David Torn

David M. Torn (born 26 May 1953) is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is known for combining electronic and acoustic instruments and for the use of looping.

Torn has contributed to recordings by artists including David Bowie, k.d. lang, John Legend, Madonna, Tori Amos, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, Chocolate Genius, Michael Shrieve, Steve Roach, Patrick O'Hearn, Andy Rinehart, Matt Chamberlain, Meshell Ndegeocello and Don Cherry.

He has produced a Grammy-winning recording for Jeff Beck, as well as recordings for Tim Berne, Drew Gress, Dave Douglas, Douglas September, and many others.

In addition to his composition work, Torn's recording have been featured in a number of films, including Friday Night Lights, Velvet Goldmine, Adaptation, The Big Lebowski, The Departed, Fur, The Hoax, Kalifornia, Traffic, Reversal of Fortune, Tibet, and Three Kings. He studied with Leonard Bernstein (within the "Music for Young Composers" series), as well as with guitarists John Abercrombie, Pat Martino, Paul Weiss and Arthur Basile. Torn works out of his personal studios, known as Cell Labs; occasionally, he uses the pseudonym "splattercell."

The New York Times described Torn's 2015 solo release, Only Sky, as "[an abstract landscape that is] both immersive and deftly disorienting."

Torn was born in Amityville, New York, he is married to Linda B. Brecht-Torn (b. 1952), is the son of Lawrence J. Torn (b. 1926) and Rhoda G. Torn (1927-2010), the father of electronic musician Elijah B. Torn (b. 1979) and Cody M. Torn (b. 1983). He is the brother of Marsha Torn and Linda Torn, and he is a cousin of Rip Torn (b. 1931), Angelica Torn (b. 1964), Geraldine Page, Sissy Spacek, and Ina Garten, AKA The Barefoot Contessa.

Torn began his career with the Ithaca-based jam band Zobo Funn Band in the 1970s, and rose to prominence as a member of The Everyman Band and Jan Garbarek's quartet in the mid-1980s. He has recorded for the ECM, Windham Hill, CMP, and 75 Ark. He has also recorded a series of CD-ROMs with looping and other ambient music and "integrated noise" materials that can be used as samples by other artists.

In 1992, Torn was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, in his case, a life-threatening form of brain tumor. The surgery that followed left him deaf in the right ear but he remained able to compose, record, and play. He even mixes many widely available recordings himself, although according to him this requires sitting sideways to the studio speakers and "visualising the stereo aspects of sound" in his head rather than experimenting with them by ear.

In 2006, Torn's film score for Believe in Me won the Best Score-award at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. In 2003, his score for the film The Order was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 2007, Torn released Prezens with Tim Berne. Jazzwise called the album "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."

In 2013, Kaivax, a community manager for Blizzard Entertainment, announced that Torn worked on the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm soundtrack, "adding burning leads and strange textures to the Zerg palette on several tracks."

In January 2013, Torn delivered a solo guitar performance and talk at TEDx Caltech 2013: The Brain. The presentation examined his brain tumor diagnosis and recovery.

Torn is listed as a guitarist on the 2013 David Bowie album, The Next Day. He also served as composer on the 2014 film That Awkward Moment.

As a session artist, composer, and producer, David Torn has experimented with many effects boxes, amplifiers, and instruments, and he has spoken with amplifier designers and pedal builders about their craft. In an interview with Premier Guitar magazine following the release of his solo album Only Sky, he shared an extensive list of the instruments and effects he uses. He plays a Ronin Mirari guitar with Foilbucker pickups and also lists a large number of amplifiers such as a Fryette Aether amplifier, and many guitar effects pedals including the TC Electronic Classic TC XII Phaser, Catalinbread Antichthon, DigiTech Whammy DT, and the Neunaber Stereo Wet Reverb.

Solo

• Best Laid Plans (ECM, 1984)
• Without Warning (ECM, 1984)
• Cloud About Mercury (ECM, 1987)
• Door X (Windham Hill, 1990)
• Storyville (Varèse Sarabande, 1992)
• Polytown (Times Square, 1994)
• Tripping Over God (CMP, 1995)
• Earthbeat (Azoto/Materiali, 1995)
• What Means Solid, Traveller? (CMP, 1996)
• GTR OBLQ (Knitting Factory, 1998)
• The Order (Superb, 2003)
• The Sin Eater (Edel, 2003)
• Two Plus Two (Lolo, 2004)
• Prezens (ECM, 2007)
• Playground (ECM, 2007)
• Lars and the Real Girl (Milan, 2007)
• That Awkward Moment (Varèse Sarabande, 2014)
• Only Sky (ECM, 2015)

Film and television

• Kalifornia – (musician) (1993)
• Airheads – (musician) (1994)
• Fear – (musician) (1996)
• Snake Eyes – (musician) (1998)
• A Dangerous Woman – (musician) (1998)
• Smoke Signals – (musician) (1998)
• Love is the Devil – (musician) (1998)
• The Big Lebowski – (musician) (1998)
• Velvet Goldmine – (musician) (1998)
• Three Kings – (musician) (1999)
• Traffic – (musician) (2000)
• Heist – (musician) (2001)
• A Knight's Tale – (musician) (2001)
• Blood Omen 2 – (musician) (2002)
• Adaptation – (musician) (2002)
• S1M0NE – (musician) (2003)
• The Order – (composer) (2003)
• Friday Night Lights – (composer) (2004)
• March of the Penguins – (musician) (2005)
• Fur – (musician) (2006)
• Believe in Me – (composer) (2006)
• Love Monkey – (composer) (2006)
• The Departed – (musician) (2006)
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil – (composer: additional music) (2007)
• No Country for Old Men – (musician) (2007)
• Lars and the Real Girl – (composer) (2007)
• Twilight – (musician) (2008)
• The Wackness – (composer) (2008)
• Saint John of Las Vegas – (composer) (2009)
• Howl – (musician) (2010)
• Teenage Paparazzo – (composer) (2010)
• Glee – The Power of Madonna (2010) (writer: "What It Feels Like for a Girl" - uncredited)
• Jesus Henry Christ – (composer) (2011)
• Everything Must Go – (composer) (2011)
• The Lincoln Lawyer – (musician) (2011)
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – (musician) (2012)
• StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - (composer) (2013)
• Admission – (musician) (2013)
• That Awkward Moment – (composer) (2014)
• Drumline: A New Beat – (composer) (2014)

Other recordings

• Everyman Band, Everyman Band (1982)
• It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice, Jan Garbarek (ECM, 1985)
• Without Warning, Everyman Band, Everyman Band (ECM, 1985)
• Secrets of the Beehive, David Sylvian (Virgin, 1987)
• Castalia, Mark Isham (Virgin, 1988)
• Mark Isham, Mark Isham (Gold Rush, 1990)
• Lonely Universe, with Michael White, Michel Lambert, and Mick Karn (CMP, 1991)
• Tamna Voda, Dark (CMP, 1992)
• The Snake Music, Mark Nauseef & Miroslav Tadić (CMP, 1994)
• Building the Colossus, Happy Rhodes (Aural Gratification, 1994)
• 3 Pound Universe, Wes Martin (1995)
• Jason's Chord, Andy Rinehart (1995)
• Aural Gratification Volume 1, (various) (Aural Gratification, 1995)
• To the Bone, Bon (Lolo, 1996)
• Thrive, Gongzilla (Lolo, 1996)
• Drag, k.d. lang (1997)
• Seven Veils, Robert Rich (Hearts of Space, 1998)
• Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (Discipline Global Mobile, 1998)
• Waters of Eden, Tony Levin (Narada, 2000)
• B.L.U.E. Nights, Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (2000)
• Music, Madonna (2000)
• Life on a String, Laurie Anderson (Nonesuch, 2001)
• Oil Tan Bow, Douglas September (2001)
• Heathen, David Bowie (Iso, 2002)
• The Sevens, Tim Berne (2002)
• Science Friction, Tim Berne (2002)
• Scarlet's Walk, Tori Amos (2002)
• Reality, David Bowie (Iso, 2003)
• Jeff, Jeff Beck (Epic, 2003)
• Souls Saved Hear, Big Satan (2004)
• Legs to Make Us Longer, Kaki King (Epic, 2004)
• Once Again, John Legend (Epic, 2006)
• Playground, Manu Katché (2007)
• In the Pink, Donna Lewis (2008)
• Levin/Torn/White, Levin Torn White (2011)
• The Next Day, David Bowie (Iso, 2013)
• Shadow Man, Tim Berne (ECM, 2013) (producer)
• Brand New Day, Donna Lewis (Palmetto, 2015) (producer)
• You've Been Watching Me, Tim Berne (ECM, 2015) (producer)

• "David Torn | Album Discography | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 January 2017. 
• "David Torn - Filmography - Movies & TV - NYTimes.com". Movies.nytimes.com. 2007-01-18. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• "The Big Lebowski (1998)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• "Velvet Goldmine". Carter Burwell. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• ^ "David Torn | Credits". AllMusic. 1953-05-26. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• "No Country For Old Men". Carter Burwell. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• "That Awkward Moment (2014)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• [1] Archived December 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
• "Andy Rinehart - Isn't being wrong right?". Innerviews. Retrieved 2014-08-09. 
• [2] Archived December 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.