Sun of Goldfinger!https://t.co/8yZaGt2b0h pic.twitter.com/aPHbC9NmLT
— tim berne (@screwgub) June 7, 2022
Dropped on us suddenly on June 7, 2022, OZMIR from the David Torn-led trio Sun of Goldfinger is like a hit-and-run visit from musicians of another world. Along with guitar savant Torn, Tim Berne (alto saxophone) and Ches Smith (drums & electronics) make up this erstwhile trio conjuring music I guess you would call some form of jazz but it goes well beyond neat classification.
OZMIR was taped live at the DROM music venue in lower Manhattan just two months prior, which means Torn’s post-tracking wizardry was turned around lickety-split. His approach to capture the in-the-moment spirit of a live performance and enhance it with editing both in real time and later in the studio is not an outlier way of making a record for Sun of Goldfinger; this is their norm.
It’s exactly what you’d expect from Torn, a master of instant textures and striking that perfect balance between this and improv, with a lot of mind reading making this cohere. Between Torn’s loops and Smith’s electronics arrayed alongside Berne’s sensitive and heady sax patterns, the lines between the temporal and the technology are obliterated.
There are only two tracks, both stretching to nearly forty minutes a piece. Torn opens “Sun of OZMIR” with guitar tones from hell and when Berne’s sax walks into the scene, it talks with Torn’s possessed axe in only a language the two understand. Berne’s extended turn about two thirds in amidst the alien vibrations is that human element that ultimately grounds the music no matter how far into outer space Torn and Smith send it. When the sax gets agitated, Smith and Torn fall perfectly in line with it and these three disparate voices become a tight unit.
A vintage Berne instant composition activates “Sun of UI” and Torn’s sliding notes makes his guitar approximate the sound of that alto. Eventually, Smith creates a circular rumble from both drums and circuitry around their increasingly kinetic exchange. They wind down and then wind up for another three-way buildup to climax, this one even better than the prior one. When the smoke clears, Smith’s funky construction rises from the smoke and the other two partake in the groove. Over time, the song gracefully evaporates into a blissful psychedelic haze.
David Torn, Tim Berne and Ches Smith are three distinct musical personalities on their own, but when they combine for Sun of Goldfinger, their collective peculiarities goes well beyond what any of them does by themselves. It’s strangely enchanting even as it challenges you, and the only thing more astonishing is that such fully developed pieces of depth, mystery and just damned fine playing can be cooked up so quickly.
Sun of Goldfinger’s OZMIR is now being offered up from here through Berne’s Screwgun Records.
- Soft Machine – ‘Høvikodden 1971’ (2024) - June 24, 2024
- Aurora Nealand, Mark Helias, Tim Berne – ‘Live at the 188 Club’ (2024) - June 23, 2024
- Ron Miles – ‘Old Main Chapel’ (2024) - June 19, 2024
