FunkFreak75 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.

FunkFreak75 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.

FunkFreak75 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.