Sun of Goldfinger

Please join us for a performance by Sun of Goldfinger, an exploratory trio featuring three Ars Nova Workshop favorites: guitarist David Torn, saxophonist Tim Berne, and percussionist Ches Smith.

The self-titled debut by Sun of Goldfinger builds upon an enticing web of relationships: of the three musicians, who have worked together in various capacities in guitarist David Torn’s brain-warping projects as well as saxophonist Tim Berne’s boundary-stretching bands; and of all three artists and the groundbreaking label ECM, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018 and shows no signs of slowing its forward march into uncharted sonic territory.

On Sun of Goldfinger, the trio spontaneously weaves three intense musical tapestries, each spanning more than 20 minutes and crafting vast soundworlds of monumental and vividly textured aural invention. The nearly 25-minute length of each track mirrors the exploratory intensity of the trio live, where the band conjures mind-bogglingly intricate and immersive atmospherics every night, blending delicate lyricism and full-throttle noise, bleeding-edge rock and untethered rock, and leading the way into realms beyond genre.

“[Sun of Goldfinger] finds these world-class improvisers roaming freely among musical zones ranging from hard-hitting avant-rock to delicate ambient jazz.”
—Hank Shteamer, Rolling Stone

Across a career as a guitarist, composer, improviser, and producer, David Torn has worked with innovators in jazz (Jan Garbarek, The Bad Plus), film music (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carter Burwell), and rock (David Bowie, Jeff Beck, David Sylvian). Guitar Player magazine has declared him “one of music’s Top 50 guitarists, ever.” Tim Berne has been declared “a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction” by The New York Times. Since learning at the elbow of St. Louis master Julius Hemphill in the ’70s, the Syracuse-born Berne has built an expansive discography as a leader, assembling pace-setting ensembles with a “who’s who” of improvisers, including Joey Baron, Django Bates, Jim Black, Nels Cline, Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, and Craig Taborn. Born in San Diego, CA, and raised in Sacramento, Ches Smith came up in a scene of punks and metal musicians who were listening to and experimenting with jazz and free improvisation. He has performed and recorded with Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, Xiu Xiu, Secret Chiefs 3, and Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, while leading his own projects, Congs for Brums and These Arches.