Search - Trey Gunn :: Untune the Sky

Warr beyond the Pale

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 12/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As the Crimson King reassembles with Tony Levin (can Bill Bruford be far away?), and Trey Gunn's ambivalence about pursuing the mission of the Court hangs in the balance, Gunn has released this reassessment of his solo work. It os absolutely genius, start to finish. The most qualified successor to Robert Fripp's guitar chair currently is weighing the worthiness of the pursuit of a career as a touring musician. More would be the pity were he to stop, remove himself from Crimson and take up something essentially shackled to production only. If you have ever had the chance to see him solo or with Kc, you know he is one of the most engaging artists in the confidence of Music itself. If you have not seen him, hasten to pick this up along with the double DVD from King Crimson. As noted in another review, the packaging itself is stunningly beautiful, the music comes from deep inside a remarkable soul.
As to this disc, it opens with the acoustically driven polyrythmic "Sozzle" and then offers a Live reading of "The Glove," before bringing up 2 alternative mixes: "Third Star" (with an absolutely chilling vocal by Serpentine) and "Take This Wish," both of which turn the facets of these gems just enough to reconsider them thoroughly. Gunn's Warr work throughout is sublime. His colleagues are absoultely in step with his hairpin turns. Bob Muller, Tony Geballe and Joe Mendelson could give KC a run for its many on any given Sunday, understanding, of course, that both Geballe and Gunn are products of the Guitar Craft School of Thought espoused by Fripp at Charlestown, W Va.
Track 3 offers the contrast that his work with Pat Mastellotto represents. It's a different, yet sympathetic feel for the directions in the music. The Cd concludes with a workout with Fripp and Bill Rieflin, currently in the studio with REM ( and hopefully for REM's sake, permanently a member of that band). It is from an absolutely terrific vehicle they collaborated on during the ProjeKct hiatus of Crimson, and actually, along with Bruford-Levin, the best of said efforts.
The second disc is a DVD compilation whose 7 live tracks with Gunn, Geballe, Mendelson and Muller are just great. The video montages and interviews are a mixed bag, but so they should be. It gives a twist to the proceedings you won't always embrace, but are certainly more user friendly than Fripp's detachment.
So, whither Crimson? There is always the issue of unfinished businees for the double trio, and perhaps the time and independence established by Bruford, Levin, Mastellotto and Gunn would argue most for another run at a concept attempted by Coltrane and Ornette with as much unsaid as Crimson. Fripp continues to point to a life for the King beyond his service as Prime Minister. Perhaps now at the Gate of Dreams......."

The Very Best from Trey Gunn.

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 11/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Untune the Sky" is a well-put-together compilation from the now former King Crimson member Trey Gunn (As of November 21st 2003, Trey has announced his departure from the band after 10 years). Gunn is a pioneer of the Touch Guitar and Chapman Stick. Both instruments utilize a playing technique of two-handed tapping as opposed to plucking or strumming the strings. During the past decade, Trey Gunn has brought out the full potential of what these unique instruments are capable of.
In addition to his work with King Crimson, Gunn has so far released five solo albums as well as numerous collaborations. It is these solo albums which "Untune The Sky" represents plus one track from his collaboration with drummer Bill Rieflin and Crimson bandmate/guitarist Robert Fripp, "The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior".
The sound in which Trey employs on his solo work is a unique mix of jazz fusion, world music and ambient styles. The percussiveness of Trey's string-tapping and Bob Muller's natural talent on the drums and Indian tabla is crucial to the overall sound of many of the tracks on this album. The vocals of the mysteriously named Alice and Serpentine on several tracks give a definite Eastern quality to some of this music.
Highlights include the highly rhythmic "Sozzle", "The Glove", "Rune Song", and the epics "Puttin on the White Shirt" and the unreleased track "The Cruelest Month".
"Untune The Sky" also comes with a full-length DVD which includes over 90-minutes worth of live material, behind-the-scenes footage and video montages from Trey Gunn and his band. It is quite an eyeful to watch Trey's touch guitar playing in full action here. His band consisting of drummer/percussionist Bob Muller, guitarist Tony Geballe and second Touch guitarist Joe Mendelson also display some worthy musicianship. Besides its stellar musical moments, there are also some humorous moments in the behind-the-scenes footage such as Trey being too busy for an interview while setting up on-stage and Tony Geballe telling the story behind his 12-string guitar getting broken in transit.
This is a great CD/DVD set. The CD provides an excellent sampling of Trey Gunn's solo material while the DVD shows some flawless playing from Trey and his band. With Gunn now departed from King Crimson, I can only hope that this will be the beginning of an even more prolific and fruitful solo career for him."

Warr and Pieces

yawuh2002 | USA | 11/25/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This audio/visual overview of TG's solo work is quite nice, from the artwork to the superior sound. The initiated will already own most if not all of these tracks (excepting the unreleased sound field "The Cruellest Month"). It's a rather strange track selection, omitting a few of what I considered to be essential pieces by Gunn and his cohorts, but part of the appeal of this set is seeing how Trey himself has decided to sum up his solo works to date.TG's rhythmic partnership with Bob Muller is astounding. Muller is an amazing percussionist and quite invaluable to much of this music. Combining conventional trap kit with various hand drums, he sets his own high standard for creative rock percussion work. Now that Trey has left King Crimson (a good move, in my opinion), perhaps he and Muller can continue down the pan-ethnic, polyrhythmic path they started.The DVD is of mixed quality, ranging from barely-audible band member interviews to handheld club footage to well-produced live footage (Kuma, Rune Song) to video "montages" for 4 tracks. (Think Stargate sequence from 2001 and you're in the ballpark.) I'm not of the opinion that music needs any video supplementation at all, but getting to see Muller & Gunn in action was worth the price of admission, certainly.Recommended to both newcomers and "old" fans alike."