“Everything is in a state of transition,” David Torn explained. “Mercury is an element that captures the essence of change.” The changing soundscape of improvisation in the mid-1980s informs the textures and colours of cloud about mercury, whose sonorities are closely related to progressive rock (the rhythm section is half of one incarnation of King Crimson) and to the experimental end of ambient music.

Drummer Bill Bruford’s affection for this album is undying: “To this day, Torn’s guitar on ‘Three Minutes of Pure Entertainment’ from Cloud About Mercury makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.” Recorded 1986.

Tracks:
1. suyafhu skin... snapping the hollow reed
2. the mercury grid
3. 3 minutes of pure entertainment
4. previous man
5. network of sparks: the delicate code
6. network of sparks: egg learns to walk ... suyafhu seal