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M14 CD
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"After a two-decade interlude, Jim O'Rourke's Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. Since 2017, Toral's work has been entering a new phase, often still centered around the arsenal of self-built instruments developed in the Space Program, but with a renewed interest in the long tones and almost static textures of his earlier work; he has also, after more than a decade, returned to the electric guitar. Spectral Evolution is undoubtedly Toral's most sophisticated work to date, bringing together seemingly incompatible threads from his entire career into a powerful new synthesis, both wildly experimental and emotionally affecting. Toral manages the almost miraculous feat of having his self-built electronic instruments (which in the past he had seen as 'inadequate to play any music based on the Western system') play in tune. In an unexpected sidestep away from any of his previous work, the chord changes that underpin many of the episodes on Spectral Evolution are derived from classic jazz harmony, including takes on the archetypal Gershwin 'Rhythm changes' and Ellington?Strayhorn's 'Take the ʻA' Train,' albeit slowed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of environment in its own right. Threading together twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole, Spectral Evolution alternates moments of airy instrumental interplay with dense sonic mass, breaking up the pieces based on chord changes with ambient 'Spaces.' At points reduced to almost a whisper, at other moments Toral's electronics wail, squelch, and squeak like David Tudor's live-electronic rainforest. Similarly, his use of the guitar encompasses an enormous dynamic and textural range, from chiming chords to expansive drones, from crystal clarity to fuzzy grit: on the beautiful 'Your Goodbye,' his filtered, distorted soloing recalls Loren Connors in its emotive depth and wandering melodic sensibility. The product of three years of experimentation and recording, and synthesizing the insights of more than thirty years of musical research, Spectral Evolution is the quintessential album of guitar music from Rafael Toral."
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LP
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M14 LP
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2024 repress; LP version. "After a two-decade interlude, Jim O'Rourke's Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. Since 2017, Toral's work has been entering a new phase, often still centered around the arsenal of self-built instruments developed in the Space Program, but with a renewed interest in the long tones and almost static textures of his earlier work; he has also, after more than a decade, returned to the electric guitar. Spectral Evolution is undoubtedly Toral's most sophisticated work to date, bringing together seemingly incompatible threads from his entire career into a powerful new synthesis, both wildly experimental and emotionally affecting. Toral manages the almost miraculous feat of having his self-built electronic instruments (which in the past he had seen as 'inadequate to play any music based on the Western system') play in tune. In an unexpected sidestep away from any of his previous work, the chord changes that underpin many of the episodes on Spectral Evolution are derived from classic jazz harmony, including takes on the archetypal Gershwin 'Rhythm changes' and Ellington-Strayhorn's 'Take the ʻA' Train,' albeit slowed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of environment in its own right. Threading together twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole, Spectral Evolution alternates moments of airy instrumental interplay with dense sonic mass, breaking up the pieces based on chord changes with ambient 'Spaces.' At points reduced to almost a whisper, at other moments Toral's electronics wail, squelch, and squeak like David Tudor's live-electronic rainforest. Similarly, his use of the guitar encompasses an enormous dynamic and textural range, from chiming chords to expansive drones, from crystal clarity to fuzzy grit: on the beautiful 'Your Goodbye,' his filtered, distorted soloing recalls Loren Connors in its emotive depth and wandering melodic sensibility. The product of three years of experimentation and recording, and synthesizing the insights of more than thirty years of musical research, Spectral Evolution is the quintessential album of guitar music from Rafael Toral."
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2LP
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DC 701LP
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2023 restock. "In 1987, Rafael Toral began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless -- almost fresher today than when they were first released. Rafael has spent the time since then developing his conceptions, with continued explorations in the many records that have followed. On the 30th anniversary of his start, we are reissuing Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, his first two long out-of-print albums, on vinyl for the first time. Sound Mind Sound Body was partly inspired by exploring some of the working principles of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, extrapolated by Rafael via a unique signal path leading out of his guitar. He paid notice to the massive impact of discreet gestures, creating slow-moving tones and spacious orchestral resonances, drifting and droning with glacial majesty, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time. The first of these pieces were recorded in 1987, and in 1994, they were released on Portugal's AnAnAnA, with material evolved in the years between, producing a remarkable equilibrium over an hour's listening. Further evidence of the necessity for gradual development exists in subsequent reissues: for the 1998 Moikai reissue, AE 1 was recorded, and for this edition, AER 7 E was rerecorded and the material for AE 2 was recorded for the first time ever -- all from original processes as noted, and none of which will cause the listener to notice a change in the otherworldly atmosphere. Wave Field, released in 1995, was a departure from the first album into new composition methods involving the dirty textures of rock guitar, sounding in the open ears of many listeners (like Jim O'Rourke, who issued the disc in the US on dexter's cigar) as a synthesis of disparate elements -- a nexus where Alvin Lucier, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Eno blend together. Here, the clangorous potential of the guitar was emphasized, giving a metallic edge to the two extended pieces and 'radio edit' coda. The jacket paid subtle tribute to My Bloody Valentine, which, along with the radio edit, suggested a harmony between musical directions as wildly disparate as minimalist experimental and rock. Today, such a paradoxical intent is more widely considered as a part of the artist's purview. This allows the sounds of Wave Field and Sound Mind Sound Body to sit perfectly among the forward-reaching music of today -- as it continues to evolve in our ears, moving ever towards the next conception of listening space."
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LP
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BT 070LP
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Black Truffle announce the first vinyl reissue of Rafael Toral's Aeriola Frequency, originally released by Perdition Plastics in 1998. Toral made his name in the world of mid-90s experimental electronics with two releases, Sound Mind Sound Body (1994) and Wave Field (1995), both now recognized as classics and reissued on vinyl by Drag City, which saw him exploring the potential of electric guitar and pedals to immerse the listener in seemingly endless waves of sustained tones. On Wave Field, inspired by the striking resonance effects he experienced during a Buzzcocks gig with bad acoustics, he achieved a synthesis -- often imitated but never bettered -- of rock guitar, ambient, and the acoustic exploration of Alvin Lucier, a kind of "liquid, abstract flux of rock sound". On Aeriola Frequency, Toral continued the explorations of Wave Field but dropped the guitar, creating a series of extended pieces using only a simple feedback loop designed to work with pure electronic resonance. The result is far more delicate than Wave Field, a steady but unstable flow of filtered tones that continually reorder themselves into new forms. On both the LP's sides, the tones, like growing plants, imperceptibly shift from drifting freely in ambient space to weaving strangely natural melodic patterns, as the loops unfold and the resonance gently outlines recurring rhythmic shapes. The overall effect is strikingly organic, as David Toop noted in the liner notes included in the original release (and reprinted in this reissue): "A crystal garden, the sound grows in reeds and streams, blown like spider web strands, glittering and invisible, pulsing with translucent colour, bubbling and imploding, fraying and powdering." A classic of the non-academic approach to electronics that flourished in the 1990s -- and a big influence at the time on Black Truffle head honcho Oren Ambarchi -- Aeriola Frequency ushers listeners into an endlessly fascinating world of gliding tones and shifting details that they might never want to leave. Recorded at Noise Precision, Portugal, December 1997 and April 1998. Remastered by Rafael Toral in 2020. Images taken from Air Pass, a video by Rafael Toral. Design by Lasse Marhaug.
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CD
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RM 4115CD
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Portugal's electro-acoustic maestro reimagines one of his seminal compositions from his lauded Sound Mind Sound Body album (1994). Extracting the harmonic essence of AER 7, Rafael Toral explodes it outward into a fully orchestrated evolving constellation of sound. A remarkably simple and compelling piece of reductive composition, AER 7 G combines piano, harp, vibraphone, clavinet, Rhodes, and sinewaves to create a music that generates sensations of the infinite, through the acoustic.
From Rafael Toral: "... The music I recorded between 1987 and 2003 somehow sends its message and there's a story behind it. By 2006, with 'Space', I radically changed both the message and the story. I have always found that both need to be in tune to what is happening in the world, because they are a response to that. However, since Moon Field (2017), i have been arriving to a 'third phase' that somehow (re)unites the previous two, a space where the divergent messages and stories from those different periods are both needed and make sense in these days. Feeling a general need to slow down almost accidentally shed new light on my background in ambient, inspiring new forms to the future. This is the context where this release is emerging from . . . 'AER 7' (the record's only track) is a piece i wrote in 1992, of which a guitar version is included in my debut album, Sound Mind Sound Body, released two years later. It was a departure from the earlier 'AER' pieces I made from 1987 to 1990, replacing a drone guitar sound with empty space, in a similar kind of structure. The empty units are in sync but their contents are not, rendering the sequence of time events almost random. I had the idea to produce the present 'AER 7 G' version back then, but at the time there were no instrument players in Lisbon who might be interested in it. Commitment to other projects like Wave Field (1995) and all the ensuing work kept it in the drawer until now. A new generation of generous, open-minded, highly skilled musicians made it suddenly possible to develop the project. I have always regarded 'AER 7' as a melodic generator, or 'generative', a word i would learn later on. It's written in a way that prevents repetition and generates unpredictable results, apart from the pace and the set of notes. Curiously, Constellation In Still Time is by far the most quintessentially ambient record i have ever done."
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CD
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RM 480CD
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On Moon Field, Rafael Toral breaks new ground, it is his first edition that moves outward, beyond the Space Program series. This collection of three extended and interlocking works, mark the beginning of a transitional period into a new phase. Building on the explorations of his almost decade and a half of work with the Space Program, Mood Field seeks a more open sensibility and integrates a range of new elements and new directions. These elements reposition the potential interplays of his chosen musical elements. "Moon Field was originally written for live performance by a configuration of the Space Collective 3," Toral explains, "It was with Ricardo Webbens on modular synths, Riccardo Dillon Wanke on electric piano and myself on electronic instruments. While working on it, the piece revealed a strange hovering quality, a kind of stasis. It's alive and awake, like all the recent Space Program music, but doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. The music wanted to be something very peculiar and I changed it a lot in response to that. It also revealed what I find a kind of nocturnal mood, as if we were listening to alien signals with satellites crossing the sky under the moonlight." Moon Field's middle section, "The Horizon", sees Toral entering a broader acoustic field. The piece weaves a fresh examination of the ambient music he worked on between 1987 and 2003 with the fabric of post- free jazz-inspired phrasing with electronic instruments. The results extend the free roaming aspects of the Space Program and mark out a distinctive and deeply personal approach to sonic atmospherics. This is the first step into a much larger, richer universe.
Rafael Toral, born in Lisbon, 1967 has been intrigued by the potential of sound and the functions of music since he was a teenager. In the 1990s he created a blend of ambient and rock and recorded acclaimed albums like Wave Field (1995) or Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance (STAUB 017LP, 2001). By the early 2000s, he decided to start something new and launched the Space Program, an ambitious long-term project exploring an approach to electronic music based on silence, through decision making and physical gesture, in a way inspired by post-free jazz. Performing solo or in numerous collaborations, he has been touring throughout the world. In 2014, he relocated to the mountains in central Portugal for a more sustainable life.
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CD
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STAUB 147CD
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Rafael Toral presents Space Solo 2 on Staubgold: "Space Solo 2 is the final release in the Space Program series, which started with Space (STAUB 069CD/TAIGA 001LP, 2006). Ten releases were originally projected, but the ideas I wanted to explore in a sustained and systematic way have already been fulfilled in these six records. For that, and a number of other reasons, I decided that I will be able to move with more room and freedom outside this structure that is now completed. The Solo series is meant to be reference documentation to my solo performance at the time of their release, on various instruments. Space Solo 2 showcases a different set of instruments from Space Solo 1 (QUECK 011CD/TAIGA 002LP, 2007), namely the glove-controlled sinewaves from the first years, a rarely performed modular synthesizer solo, the Theremin-controlled modulated feedback, and a contemporary approach to the electrode oscillator (featured on Space Solo 1 on a simpler configuration). All tracks are edited recordings of real-time solo performance. As a rule in the Space Program, there is no processing or transformation of sounds, all sounds are heard as originally played (except for mastering sound calibration). There is no 'programming' (as in sequencers or digital devices), no samples or software involved (except editing and mastering software and except tracks 9, 10, 11)."
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LP
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TAIGA 016LP
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According to Rafael Toral, the Space Program is all about a simple idea: to perform abstract electronic music under jazz values. The result is full of fascinating paradoxes: "melodic without notes, rhythmic without a beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free." Taiga now releases its most eloquent example so far: "Space Elements Vol. III is the strongest and musically most diverse statement within Rafael Toral's Space Program to date. You will experience "jazz on electronics" in full effect -- a totally new language in sound." --Staubgold; With blooming sound, compliments of the mastering by James Plotkin (not found on previous releases in the Space Program), Space Elements Vol. III has a very rhythmic, percussive character. It unfolds a fresh set of collaborations with an array of drummers and percussionists, while Toral's electronic phrasing reaches previously-unheard heights of maturity. Edition of 500 LPs featuring João Paulo Feliciano's artwork and graphic design by NOTYPE. Pressed on 200 gram plasma virgin vinyl, the LP was cut with DMM.
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CD
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STAUBDIG 012CD
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This is the third volume of Rafael Toral's Space Program Space Elements series. In this series, each volume features guests and is focused on a compositional function. The Space Program is a long-term project launched in 2004 for performing music with a post-free jazz mind-set but using strange sounds from electronic instruments. Playing physically, the body is involved in making decisions. The Space Program is about articulating silence and sound, structuring musical flow on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. "All these instruments are different but have a few things in common. The first is that they don't have a conventional interface, which means that for all of them I have to find out what they do and develop technique to play them," says Toral. "The second is that none of them respond accurately to performing action. So there's always a live tension between an accurate decision and its somewhat unpredictable outcome. I meant to play music technically free from any school and teachings, but beyond that, I also wanted the music somehow to escape my own self, playing instruments with a sort of life of their own, never allowing complete control and making any repetition virtually impossible." Dan Warburton's write-up in The Wire about Space fits Space Elements Vol. III perfectly: "The melodic logic that drives certain instruments within 'Space' also recalls birdsong, with dense, convoluted runs of twittering melody ending in single piping notes, as spontaneous as Messiaen's birdsong transcriptions were painstaking and meticulous." Toral's music is a jazz-inspired reevaluation of live electronics: "Despite working in a sound world that is cosmetically closer to R2D2's vocabulary than Louis Armstrong's or John Coltrane's, Toral has claimed a kinship to jazz because it models instant music-making within a disciplined framework." --Dusted Magazine; "Toral is looking for nothing less than a totally fresh language to work in" --The Wire. Mastered by James Plotkin. Featuring contributing musicians such as Afonso Simões (drums), Riccardo Dillon Wanke (Rhodes piano), César Burago (maracas, tamborim, shakers, cowbell, claves, kokiriko), Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Victor Gama (acrux), Marco Franco (drums), Toshio Kajiwara (lap steel guitar) and Toral (electrode oscillator, modified MS-2 pocket amplifier feedback, glove-controlled computer bass sinewaves, filtered feedback circuit, modified MT-10 portable amplifier, modulated noise, modulated synthesizer and tamtam).
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CD
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TO 048CD
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2010 reissue. Originally released by Touch in 2001 (and on vinyl via Staubgold). Considered by the Chicago Reader to be "one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists of the decade," Rafael Toral has developed a unique sound world, having been as influenced by Alvin Lucier and Brian Eno as by Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Using the guitar as part of a complex electronic instrument, Toral has collaborated with Jim O'Rourke, John Zorn, Sonic Youth, Rhys Chatham and Phill Niblock and played in many European countries. He's also a member of MIMEO, the electronic orchestra featuring Keith Rowe, Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, Kaffe Matthews, and many others. Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance is a collection of ten small pieces crafted by Toral with extreme precision and care through the last 7 years. Using guitars and analog technology, it can be described as Toral's best work, embodying all the directions he explored in his previous critically-acclaimed records, Sound Mind Sound Body, Wave Field and Aeriola Frequency but taking them into new dimensions. The highly evocative, intricate and subtle guitar drones are captured in the beautiful photography of Heitor Alvelos, a Portuguese artist, and in the artwork of Jon Wozencroft. The background noise on track 10 is a recording of silence during a Space Shuttle mission real-time webcast. All other sounds were made by electric guitars. The album was recorded between 1993 and 2000 and mastered at Noise Precision, Lisbon.
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CD
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STAUBDIG 005CD
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Space Elements Vol. II is the fourth release in Rafael Toral's ongoing project, the Space Program. Following the first Elements release, this volume features a new set of collaborators: Evan Parker (soprano sax), Manuel Mota (guitar), Afonso Simões (drums), Stefano Tedesco (vibraphone), João Paulo Feliciano (Rhodes piano), and Ruben Costa (digital synthesizer), as well as returning guests Sei Miguel (trumpet), César Burago (percussion), Fala Mariam (trombone), and Rute Praça (cello). Space Elements Vol. II displays a melodic quality that, along with a refined management of silence, marks a new area and consolidates the Space Program's complex network. Its spaciousness is explained in Toral's liner notes: "While finding ways to make decisions on sound emission, it became evident to me that such sounds should have a reason to exist, they should be essential and necessary." Dan Warburton's writing in The Wire about Space fits Space Elements Vol. II perfectly: "The melodic logic that drives certain instruments within Space also recalls birdsong, with dense, convoluted runs of twittering melody ending in single piping notes, as spontaneous as Messiaen's birdsong transcriptions were painstaking and meticulous." Toral's music is a jazz-inspired re-evaluation of live electronics: "Despite working in a sound world that is cosmetically closer to R2D2's vocabulary than Louis Armstrong's or John Coltrane's, Toral has claimed a kinship to jazz because it models instant music making within a disciplined framework." (Bill Meyer, Dusted); "Toral is looking for nothing less than a totally fresh language to work in" (The Wire). Presented in a limited edition of 500 CDs.
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LP
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TAIGA 010LP
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Space Elements Vol. II is the fourth release in Rafael Toral's ongoing project, the Space Program. Following the first Elements release, this volume features a new set of collaborators: Evan Parker (soprano sax), Manuel Mota (guitar), Afonso Simões (drums), Stefano Tedesco (vibraphone), João Paulo Feliciano (Rhodes piano), and Ruben Costa (digital synthesizer), as well as returning guests Sei Miguel (trumpet), César Burago (percussion), Fala Mariam (trombone), and Rute Praça (cello). Space Elements Vol. II displays a melodic quality that, along with a refined management of silence, marks a new area and consolidates the Space Program's complex network. Its spaciousness is explained in Toral's liner notes: "While finding ways to make decisions on sound emission, it became evident to me that such sounds should have a reason to exist, they should be essential and necessary." Dan Warburton's writing in The Wire about Space fits Space Elements Vol. II perfectly: "The melodic logic that drives certain instruments within Space also recalls birdsong, with dense, convoluted runs of twittering melody ending in single piping notes, as spontaneous as Messiaen's birdsong transcriptions were painstaking and meticulous." Toral's music is a jazz-inspired re-evaluation of live electronics: "Despite working in a sound world that is cosmetically closer to R2D2's vocabulary than Louis Armstrong's or John Coltrane's, Toral has claimed a kinship to jazz because it models instant music making within a disciplined framework." (Bill Meyer, Dusted); "Toral is looking for nothing less than a totally fresh language to work in" (The Wire). Space Elements Vol. II was mastered direct to metal from 24-bit files and pressed on clear 200 gram virgin-vinyl. With design by Helder Luis at NOTYPE, the LP features a collage by João Paulo Feliciano. Presented in a limited edition of 500. CD version available on Staubgold.
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STAUB 090CD
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This is the third in Rafael Toral's Space Program series of releases -- his long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing" and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you're unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the follow-up Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral's liner notes: "Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise, I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it 'post-free jazz electronic music.'"
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2LP
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TAIGA 001LP
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Originally released on CD in 2006 by the Staubgold label, Taiga presents the deluxe 2LP version of Rafael Toral's Space, including one bonus track. This is a 2007 release from one of the most impressive new vinyl-only labels in the world. After over 15 years of drone and ambient work based around guitar and electronics, Rafael Toral has set off on a radically new mission. Leaving the guitar behind, Toral has equipped himself with instruments such as a Theremin-controlled white noise generator, amplified coil spring percussion, and a random pulse width modulation oscillator. With these, he has launched his jazz-fueled craft through Earth's atmosphere, into outer space. The resulting voyage is one where the sounds created recall the blast of a ray gun, the gurgle of a velociraptor, the rush of a primordial geyser, all seasoned with a vintage analog appeal and interspersed with meditative moments of silence. Toral's new approach to music, entitled the Space program, runs counter to his career thus far by focusing on performance instead of composition. The foundation and fundamental release of the program is Space. Using live and in-studio performances from 2004 and 2005, Toral designed Space as "an orchestral environment for electronic instruments." Following Space, the program continues with releases from the Space Solo series, documenting performances of individual instruments played unaccompanied, and the Space Elements series, featuring various collaborators while Toral focuses on a single piece of equipment. With previous releases by Toral on such respected labels as Touch, Table of the Elements and Ecstatic Peace, this exciting album by Toral is coincidentally Taiga's inaugural release as well as that of the Space program. It is presented here in a limited edition of 500 copies on direct-metal mastered 200 gram virgin vinyl. This version includes all of the original audio from the CD plus a previously-unreleased 17-minute vinyl-only bonus track, "Space Study 1.3," a live duet with percussionist César Burago. Packaged in a gatefold jacket designed by Helder Luís with spot metallic printing, the album boasts the Daniel Malhão photograph from the CD version expanded across the entire outside in UV gloss, an essay by Toral printed inside on reversed stock and the pockets flooded black.
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LP
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TAIGA 003LP
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This is the third in Rafael Toral's Space Program series of releases -- his long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing" and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you're unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the follow-up Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral's liner notes: "Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise, I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it 'post-free jazz electronic music.'" Space Elements Vol. I was mastered direct to metal and pressed on clear 200 gram virgin vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies. The jacket was designed by Helder Luís at No Type and features a collage by contemporary artist João Paulo Feliciano.
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LP
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TAIGA 002LP
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Originally released on CD by Staubgold side-label Quecksilber in 2007, Space Solo 1 is Rafael Toral's second release in his ongoing Space Program, a venturesomely bold series of recordings. Internationally-acclaimed for his experimental drone and ambient guitar work, the Space Program is completely divergent from his past output. Equipped with handmade instruments, Toral's project is a performance-based discipline, which he calls "post-free jazz electronic music." Following the Space Program's inaugural release, Space, Space Solo 1 presents a raw exploration of a select few instruments Toral designed for the series. In contrast to Space, which consists of thoughtfully layered recordings from various live and studio performances, Space Solo 1 presents unaccompanied instruments traveling through unfamiliar territories where sounds exist in their singularity. The result grabs at the listener to stay alert, tiptoeing around silent moments, increasingly mounting tension and inspiring awe. As each instrument hints at a particular language belonging only to itself, Toral's masterful playing is revealed as an instinctual process. Space Solo 1 is 44 minutes of otherworldly splashing, ripping, beeping, hissing, etc. An indefinite number of sounds carefully coaxed from unique instruments, drawing a blurry line between ancestral and futuristic. Now available on LP through Taiga, this deluxe audiophile version was mastered direct to metal, pressed on 200 gram transparent red virgin vinyl and is presented in a limited edition of 500 copies. The jacket was cleanly designed by Helder Luís at No Type, featuring the Rui Toscano drawing from the CD version printed on reversed stock with a pantone red flood in the pocket.
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QUECK 011CD
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This is Rafael Toral's 11th release, the first for the Quecksilber label, and another continuation of his "Space Program." After 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar and electronics, the Portuguese musician, producer and sound engineer announced that he was to embark on a long-term project, which was to be a multi-faceted work-in-progress representing his new approach to music. With the release of the first album of the program, the eponymous Space, he managed to disrupt the notions of avant-garde music, choosing to focus on "single sound events." The sounds are generated by self-devised electronic equipment set into action by the performance of gestures, by bodily action (take a look at the video samples of the "Space Study 1" on his web site, where he "plays" glove-controlled computer sinewaves). Thus, the music is created by individual decisions in real time -- just like in jazz, as Toral emphasizes. So basically, this is electronic music played with a jazz sensibility. Toral brings a performative aspect to electronic music that it often sorely lacks. The initial album Space is like a roadmap, accompanied by three distinct serieses: the performance series "Space Studies" (which started in 2004), and the record series "Space Elements" and "Solo Series." The latter are unaccompanied real-time solo recordings on one instrument only (as opposed to "Space Elements," where Toral collaborates with other musicians). The present CD is the first in that series and the second materialization of the program. Whereas Space featured an orchestral approach to composition (and thus a diversity of elements), Space Solo 1 presents the listener with music that is narrowed down almost to a point: everything is concentrated on a single element. The key feature of this music is that it was performed with a degree of skill, a commitment and a depth of exploration that could not be found on an orchestral record. On this album, Toral appears as a musician who simply plays an instrument on an individual, human and physical level. One cannot help but notice that Toral is opening up a new dimension in music -- and maybe also in language. Welcome to a new mode of expression.
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CD
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STAUB 069CD
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This is Rafael Toral's second full-length release for Staubgold. Space marks a radical change in Rafael Toral's music. After 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar and electronics, the Portuguese musician, producer and sound engineer found his way into a complete renovation of his music: "For a new endeavor I needed new information, and I discovered that the field of knowledge in music that I had most to learn from was jazz. There is a long line of connections and fusions between jazz and electronic music, and I envisioned that a step beyond would not be more jazz with electronics, but on electronics." In his emerging new conception of electronic music, Toral looks to the value of human performance while sharing values from jazz culture. Quoting longtime collaborator Sei Miguel, Toral's playing is "not composed, not improvised, and not a compromise between the two." In recent years, Rafael Toral has been developing and performing solo concerts on his instruments (modified or custom-built electronic devices) in a field of work he calls the "Space program." He slowly merged hours of live and studio recordings into "Space" (the program's first release), which is no less than a full orchestra of such instruments. The result suggests that the expression "space-jazz" was invented before the music it would describe best. The "Space program" is a vast and ambitious undertaking, featuring a two-paired series of record releases: Space Elements -- centering each volume on a certain instrument, while adding few others and featuring collaborations; and the Solo Series -- documenting solo performance on various instruments. The album Space belongs to neither of these, but is rather the "Space program's" fundamental release.
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HEADZ 024CD
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Japanese-only release. Recorded live in Japan in 2003, "Harmonic Series 2" is a 43 minute piece for computer generated sinewaves, custom software, guitar and analog electronics. It follows Harmonic Series 0 which was released on Table of the Elements. "Since I have always been involved with the inner structures of sound, working with the harmonic series comes as a natural move, since harmonics are well known to guitarists. Thus, inspired by Fourier's theory, I chose to work with the most basic element of sound synthesis, the sinewave. Harmonic Series is my first project using the computer as a musical instrument." -- Toral.
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TO CDR4
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Fourth release in this limited series on Touch (as with the previous Fennesz CD, this is not actually a CDR, but a regular pressed CD). Recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. "'Engine' is a piece for two guitars, one bass, twin modulated feedback circuits, motorized strings, analog modular system, routing audio mixer and several other devices. It's performed simultaneously on two channels."
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TOM 019CD
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"Having completed Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance, I found myself drawing a continuous line going back in time some 15 years. These early pieces are at the other end of that line. At the time of recording them, I was far from dreaming I would ever release records at all. I found them of little value then, but under the light of all my following works, from 'Sound Mind Sound Body' through 'Wave Field' and 'Cyclorama Lift' to 'Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance', they stand out as having paved the way for all this music." --Rafael Toral, December 2001
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LP
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STAUB 017LP
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"The long awaited new album by this outstanding artist after his Aeriola Frequency CD from 1998 feat. 10 tracks recorded between 1993 and 2000 and comes in wonderful full-color sleeve designed by Jon Wozencroft. The CD version of this album is released by Touch (UK). Rafael Toral is a musician, producer and sound engineer. His work focuses mainly on the possibilities of ambient music (variable attention listening process), the electric guitar as a sound generator and improvisation with higher levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable ways) in real time sonic exploration."
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CD
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M07 CD
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"Rafael Toral's music is guitar based, but doesn't seem to involve any of the usual guitar histrionics. Instead he focuses in on the little details, the expansion of the sustained note. Sound Mind Sound Body is indeed a sustained note; the music is not dissimilar to Fripp and Eno's classic extrapolations, to Toral's mentor (and former NYC landlord) Phil Niblock, or to other like-minded drone masters. What is special is its (for lack of a better word) tenderness and hands-off gentleness. For this reissue, Toral has restored some pieces that were edited from the original and remastered the whole bloody thing for maximum drone effect."
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