DAVID TORN, CRAIG TABORN, TIM BERNE & TOM RAINEY: PREZENS

4.5 stars. David Torn is one of my favourite guitarists but honestly that came about after hearing his work with the Swiss band SONAR. Thank you Henry Kaiser for setting that up. Torn's solo albums are hit and miss for me but if I had to pick a top three it would be '87's "Cloud About Mercury", "Prezens" from '07 and "Only Sky" from '15 although I need to spend some time with that last one. So it's awesome to review "Prezens" today, and check out the album cover which represents the music here pretty well. The cover reminds me of Terje Rypdal's "Whenever I Seem So Far Away" cover art, at least the darkness with the music matching in both cases.

This is a haul at 73 minutes and quite experimental at times. A four piece with guitar, drums, sax and keyboards including mellotron. Tim Berne does an amazing job here on sax, so adventerous and he used plenty of those tricks he has in his bag. Tom Rainey is so incredible on drums knowing "when to do what" is half the battle with this kind of music. A professional if there ever was one. And on keyboards including electric piano and organ besides what I've mentioned before and oh "bent circuits" as it says here Craig Taborn. The man is important on this one as Torn is in my opinion.

And how about David Torn with live samples on here along with his mastery of the guitar creating all kinds of soundscapes or setting them on fire. He produced and mixed this as well. Five of the eleven tracks stood out for me including the opener "Ask" at over 9 minutes and the way it feels like we are being teased for almost 7 minutes before the heaviness kicks in. Some inventive sax in this one. "Structural Functions Of Prezens" at almost 11 minutes is a trip. Dark and experimental with the drummer putting on a show. Intense at 6 1/2 minutes but lots of atmosphere and calms.

"Bulbs" at close to 6 1/2 minutes opens with punchy, in your face sounds and dissonant sax expressions, but plenty of quiet sections until the chaos before 4 1/2 minutes. "Sink" at over 7 minutes just sounds so good. Experimental and angular and the sax is nuts here. Active drums and the guitar has some authority to it 4 minutes in. Final top five is the closer "Transmit Regardless" at over 7 minutes for the guitar coming out of the gate swinging and also the organ and sax.

This is one of those albums that continually surprises me. There's so much to it that it would be difficult to ever tire of it.