Tim Berne and Science Friction together with the Arte Saxophone Quartett and David Torn played Exeter UK last night. It was a great evening. It started with Berne, Ducret (on acoustic guitar) and the quartet playing Quicksand then they were joined by Craig Taborn, Tom Rainey and David Torn for a special commission from the BBC called Untitled (Still) "How pretentious, now that I've said it out loud!" The second half began with a saxophone quartet piece and ended with a long improv/medley of Science Friction with Torn. Torn played far more guitar than I expected and was less involved with shaping the whole band sound. He spent most of the time adding atmospheric guitar parts with occasional treatments of the quartet. He was quite content to leave the actual guitar leads to Ducret who was ripping it up like a bastard child of David Fiuczynski and Derek Bailey. Anybody on the list who can make LONDON Queen Elizabeth Hall tonight; OXFORD Thurs; HUDDERSFIELD Friday or BIRMINGHAM Saturday make the effort, you won't regret it. Too bad that they were blown out by a promoter for the Manchester gig on Monday night. Richard Gardner