{"id":793286,"date":"2019-02-20T13:53:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T20:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=795739"},"modified":"2019-02-20T13:53:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T20:53:35","slug":"preview-sun-of-goldfingers-genre-blurring-new-avant-garde-opus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/preview-sun-of-goldfingers-genre-blurring-new-avant-garde-opus\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview Sun of Goldfinger\u2019s Genre-Blurring New Avant-Garde Opus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sun-of-goldfinger.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Typically, the band known as Sun of Goldfinger exists purely in the moment. Consisting of saxophonist Tim Berne, guitarist David Torn and drummer Ches Smith, the trio finds these world-class improvisers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g0QIs1PvByE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">roaming freely<\/a>\u00a0among musical zones ranging from hard-hitting avant-rock to delicate ambient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jazz\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jazz\" data-tag=\"jazz\">jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">While there\u2019s plenty of room for spontaneity on the band\u2019s upcoming debut album, <em>Sun of Goldfinge<\/em>r, out March 1st on ECM, one track, \u201cSpartan, Before It Hit,\u201d takes a more meticulous approach, yielding magical results. Here you can hear the first section of the 22-minute piece.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dZA27Cavh78?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Torn \u2014 a veteran musician, producer and soundscapist who contributed what Tony Visconti\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/david-bowies-the-next-day-album-a-track-by-track-preview-199922\/\">described to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> as \u201caural landscapes\u201d to several David Bowie albums \u2014 composed the piece with Berne in mind. The <em>Sun of Goldfinger<\/em> version adds seven additional musicians to the album\u2019s core trio: Craig Taborn, who has worked with all three members of the band in a variety of settings, on piano and electronics; Mike Baggetta and Ryan Ferreira on guitars; and the Scorchio Quartet: violist Martha Mooke, violinists Amy Kimball and Rachel Golub, and cellist Leah Coloff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cSpartan, Before It Hit\u201d begins with hovering strings, setting up and backing a plaintive melody from Berne\u2019s also saxophone, soon joined soon by Taborn\u2019s piano. Around the 4:40 mark, what at first sounded like an elegant chamber composition goes full-on surreal, with the entrance of a busy electronic beat and Torn\u2019s pealing guitar. By around seven minutes in, the piece has evolved into a hectic jam, led by Smith\u2019s driving percussion \u2014 on the Haitian <em>tanbou<\/em>, a key instrument in the drummer\u2019s own <a href=\"https:\/\/weallbreak.bandcamp.com\/releases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">We All Break<\/a> band \u2014 and Berne\u2019s harsh cries. Before the excerpt fades, the music rises to an explosive peak and dissipates, giving way to the track\u2019s improv-driven remainder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The members of Sun of Goldfinger share a deep musical history. For more than 20 years, Torn has worked behind the scenes on various Berne projects, adding sonic manipulation to albums like 2001\u2019s excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencefrictiontimberne.bandcamp.com\/album\/science-friction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><em>Science Friction<\/em><\/a>. Smith, meanwhile, drums in the saxophonist\u2019s current working band, Snakeoil, which showcases Berne\u2019s ingenious, prog-like compositions and also records for ECM. And Torn\u2019s own prior efforts for the label, which date back to the mid-Eighties, include 2007\u2019s <em>Prezens<\/em>, a quartet album with Berne and Taborn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Asked to comment on his Sun of Goldfinger collaborators\u2019 strengths in an e-mail exchange with <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, Torn is effusive. \u201cOMG, I\u2019m so fortunate to be in this group with a) a warm, driven, real genius hero, and b) a freak of gorgeously &amp; musically polymathic proportions,\u201d he writes of Berne and Smith, respectively. \u201cThese dudes emit &amp; reveal freaking multitudes. I shit you not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sun of Goldfinger will be on the road in March and April in support of the release. The dates include a stop at Knoxville\u2019s Big Ears festival on March 24th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Sun of Goldfinger Tour Dates<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">March 12th \u2013 San Francisco, CA @ Freight and Salvage<br \/>March 13th \u2013 Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon<br \/>March 14th \u2013 Portland, OR @ Holocene<br \/>March 15th \u2013 Seattle, WA @ Royal Room<br \/>March 17th \u2013 Denver, CO @ Dazzle<br \/>March 18th \u2013 Minneapolis, MN Icehouse<br \/>March 19th \u2013 Madison, WI @ Arts and Literature Laboratory<br \/>March 20th \u2013 Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit<br \/>March 21st \u2013 NY, NY @ Nublu<br \/>March 24th \u2013 Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival<br \/>April 18th \u2013 Boston, MA @ Regatta Bar<br \/>April 19th \u2013 Portland, ME @ Space Gallery<br \/>April 20th \u2013 Newburgh, NY @ Atlas<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/hear-sun-of-goldfinger-tim-berne-david-torn-ches-smith-ecm-795739\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Typically, the band known as Sun of Goldfinger exists purely in the moment. Consisting of saxophonist Tim Berne, guitarist David Torn and drummer Ches Smith, the trio finds these world-class improvisers\u00a0roaming freely\u00a0among musical zones ranging from hard-hitting avant-rock to delicate ambient jazz. While there\u2019s plenty of room for spontaneity on the band\u2019s upcoming debut album, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-793286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 09:50:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}