{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = Only Sky | type = Album | artist = David Torn | cover = Only_Sky.jpg | alt = | released = May 4, 2015 | recorded = February 2014<br><small>Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Concert Hall in Troy, NY and Cell Labs, NYC</small> | venue = | studio = | genre = Jazz, Experimental | length = 76:10 | label = ECM <small>ECM 2433</small> | producer = David Torn | chronology = David Torn | prev_title = Prezens | prev_year = 2005 | next_title = | next_year = }}

'''''Only Sky''''' is a solo album by guitarist David Torn recorded in 2014 and released on the ECM label.<ref name="ECM discography">[http://www.jazzdisco.org/ecm-records/catalog-2400-series/#ecm-2433 ECM discography] accessed February 11, 2015</ref>

==Reception== {{Music ratings | rev1 = ''Allmusic'' | rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="Allmusic"/> | rev2 = ''All About Jazz'' | rev2Score = {{rating|5|5}}<ref name="AAJ"/> | rev3 = ''The Guardian'' | rev3Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="Guardian"/>}} Allmusic awarded the album 4 stars and the review by Sean Westergaard states "Although there's a hovering ambience to all these pieces, this isn't new agey ambience: the pieces are sometimes ominous or uneasy with Torn producing guitar-like tones and very un-guitar-like tones and sometimes manipulating the loops in a not-so-subtle way. ...''Only Sky'' isn't an album that will appeal to everyone, but those interested in the outer limits of guitar and looping should check this one out".<ref name="Allmusic">{{AllMusic|first=Sean |last=Westergaard |class=album |id=mw0002835150 |title=''Only Sky'' – Review |accessdate=February 11, 2016}}</ref> The All About Jazz review states, "Beyond all the usual suspects, Torn has long incorporated concepts from other cultures as well, whether it's in the snaky manner that he constructs Middle Eastern-informed phrases or his ability to use a whammy bar to create sonics that so resemble a human voice that the only other guitarist who can match him in this regard is Jeff Beck."<ref name="AAJ">{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/only-sky-by-john-kelman.php |title= David Torn: Only Sky |work= Musical reviews |first=John |last=Kelman |publisher= All About Jazz |date= 2015-05-01 |accessdate= 2016-09-29}}</ref> The Guardian's John Fordham said "''Only Sky'', is a vast, stormy, sometimes folksy, sometimes splinteringly Hendrixian soundscape, created in real time by his guitar, electric oud and electronic gizmos alone, and it’s full of startling turns".<ref name="Guardian">Fordham, J., [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/30/david-torn-only-sky-review-idiosyncratic-and-full-of-startling-turns David Torn: Only Sky review – idiosyncratic and full of startling turns], July 31, 2015</ref>

==Track listing== :''All compositions by David Torn'' # "At Least There Was Nothing" - 7:48 # "Spoke With Folks" - 6:46 # "OK, Shorty" - 3:18 # "Was a Cave There..." - 12:40 # "Reaching Barely, Sparely Fraught" - 8:11 # "I Could Almost See the Room" - 13:25 # "Only Sky" - 9:15 # "So Much What" - 5:22 # "A Goddamned Specific Unbalance" - 9:13

==Personnel== *David Torn - guitars, oud, live-sampling and manipulation

==References== {{reflist}} {{David Torn}} {{Authority control}}

Category:ECM Records albums Category:David Torn albums Category:2015 albums Category:Albums produced by David Torn