Sun of Goldfinger is the first album by the trio of guitarist David Torn, alto saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Ches Smith, a band that usually exists only in the moment. Each of its three tracks runs past twenty minutes. They range from loud, distorted avant-rock to drifting ambient passages, with live electronics from Torn and Smith stretching the sound far beyond what a trio would normally make.
The group began in 2010, when Berne invited Torn to a gig in Brooklyn with a young drummer who turned out to be Smith. Its sound came together on a European tour in 2017. Torn and Berne had already worked together on Torn's ECM album prezens of 2007. Torn then produced Berne's ECM records Shadow Man, You've Been Watching Me and Incidentals with Snakeoil, the band in which Smith plays. Smith had made his own ECM debut as a leader with The Bell in 2016. The music was recorded in September 2015 and August 2018 at The Bunker, Brooklyn Recording, EMPAC and Isokon Studios, with Torn producing and mixing.
Eye Meddle and Soften the Blow are spontaneous group compositions for the trio alone, with Torn's looped and processed guitar, Berne's sharp alto lines and Smith on drums, electronics and tanbou. Spartan, Before It Hit, written by Torn, is a different kind of work. Here the trio grows into a ten-piece with Craig Taborn on piano and electronics, guitarists Mike Baggetta and Ryan Ferreira, and the Scorchio Quartet on strings. Written material and improvisation feed each other, and Torn used the mix itself as part of the composing.
In Rolling Stone, Hank Shteamer described the trio "roaming freely among musical zones ranging from hard-hitting avant-rock to delicate ambient jazz". He wrote that the more meticulous Spartan, Before It Hit yields "magical results". Dan McClenaghan of All About Jazz put it more briefly: "This is music that defies categorization." S. Victor Aaron of Something Else Reviews noted that Torn's textures are so detailed that repeated listening keeps turning up new things below the surface.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2613, released on 1 March 2019, with a total running time of almost 69 minutes.
