DAVID TORN / FRED FRITH TRIO

David Torn is a composer, texturalist, guitarist, improviser, film composer and producer of actual international stature, renowned for his unique musical voice which seems to span & un-define a range of idioms and styles. His characterful and compositionally textural work has had material impact & influence on both film scoring and, generally, upon contemporary electric, electro-acoustic & electronic music. David’s creative contributions have graced & assisted the works of other musical artists-of-note as diverse as David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Tim Berne, Madonna, Tori Amos, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, Jan Garbarek & Eberhard Weber, Steve Roach, Mark Isham, Jeff Beck and Don Cherry. Apart from the celebrities and scores, though, Torn has emerged as one of the most vivid and imaginative guitar composers and innovators of the last 40 years. Using a complicated system of intricate loops and effects, he builds soundscapes that suggest open plains and jagged canyons, northern lights and gray dawns. Conjuring alien landscapes and pastoral vistas, busy city avenues and oceanic depths, Torn elicits atmosphere like few other modern instrumentals. Jazzwise described Torn’s 2015 solo release, “Only Sky” (ECM) 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.”

The English guitarist, composer, innovator and improviser Fred Frith has been active on the avant-garde music scene since the 1960s. He led the legendary group Henry Cow for three decades. Frith moved to the U.S. in the late ’70s, where he began associations with renowned New York-based experimental musicians. The release of the seminal album “Guitar Solos” in 1974 enabled him to simultaneously carve out a place for himself in the international improvised music scene, not only as an acclaimed solo performer but in the company of artists like Bill Laswell, Brian Eno, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Lol Coxhill, Robert Wyatt, Tom Cora, Zeena Parkins, The Residents, Ikue Mori, Mike Patton, John Zorn’s Naked City and others. He is also well known for his restless work with bands like Skeleton Crew, Massacre, Keep the Dog, Art Bears, Tense Serenity, Guitar Quartet, Eye to Ear, Cosa Brava as well as for composing music for ROVA, Ensemble Modern and the Arditti Quartet, among others. Friths’s name appears on more than 400 recordings. The Fred Frith Trio teams the leader with a pair of gifted San Francisco Bay Area musicians, bassist Jason Hoopes and drummer Jordan Glenn. The trio has released two albums on Intakt Records: Another Fucking Day in Paradise (2016) and Closer to the Ground (2018). Critics called them “three extravagantly creative musicians employed in making music like we’ve never heard before”.