SONAR

Sonar continues to have a major impact on the avant garde and improvisational areas of music and have been doing so ever since guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner met when taking part in King Crimson co-leader/guitar icon Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft. They soon recruited bassist Christian Kuntner and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli, taking the name Sonar as an abbreviation of SONic Architecture, alluding to the highly structured, polymetric rock they aspired to construct. This was their third album (there have since been more) and was the first time they worked with an outside producer, David Bottrill (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Tool), who recorded them live in the studio (no overdubs).

There is no doubt that King Crimson are a major impact on Sonar, as are the likes of Trey Gunn and Marcus Reuter, while Thelen also references the compositional rigour of Nik Bärtsch, and minimalist composer Steve Reich, but surely the most apposite quote must be where he says realistically this is, "Duane Eddy Meets Jackson Pollock." Polyrhythms, strange time signatures and tuning, this is music which really is quite nothing else around and it is not surprising that Thelen continues to be an in-demand collaborator with likeminded musicians who want to keep pushing the musical boundaries and refusing to accept any type of normality. This is not something to sit and relax to, as it is all about changing our expectations of what music is supposed to be about and never sits comfortably and instead has us on an edge as we know that whatever is coming is something we need to pay close attention to, so we get the best from it. In recent years Sonar have been releasing albums with David Torn, and this 2015 album was the last they recorded (to date) as a quartet and is worthy of investigation by those who want to walk down musical paths less travelled.

The union of Switzerland's Math Rock masters, Sonar, with David Torn was so successful, so meaningful to all involved, that they did it again--one year after releasing the stunning, ground-breaking, Vortex.

1. "Labyrinth" (14:26) the tension presented in this song is sublime! The low bass-dominated primary weave is incredibly engaging (engulfing!) In the fifth, eighth, eleventh, and thirteeth-into-fourteenth minutes David Torn reaches new heights with his guitar's creative, primal, animalistic screams. And the other guitarists take a more aggressive, attention-grabbing approach than is typical of their performances (they usually stay in the underground, hidden within the foundational weaves that David solos over). Even the drumming somehow reaches out to grab you and suck you in. Probably my favorite Sonar song ever. (28.5/30)

2. "Partitions" (5:37) opening with a wonderful spacey aural field--one that stays in the song's bottom end throughout. The star-spangling guitar interplay is absolutely wonderful--both with individual notes and, later, beneath David Torn's swooning guitar play, with staccato chord strums and then ascending chord arpeggi. (10/10)

3. "Red Sky" (11:14) percussion noises from the drum coupled with spacey guitar loops are soon joined with the lead blues-bending notes of David Torn's southern-infused guitar. Very cool. At 1:53 another guitar approach is introduced. Christian Kuntner's thick, heavy, low-end dominating bass does not enter until 2:19, over which David's bayou-bluesy guitar returns--all over some intricately-played quick note staccato guitar interplay. The rolling bass line only contributes further to the bayou-bluesy feel of this one. I'm not usually into bluesy rock soundscapes but this one is intriguing, at times mesmerizing. An interesting rhythmic shift occurs at the end of the sixth minute--one that ushers in a change in the expression of all the band members--as if all are suddenly pointed in a march toward a fixed point on the horizon. The progress they make--both as individuals and a collective unit--is quite exciting--especially in the drums' and David Torn's contributions. I like the second half much more than the first. (17.5/20)

4. "Tunnel Drive" (7:42) the band very quickly establish a very unusual, syncopated rhythm over which to create their weave. David Torn's indvidualistic contributions really don't begin to emerge to the forefront until the second half, making this much more of an "old" Sonar Math Rock song than the others. (13/15)

Total Time 38:59

A-/five stars; a masterpiece of spacey Math Rock and an essential addition to any prog lover's music collection.

Switzerland's precision masters are back with yet another impeccably formed and produced album of Math Rock--still in union with American guitar legend David Torn as they have been for the past two albums. Leader and principle composer Stephan Thelen is in the process of stepping away (to pursue a solo career), here showing his expanding skillset with a turn on the tuned percussion instruments on song three, "Slowburn," yet the band sounds as good as ever. Maybe better!

1. "Triskaidekaphilia" (9:43) a fairly thin and surprisingly simple weave over which David Torn shreds and shrieks while the other guitarists pick and pluck their way in their own delicately staccato fashions. It goes by so fast that I find myself a bit underwhelmed by the little and infrequent high points. (16.75/20)

2. "Tranceportation" (12:39) deep bass notes fill the bottom end from the start while syncopated snare and hi-hat hits and pin-dropping guitar notes slowly join in and populate the starry aural field. Interesting how for the first three minutes the bass of Christian Kuntner and drums of Manuel Pasquinelli really get top billing; it's only in the fourth minute that David Torn's note-bending Southern-fried guitar takes the lead. Meanwhile, Christian's bass moves more and more and the other guitars' pin-droppings become more prominent. Unfortunately, I really am not a fan of the style and sound David is projecting with this performance, yet the bass and drums really make this one different and interesting. I love the ninth and tenth minutes when the pin-pricking guitars get more lead time: it's like the sound of stars twinkling in the sky. Finally, in the tenth minute, David's guitar sound and soloing style become interesting and enjoyable to me. And then, for the final two minutes, everybody individually begins to experiment with slow decay into chaotic "death." Quite interesting! (22/25)

3. "Slowburn" (10:01) A nice, full polyrhythmic fabric is established over the first three minutes before David begins his display of pyrotechnics--a quite wonderful one, in fact. Then the music softens for a bit during a return to the opening weave, but all stops are unleashed at the five-minute mark with another foray into the thicker, "B" motif. Great guitar "conversation" in the seventh minute. Drums begin to make themselves known around the eight-minute mark, seemingly goading the others into more aggressive and dynamic expressions--and boy does it work. My favorite section on the album! David Torn really unleashes. But then there is a sudden shutdown at the nine-minute mark and a long, slow decay into silence. Too bad! I wish that aggressive section would have/could have continued. Definitely the most interesting and dynamic composition on the album. (18.25/20)

4. "Cloud Chamber" (9:37) steady bass, rim hits, and sparse polyrhythmic guitar picks open this one before spacey electronics and more guitar lines enter and begin to further shape and re-shape this one. The regular stop and re-start every six, seven, or eight measures (it seems to vary) is a bit too formulaic for me--or rather, a bit too reminiscent of rudimentary bluesy rock'n'roll for my tastes. The intersting stuff in the sonic field is really only subtle and nuanced until about the sixth minute when David's soaring wails and screeches become more prominent and insistent. Again we are treated to a long, slow, spacey decay into silence. (17.5/20)

Total Time 42:00

David is "on" again with some truly remarkable solo displays of shredding, I just wish his lead contributions filled a greater percentage of the songs' lengths. To my ears, bassist Christian Kuntner comes out as the surprise star of this show.

B+/4.5 stars; a wonderful addition to any prog lover's music collection.

Right now I consider this my third favourite record from 2018 after the works of Dewa Budjana and ALL TRAPS ON EARTH. And I have to mention another trio of albums starting with "Vortex" which is the first five star SONAR album for me and no it's not a coincidence that this is where David Torn gets on the bus. And the appeal of this one is his upfront presence. It's like he let his hair down(and he has a lot of it) impressing to no end the other four musicians involved.

2019's "Fractal Guitar" by SONAR's leader Stephan Thelen is a five star affair where Torn and many other guitarists show their unique skills. Love that record and my favourite from that year. Finally "Tranceportaion II" from SONAR released in 2020 makes such a great trio of like-minded albums but with each having it's own flavour and this third record I'm mentioning again has Torn on it but it's the other two guitarists and the bass player using tritone instruments that sounds so incredible.

The music here was recorded live in studio over three days in Switzerland and I'm so glad Torn was there and not just mailing in his parts. In fact Torn produced and mixed this recording. Again Thelen is the main composer here but everyone chips in when it comes to that. So we get three guitarists, a bass player and a drummer. The liner notes are nothing but pictures of the band at the studio and they are meaningful and show a real bond already between Torn and the rest of the guys. This is such a consistent record which I like, in fact five of the six tracks I'd rate at 5 stars leaving "Monolith" as the one lone non-killer track. Still really good and the longest at almost 11 minutes but man those other five have me scratching my head as to which one is the best, or even a top three.

I was always drawn to the closer "Lookface!" as it hits the ground running while the others usually build. A heavy rhythm section on this one with Torn soloing over top. "Red Shift" has to be a tip of the hat to that Space Rock band from the UK. Strummed guitar is different to open but it works as drums and bass kick in. This trips along mid-paced and it sounds amazing. Love when the guitar rises out of that calm around 4 1/2 minutes. Torn is back soloing late. "Waves And Particles" is a drifting track as Torn comes and goes. This just sounds so good.

The title track like others opens with the band tripping along until around 3 1/2 minutes when everything is amped up. So good! We get a calm then it builds and this sounds incredible ending with Torn and some really good drum work just before 8 minutes. And yet the opener "Part 44" might be the best of the bunch. Torn puts on a show and this just "sounds" so good and at 10 minutes it's a ride but Torn kills on the second half of this one.

This one for me is mostly about the David Torn influence, it's very strong and less so moving forward.

4.5 stars. My kind of music. I can't get over how the tritone guitars and bass changes their sound. Reminds me of KING GIZZARD and their microtonal drums, bass and guitars that they have used on some albums and how it changes their sound as well, and in both cases for the better. And having the legendary David Torn on here doesn't hurt does it? A match made in heaven is SONAR and David Torn. David plays his usual guitar and adds live looping. By the way SONAR always record live in studio with a lot of improvising. I'm going to quote Stephan Thelan in this review a lot because the best review I've seen is his in the liner notes.

Love the grainy and blurry picture of this band under the actual cd, so cool. Thelan talks about how throughout his life music has been the vehicle to take him places as he wears those headphones. Of course the title "Tranceportation" is fitting. For me music has always been about being the soundscape for where I am going whether walking, running, biking or mostly driving. Since I was a teenager actually. Post-Rock and Electronic are awesome for these treks but this album with it's precise beats, pulses and string sounds works very well for this. It sounds dark because of the tritone and then Torn comes in soloing as he does. Love this!

Thelan mentions "This time, we wanted to bring the raw emotional aspect of David's playing even more forward than on the last album "Vortex", so we consciously chose to keep the compositions as open as possible. This left space for improvisations and spontaneous surges of power, knowing that David's ability to improvise, his otherworldly atmospheres and infectious energy would inspire and ignite all kinds of group interplay".

We get four long tracks adding up to 42 minutes. There is a guest adding as Thelan says "his glitchy and granular electronics" to "Cloud Chamber" the closer. By the way the man's name is Werner Hasler and while he plays electronics in bands he's also a trumpet player and how good would the trumpet sound in this music? I mean distasteful, dissonant and experimental. Come on! So we get three guitarists, a bass player and drummer. I have to mention "Slowburn" my favourite track. Thelan says "It started with a line in 9 Bernard came up with while exploring his echoplex. I asked David to play something similar in mood to what he did on David Sylvian's "The Boy With A Gun", a track I deeply admire." I love that Sylvian song as well.

Anyway I'm a huge fan of this record, love every track.

Sonar were formed in 2010 and comprise Stephan Thelen (tritone guitar), Bernhard Wagner (tritone guitar), Christian Kuntner (tritone bass) and Manuel Pasquinelli (drums). Since then they have created quite a reputation for themselves with their jagged eclectic RIO jazz approach to progressive rock, and for their fourth full-length studio album, 'Vortex', they invited producer (and guitarist, film-composer) and David Torn to work with them. During the recording, the chemistry between Sonar and David Torn worked so well that Torn was invited to play on every track. So, when the band played a concert at Moods Jazz Club in Z'rich, Switzerland, on May 24th last year, they took the opportunity to invite David to join them and this is the result.

There are three pieces from Vortex ('Waves and Particles', 'Red Shift' and 'Lookface!'), a piece from 'Static Motion', 'Twofold Covering', and an improvised David Torn solo piece called 'For Lost Sailors' together with 'Troms'', a piece that Sonar played without David Torn. This last is one of the very first songs they rehearsed together and opens their debut album 'A Flaw of Nature'. This is music which is on the edge, guitarists combining together to create something ethereal, threatening, complex, yet also with space between the layers. This is King Crimson being taken to a different musical world, where musicians are allowed by the audience to relax into their art, only making a sound when a track has ended. Complex, this is music which hurts when played loudly, as the brain attempts to digest what is happening in front of its ears and generally fails.

There is nothing relaxing or calm about this music, it is designed to cause an emotional flight or fight response, and it is incredibly hard to listen to in many ways. That the listener needs to make the effort as there is a great deal to be gained from it is never in doubt. This is music pushing boundaries, truly progressing.

To the Swiss band SONAR's music is attributed the notion of "mathematical music". To be even more precise, I would rather say that this is a geometrical music, sometimes asymmetrical, that it seems like reconstructing Euclidean theorems in a multidimensional spaces. Their last album, "Vortex", is benefiting from the collaboration of the futuristic guitar hero David Torn. His contribution brings up a colorful pitch drop of rockish flavor upon the Sonars sound of polyrhythm landscapes. The relationship between these guitar triangle (Stephan Thelen, Bernhard Wagner and David Torn) embroider a fluid dialogue of a melodic trigonometry which merge into hypnotic and magic dough sound. This sheaf of guitars is sustained by the rhythmic section (Christian Kuntner ? bass and Manuel Pasquinelli ? drums) in a Crimsonian discipline of controlled chaos. The aesthetic vision is very much alike the "dark" genre, but it just constitutes itself in the elements which the death-metal rock bands are missing: finesse, elegance and coherence.

The sonar geometry of the tunes on the "Vortex"album is alluring you like a swirl with complex rhythms in a minimalist format, with overlay levels of bunks of melodic constructions. David Torn's solo guitar parts vibrates and screams with a sensuality, dissonant at some points, congruently merging into the isometric passages of Stephan and Bernhard guitars. The guitar dialogues of these last two are like parallel mirrors, sometimes deformed, other times integrated in this mathematics of sound. Regarded in a whole, "Vortex" is a journey into unwonted sound spaces, ingenuously and mathematical rigorously built in an unitary form. A vortex like an ecstatic trance produced by a Dervish dance.

I believe that "Vortex" is an album Pythagoras would have liked it too.

4 stars all the way!

The swiss music ensemble SONAR recently have produced the studio album 'Vortex' in collaboration with guitarist and composer David Torn. This corresponding live performance was recorded at the Moods Jazz Club, Zürich, in May 2018. They have taken over half of the songs here, the others are earlier band compositions, respectively For Lost Sailors eventually turns out to be a David Torn solo piece. On the stage the fivesome generates an atmospheric vibe beyond comparison. Which basically comes from an intriguing virtuoso triple guitar work, partially King Crimson inspired. This supported by the prolific rhythm branch comprised of Christian Kuntner (bass) as well as drummer Manuel Pasquinelli.

The band name by the way results from the conjunction of the terms SONic and ARchitecture. Well chosen! Polyrhythm is the name of the game. As one might expect the interplay of both regular guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner is well-functioning, furthermore though Torn fits in like a longtime member with ease. The sound quality leaves nothing to be desired. A must hear, any other try regarding a proper description will fail, I'm quite sure. This was completely filmed too, so I would not be surprised if there will be a DVD available sooner or later, possibly depends on a growing attention. Well deserved in any case. Fantastic experience, highly recommended!

Now here is something truly interesting: Swiss instrumental Math Rock band, master of heady polyrhythmic constructs, has guitarist extraordinaire David Torn sitting in and lifting their songs geometrically with his sonic magic.

1. "Part 44" (9:56) bass, drums and two guitars establish a fabric over which David Torn adds his guitar meanderings. The frequent shifting of chords between the two arpeggiating guitars makes this quite interesting and engaging. At 2:40 there is a shift into lower octaves that gives Torn's guitar more prominence (which he could take more advantage of). By the end of the fourth minute the baseline weave thins for a while as Torn disappears. The bass gets prominence here until a sudden thunder bolt of static bursts in at 4:55: Torn is ready to tear it up. After a minute of more static, David finally does just that--piercing the treble lines with some shrill notes. Towards the end of the seventh minute, his solo becomes more active--and continues to do so for the next glorious ninety seconds. After that the drums and bass are left to "clean up" beneath Torn's sustained scream. Nice job--as a band! (9/10)

2. "Red Shift" (10:31) opens with strumming guitars and jazzy cymbal play with simple bass. At 0:55 there is a key shift but the fabric remains essentially the same. At 1:36 there is a shift into more oppositional polyrhythmic strumming and then picking from the two guitars. (Still no Torn.) A quiet passage at the end of the third minute hails the arrival of Mr. Torn. An extended solo passage of David Torn's most unbridled soloing starts around 3:10, escalates, and lasts into the second half of the sixth minute. The song then plays out in a quieter, less dynamic version of the first two minutes.(9/10)

3. "Waves And Particles" (7:49) a slow, subtly developing whole-band weave of the KING CRIMSON "Discipline" style- -until David lets loose in the second half. Man, this guy can make a guitar sing and scream and wail like NOBODY else! (9.5/10)

4. "Monolith" (10:47) radio-like sound frequencies are interspersed with two (and later three--Torn's) guitars each doing their own thing in contribution to the polyphonic weave. Again, the most interesting part of this otherwise- dull song is Torn's soloing in the middle (sixth through eighth minutes). (8/10)

5. "Vortex" (9:37) drums and deep bass notes play a little more prominently into the polyrhythmic weave from the start of this one. In the second minute one of the guitars (R) tries to spice it up a bit with a faster arpeggio and then some heavy reverb and long sustain. At 2:35 the left guitar takes a turn in the lead with some strumming. Then ride cymbal is played while David Torn's single sustained note enters and takes the fore. The ensuing solo, over the band's excellent low-based weave, is awesome. Then, just as suddenly, at 3:50, Torn crescendoes and fades while everyone else quiets down. Halfway through the fifth minute, David makes a return appearance before the drums and right guitar resume their place in the most interesting spots in the soundscape. Odd guitar sounds (except to those fans of Adrian Belew) sneak in from time to time as the band fades down and out of the mix, only to return in a cool way at 7:20. Torn begins to shred and tear at the skies again soon after. Guitars return in support in the final minute as band mounts a final cresendo beneath Torn's rents. Second best song on the album. (9.5/10)

6. "Lookface!" (7:13) what causes this song to stand out is its full-out start: everybody bursting into their power moves, all at the same time, from the song's opening note. Then, in a reversal of expected patterns, the song becomes quiet and delicate in the second half. Brilliant and very engaging! The best song on the album! (9.5/10)

Five stars; a masterpiece of King Crimson Discipline-inspired instrumental progressive rock music.

Sonar is a pioneering band from Switzerland, founded in 2012. Their name represents a certain architectural genre that solidifies the music, which means that they intend to create diversified and highly structured avant-garde rock. In terms of style, they are minimalist. They have two three-stringed guitars to do this. It is similar to KC, and often plays highly repeated multi-level music, reminiscent of a tape delay recording system like Robert Fripp. This year's Vortex (with David Torn) is their fourth album. Please come to a jazz expert David Torn to help them. David Torn was selected as the best experimental guitarist, but he is good at electronic music and similar. The electronic programming of the device, which helped the band achieve many sound effects and level changes. In terms of new specialization, this kind of minimalism similar to the late KC brought an embarrassing psychedelic state, but because it is not too heavy, I think it can be called a psychedelic and jazz KC, full of mysteries and Hypnosis. It's like a musical sculpture, full of compact composition and addictive. Of course this can also be called Math Rock. All songs are full of rhythm, but using wacky rhythms, based on repetition and dynamic variables, the time accuracy is accurate, so it can be called mathematical rock as if it were constructed. A seemingly irregular but full of regular blockhouses, a seemingly asymmetrical and actually exact copy of the piece, a visual aesthetic works with a simple but deep complex and complex structure, 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4 shots Build and parallel in turn. In order to create such an ultra-rational effect, David Torn's assistance is crucial. An electronic crimson king hides madness and irrationality in strict discipline. The first half of the album still maintains a brighter hue. It is not enough to get dark and mad at the back. The bass rhythm in the tail song Lookface! is crazy, but it has to be admired. A surprising rock math masterpiece , a model of music architecture. Conservative to a four-star, but may be able to reach four and a half stars! Strongly recommended.