''Cloud About Mercury'' is the second album by guitarist

David Torn David M. Torn (born May 26, 1953) is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is known for combining electronic and acoustic instruments and for his use of looping. Background Torn has contributed to recordings by artists as diverse ...

, supported by

Mark Isham Mark Ware Isham (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician and film composer. A trumpeter and keyboardist, Isham works in a variety of genres, including jazz and electronic. He is also a film composer, having worked on numerous films and ...

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 1 ...

and

Bill Bruford William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English former drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording ...

. It was recorded in 1986 and released on the ECM label in March 1987.ECM discography
accessed September 26, 2011

Mick Karn Andonis Michaelides (Greek: Αντώνης Μιχαηλίδης; 24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011), better known as Mick Karn, was an English-Cypriot musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/ new wave band Japan. H ...

replaced Levin for the tour dates

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Glenn Astarita awarded the album 5 stars stating "Simply put, ''Cloud About Mercury'' looms as one of the finest jazz fusion dates of the '80s, and should be deemed a mandatory purchase for aficionados of this genre".Astaria, G
Allmusic Review
accessed September 26, 2011

Track listing

:''All compositions by David Torn except as indicated'' # "Suyafhu Skin... Snapping the Hollow Reed" - 8:21 # "The Mercury Grid" - 6:33 # "3 Minutes of Pure Entertainment" - 7:10 # "Previous Man" (Bill Bruford, Mark Isham, Tony Levin, David Torn) - 7:55 # "Networks of Sparks: a) The Delicate Code" - 4:52 # "Networks of Sparks: b) Egg Learns to Walk... Suyafhu Seal" (Bruford, Isham, Levin, Torn/Torn) - 10:25

Personnel

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

, acoustic guitar *

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, synthesizer *

Chapman stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines ...

, synthesizer bass *

- Simmons drums, synthesizer-drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

References

{{Authority control ECM Records albums David Torn albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher 1987 albums