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TOUR IN COLOMBIA SEPT/O
CT 2025!
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Sonar featuring David Torn
Colombia Tour - September, 2025
Sept 23 Bogota, Swiss Embassy (private concert, by invitation)
Sept 24 Pasto, PastoJazz,
Teatro Javeriano, 7:00 pm
Sept 25 Bogota, Teatro Mayor, 8:00 pm
Sept 26 Bucaramanga, UNAB, 4:00 pm
(Master Class, open to students &
faculty)
Sept 27 Bucaramanga (concert)
Universidad de Santander (UIS),
Auditorio Luis A. Calvo, 7:00 pm
Concert reviews:
Michael Bearpark here
Roger Trenwith's review in The Progressive Aspect here
Jo Kendall's review in Prog here
NEW ALBUM
THRE MOVEMENTS
7d Media
"If Sonar never records another note, this astonishing album makes it all worthwhile. The surehanded sense of momentum and direction is breathtaking. Given that a lot of what Sonar seems to be about is that sense of escalating tension, the ecstatic finale of the 3rd movement is one of the very best examples of it."
Sid Smith, Prog Magazine
A two-year break due to Covid provided opportunity for the development of what is surely Sonar’s most ambitious work to date.
The three pieces that form the album ultimately reveal themselves to be movements in a single long-form composition, one that moves with intention through peaks and valleys of the timbral, temporal and textural variety, leaving the listener emotionally exhausted but spiritually satiated at journey’s end.
With each listen, new details emerge, all of them worth noting, as minimalist guitar motifs commingle with delicious restraint, polyrhythms lend an air of dramatic unfolding, and the bass makes statements of rhythmic and tonal stability at one moment, then skillfully disrupts the equilibrium with odd-time ostinati the next. The sum effect suggests what it might be like to watch a relay race being run inside a hall of mirrors, a feat of daring handled with offhand grace and unerring eloquence by the band members.
Atop it all sits iconoclastic guitarist David Torn, like the Buddha on a mountaintop, offering shards of audio poetry in a language you’ve never heard and yet are somehow familiar with.
Sonar summons a world of wonder here, and invites you inside for what demands to be an immersive experience. In that world, nothing is where you thought it would be. And yet, everything is in its right place.
Jeff Miers, Buffalo News
Reviews:
Manafonistas.de here
Expose.org
here
The Big Takeover
here
Check out a detailed interview with Stephan Thelen and David Torn on Anil Prasad's Innerviews website.
Here are some reviews of Vortex. For a full list of all (known) reviews, click here
John Kelman, Vortex Review, All About Jazz, May 12 2018.
Sid Smith, Prog Magazine Feature on Sonar with David Torn, April 3, 2018.
Marcello Nardi, Vortex Review, March 30, 2018
Giovanni Russonello, NY Times, *Red Shift* on the NY Times Playlist, March 31, 2018.
Felipe Freitas, Vortex Review, JazzTrail, March 28, 2018.
Siggy Zielinski, Vortex Review, Babyblaue Prog Reviews, March 28, 2018.
The Math Rock Times Vortex Review, March 26, 2018.
Roger Trenwith The Progressive Aspect, Vortex Review, March 19, 2018.
"Woo hoo! Listening to the first David Torn mixes of the forthcoming Sonar with David Torn album VORTEX. You’re all in for one hell of an album. This is one for the ages, people. The record will blow your socks off. Angular. Crunchy. Rocking. Swirling. Mental." (Anil Prasad, Innerviews, on facebook)
"They call themselves a "minimalist progressive groove band." I call them awesome." (Jeff Miers, The Buffalo News NY)
"This is the Yin and the Yang of music. From the beginning of this recording my jaw was on the ground, my eyes were pinned open like giant saucers and filled with tears of both joy & terror! This is hands down my favorite of 2018 and a true Desert Island disc and recording+ (Michael Inman, facebook)
The "Making of Vortex"
SONAR -- the Progressive Groove Band
Besides being passionate musicians, SONAR’s four members Stephan Thelen (guitar), Bernhard Wagner (guitar), Christian Kuntner (electric bass) and Manuel Pasquinelli (drums) have backgrounds as diverse as performance art, software engineering, and mathematics, all adding to the eclectic mix of influences that make up this truly unique band.
The group SONAR was born in 2010. The two Zürich-based guitarists Stephan and Bernhard met one evening when Stephan was playing and Bernhard was in the audience. They immediately found that they shared many common interests, so it wasn’t long before they started playing together.
They key idea for the musical concept came, when Stephan remembered that he once tuned his guitar in tritones in order to perform a piece that otherwise would have technically impossible to play. They found that the natural harmonics of this tuning had a very unique, mystic sound quality.
The next step was also rather bold, at least for these two individuals, who had played extensively with effects and loops all their life: they decided to put away all their electronic gadgets and concentrate on the clean sound of an electric guitar.
Further decisions were to radically concentrate on polyrhythms and isorhythms and to avoid intentional virtuosity in favor of group interplay.
Knowing that Sonar needed a very deep bass sound to counterbalance the high-pitched guitar harmonics, Stephan invited his friend Christian Kuntner from Radio Osaka, a band they had both played in.
Bernhard had met a young drummer, Manuel Pasquinelli, at one of Nik Bärtsch’s workshops, thinking that he would be the perfect drummer to play the polymetric beats that they were imagining.
At the end of their first rehearsal, it was perfectly clear that this project would be very exciting and that exactly the right people had found each other.
After about half a year of rehearsals, Sonar played a few concerts in Switzerland and went straight to the studio to record « A Flaw of Nature », an album that was released in 2012 on Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin Rhythm Records label. Thanks to Nik’s connections around the globe, Steve Feigenbaum, head of Cuneiform Records (USA) became aware of Sonar and eventually signed them to his label. Thanks to the wide distributional net of Cuneiform, Sonar’s 2014 album « Static Motion » and their 2015 follow-up « Black Light » (produced by David Bottrill) led to international acclaim, dozens of excellent reviews and concerts in the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Austria, Rumania and Japan.
Guitar
Stephan Thelen composes all pieces with few exceptions, where he figures as co-composer. His approach to music via polymetric, minimalist structures are at least in part due to his life as a mathematician. Still, no composition will survive without an emotional content. This is provided via the energetic, ritualistic, and pointillist way the musicians present the music on stage. Stephan Thelen has played among others with Irène Schweizer and Henry Kaiser.
Bernhard Wagner
Guitar
Guitarist Bernhard Wagner has been supporting act for Nik Bärtsch‘s Ronin for many years. His musical zest, the crystal clear guitar sounds and his unique approach to odd rhythms leave a special mark on the music. He not only manages to inspire as a guitarist but also as instructor of workshops that he teaches, involving various percussion instruments. He is an active member of the international live looping scene, for which he has organised festivals lasting several days.
Christian Kuntner
Bass
Bassist Christian Kuntner has been playing since 30 years with Stephan Thelen. Less is more seems to be his motto and he gets rid of all musical ballast in his playing. Deep sounds and grooves maunder on soft paws; his bass work prowls beneath the twittering canopy of harmonics like some pensive big cat on the look out for a bite. Christian Kuntner grew up in the musically rich 80s, has played with countless musicians and can be heard on more than 40 recordings.
Manuel Pasquinelli
Drums
Manuel Pasquinelli is a dynamic drummer who also acts as composer for his own bands. His playing is precise and powerful. His musical approach, thinking beyond his own instrument, characterises his way of playing and lets even the most complex rhythms sound natural and effortless and gives the multi-layered and intricate polyrhythms of Sonar's music an organic quality.
Videos
Press Quotes
"An anti-hero's masterpiece ... a revolutionary shot across the bow ... Sonar has defied the norm by crafting something singular and magical." (Jeff Miers, Static Motion review, The Buffalo News)
"Every so often a band comes into our sights and completely blows us away... SONAR performs music in its purest form which results in spellbinding performances." (The Capstone theatre, Liverpool UK)
"Best music that I stumbled upon. Thank you Guitar Player magazine. It's so fantastic that the synapses can still be mystified and truly excited after 50+ years of listening to virtually everything that I could get my ears on." (James Livy MacDonald)
"Sonar has become one of the most convincing rock groups not only in Switzerland, but in the whole of Europe..."
"Two guitar currents circulate and sparkle hypnotically, warm deep basslines hit with assertiveness and groove, drums pound with finesse and might. Luminous, alluring, dangerous....Sonar is a highly creative and original nocturnal entity constantly evolving in order to provide immersive and challenging instrumental music that stimulates the mind, body and soul." (Nocturnal Ghost, Sonic Exposure::Sonar, Igloo Magazine)
"An amazing band from Switzerland. Incredible live - this is visionary torch-bearing music performed by an exceptionally talented outfit" (Mike Chadwick, The Cutting Edge, Jazz FM, UK. Thanks to Mike for frequently playing Sonar tracks on his excellent Sunday evening program "The Cutting Edge")
"This album (Black Light) is PHENOMENAL. What I love about this music is how meticulously composed it is and in no hurry to develop; morphing continuously, slowly and deliberately. The grooves, syncopation and harmony are superb (Tritone-tuned guitars!) and the initial melody on "Orbit 5.7" absolutely crushes me. It's subtle, sophisticated and inspired. I very highly recommend checking it out. Listen with headphones whenever possible. Listen again. And again. Repeated listening will deliver more gifts than you could hope to receive after simply one listen. Or one-hundred... (Matt Tate, Black Light Facebook review)
"I have been craving a new musical fix for a long time. Black Light is the first exciting thing I've heard in a long time and I wonder why I hadn't heard Sonar a long time ago." (Lee Mason, Bandcamp commentary on Black Light)
"clean, obscure, straight forward, daring, minimal, hypnotic, attractive and unpretentious. Yet worked out close to clockwork-like perfection! " (progarchives.com)
"The impossible record. Complex, minimal instrumental grooves that are so loping and locked in place that the slightest variation of articulation, the briefest solo, have monumental effect. Seventy minutes of watching the movement of the most beautifully made clock you've ever seen." (George Grella, Static Motion review, The Big City Blogspot)
"Directness, purity, asymmetry and, above all, transparency have always been important to me. The surface of the music is seemingly simple but the intricacy of detail and the combination of restraint and expressivity challenge the performer." (www.veooz.com)
"Had MC Escher made music instead of drawing his famously impossible and perplexing perspectives, it would sound like Sonar." (Sid Smith, Prog Magazine)
"So yeah, something of the cobra dance, a repeated ritual of exquisite symbiosis... Carefully picked harmonics ping against intricately chorded rhythmic runs, the patterns lively and ginger and fluid and utterly fascinating, especially when built on a throbbing monster bass and a proggy jazzy rock insistence of drum, as on the opening title track but really that alignment just about suits the album entire... That bass, it should be mentioned, is key to this projects innate listenability, ploughing chest-rumbling furrows underneath each track and supplying the primal grounding that allows the rest of the structure to take whatever flight it must. (Dave Cantrell, Caught in the Carousel)
"A really fascinating blend of art-rock, groove-based minimalism and abstract mathematical theory, all woven together to great effect" (John Schaefer, host of the superb New Sounds program, Radio WNYC, New York)
"Beautifully disturbed clockwork...While there's the echoey cymbals and space between guitars, the bass is huge and warm, contrasting with the cold, and this coupled with the effortless polyrhythms draws the listener in... For a music that could be very cerebral, it has a warmth that communicates. You have to experience it live for the full effect, with volume - to hear a beat combo unlike any other. Imagine Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra through the wrong end of a telescope... " (from Mike Bearpark's review of the SONAR concert at the Vortex in London)
"I find it quite wonderful that four blokes armed with guitars, bass and drums can have seasoned old gits like us exploding with such joy and enthusiasm. First time I heard the samples of this band, it was like being a teenager and hearing that game changing music (whatever it might have been for any of us) for the first time". (Andy McDuffie, Hastings, UK)
Music
People connected down the road with SONAR:
Bill Laswell, David Torn, Anil Prasad (Innerviews), David Bottril, Robert Fripp, Daniel James Goodwin, Cuneiform Records, Giacomo Bruzzo (Rare Noise Records), Nik Bärtsch (Ronin Rhythm Records), Michael Bearpark, Sid Smith, Markus Reuter, Stickmen, Jean-Pierre Leduc,Tom Ohsawa, Serge Christen, (Mazzivesound Studio), Trey Gunn (7d Media),henning Svoren (Ocean Sound Recording, Norway), Christoph Utzinger, Mayo Bucher, and more...
If you need a genre, then call Sonar a "minimal progressive groove band". They are signed by the US label Cuneiform Records, on which they have released two albums, Static Motion (2014) and Black Light (2015). A new (as yet untitled) CD is scheduled for September 2017.
Two guitars, bass, and drums, pure and without effects: The Band uses this most traditional instrumentation to create music unlike anything you’ve heard before. Fusing a rigorous less-is-more esthetic with the power of a rock band, they create mesmerizing sonic rituals that captivate audiences beyond genres, styles, and tastes.
The four musicians create musical and sonic spaces where your ears and your mind can enter, free to explore and discover complex, multi-layered polymetric rhythms and isorhythms in mainly odd metres and patterns, combined with unusual harmonies. But with Sonar, it’s far from just being about structures: Especially live with their ritualistic, slow-build approach to dramaturgy, the members of the group free themselves from the bonds of human logic to conjure up a narcotically intense emotional world. They do not operate as a collection of soloists; Rather, they focus on collective group efforts and a deeper kind of interaction amongst each other.
Albums
2023
THREE MOVEMENTS
2021
TRANCEPORTATION VOL. 2
2020
TRANCEPORTATION VOL. 1
2019
THE BILL LASWELL MIX TRANSLATIONS
2018
LIVE AT MOODS
2018
VORTEX
RareNoiseRecords
2015
BLACK LIGHT
Cuneiform Records (Rune 414) USA
2013
STATIC MOTION
Cuneiform Records (Rune 374) USA
2012
LIVE AT BAZILLUS
2012
SKELETON GROOVE
available on Bandcamp
2012
A FLAW OF NATURE
Ronin Rhythm records (RON 009)
Tech Rider, Presskit, Downloads
DOWNLOADS:
- Techrider SONAR with DAVID TORN - pdf
- Techrider SONAR Quartett - pdf
- Presskit
LIVE
A SELECTION OF FESTIVAL AND GIGS PLAYED BY SONAR:COLOMBIA :
Bogota, Swiss Embassy
Pasto, PastoJazz Teatro Javeriano
Bogota, Teatro Mayor
Bucaramanga, Universidad de Santander
JAPAN :
Kyoto
Kobe
Kanazawa
Kashiwa
Yokohama
Tokyo
USA :
Orion Sound Studios, Baltimore MD
Shapeshifter Lab, Brooklyn NY
Sonic Circuits Festival,Washington DC
Reggie's, Chicago
Kingston
ProgDays, Chapel Hill
CANADA :
Montreal
Quebec
Toronto
UK :
The Capstone Theatre, LIVERPOOL
Band on the Wall, MANCHESTER
The Vortex Jazz Club, LONDON
GER :
Interkulturelle Bühne, FRANKFURT
Layla's Kulturkeller, AACHEN
Onrust, AACHEN
KunstWerk e. V. ULM
Schlicker, HEUCHLINGEN
E-Werk, FREIBURG
Charlatan, AACHEN
Immerhin, WÜRZBURG
Festival L'abore, HAUPTMANNSGRÜN
Jazz ohne Stress, Waldsee, FREIBURG
AUT / FRA / RO / FL :
Early Bird, INNSBRUCK, AUT
Musiques Innovatrices, ST. ETIENNE, FRA
Piata Primariei, OTOPENI, RO
Green Hours Jazz Festival, BUCHAREST, RO
Tangente, ESCHEN FL
CH :
Out in the Kraut Festival, SCHANGNAU
Barracuda, AARAU
Black Light CD Release Event, Exil, ZÜRICH
Orbital Garden, BERN
Kunsthaus, ZÜRICH
Playground Lounge, BERN
Mahogany Hall, BERN
Komm Doch Festival, LUZERN
Gate 68, SOLOTHURN
Grabenhalle, ST. GALLEN
Stanzerei, BADEN
Sedel, LUZERN
CD Launch Party with special guest Markus Reuter, EXIL, ZÜRICH
Perlaton Vol 2 Festival, Friction, ZÜRICH
Festival Polygon 3, Polygonstr. 3, BERN
Walcheturm, ZÜRICH
Bazillus, ZÜRICH
OpenAir Flowerstone, BLUMENSTEIN
RecRec(In-Store Concert), ZÜRICH
Haus für Kunst und Kultur, ZÜRICH
Maiers, ZÜRICH CH
Contact
Booking contact:
Jean-Pierre Leduc
Lunched Mngmnt Booking
lunchedbooking@gmail.com
+1 514 247 0706
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