rises out of that calm around 4 1/2 minutes. Torn is back soloing late. "Waves And Particles" is a drifting track as Torn comes and goes. This just sounds so good.

The title track like others opens with the band tripping along until around 3 1/2 minutes when everything is amped up. So good! We get a calm then it builds and this sounds incredible ending with Torn and some really good drum work just before 8 minutes. And yet the opener "Part 44" might be the best of the bunch. Torn puts on a show and this just "sounds" so good and at 10 minutes it's a ride but Torn kills on the second half of this one.

This one for me is mostly about the David Torn influence, it's very strong and less so moving forward.

Love the grainy and blurry picture of this band under the actual cd, so cool. Thelan talks about how throughout his life music has been the vehicle to take him places as he wears those headphones. Of course the title "Tranceportation" is fitting. For me music has always been about being the soundscape for where I am going whether walking, running, biking or mostly driving. Since I was a teenager actually. Post-Rock and Electronic are awesome for these treks but this album with it's precise beats, pulses and string sounds works very well for this. It sounds dark because of the tritone and then Torn comes in soloing as he does. Love this!

Thelan mentions "This time, we wanted to bring the raw emotional aspect of David's playing even more forward than on the last album "Vortex", so we consciously chose to keep the compositions as open as possible. This left space for improvisations and spontaneous surges of power, knowing that David's ability to improvise, his otherworldly atmospheres and infectious energy would inspire and ignite all kinds of group interplay".

We get four long tracks adding up to 42 minutes. There is a guest adding as Thelan says "his glitchy and granular electronics" to "Cloud Chamber" the closer. By the way the man's name is Werner Hasler and while he plays electronics in bands he's also a trumpet player and how good would the trumpet sound in this music? I mean distasteful, dissonant and experimental. Come on! So we get three guitarists, a bass player and drummer. I have to mention "Slowburn" my favourite track. Thelan says "It started with a line in 9 Bernard came up with while exploring his echoplex. I asked David to play something similar in mood to what he did on David Sylvian's "The Boy With A Gun", a track I deeply admire." I love that Sylvian song as well.

Anyway I'm a huge fan of this record, love every track.

There are three pieces from Vortex ('Waves and Particles', 'Red Shift' and 'Lookface!'), a piece from 'Static Motion', 'Twofold Covering', and an improvised David Torn solo piece called 'For Lost Sailors' together with 'Troms'', a piece that Sonar played without David Torn. This last is one of the very first songs they rehearsed together and opens their debut album 'A Flaw of Nature'. This is music which is on the edge, guitarists combining together to create something ethereal, threatening, complex, yet also with space between the layers. This is King Crimson being taken to a different musical world, where musicians are allowed by the audience to relax into their art, only making a sound when a track has ended. Complex, this is music which hurts when played loudly, as the brain attempts to digest what is happening in front of its ears and generally fails.

There is nothing relaxing or calm about this music, it is designed to cause an emotional flight or fight response, and it is incredibly hard to listen to in many ways. That the listener needs to make the effort as there is a great deal to be gained from it is never in doubt. This is music pushing boundaries, truly progressing.

The sonar geometry of the tunes on the "Vortex"album is alluring you like a swirl with complex rhythms in a minimalist format, with overlay levels of bunks of melodic constructions. David Torn's solo guitar parts vibrates and screams with a sensuality, dissonant at some points, congruently merging into the isometric passages of Stephan and Bernhard guitars. The guitar dialogues of these last two are like parallel mirrors, sometimes deformed, other times integrated in this mathematics of sound. Regarded in a whole, "Vortex" is a journey into unwonted sound spaces, ingenuously and mathematical rigorously built in an unitary form. A vortex like an ecstatic trance produced by a Dervish dance.

I believe that "Vortex" is an album Pythagoras would have liked it too.

4 stars all the way!