Browse by Artist: TORAL, RAFAEL

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Wave Field
Label:	DEXTER'S CIGAR
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	DEX 014CD

Reissue of the 2nd album by this Portuguese guitarist/composer, originally issued by the small Moneyland label 1995, which was not widely distributed. "This record is what every guitar/drone/crunch/snap,crack and pop afficionado has ever wanted. It's epic, it's intimate, it's a personally served 10 course meal at a table for two at the edge of the Grand Canyon." Dedicated to Alvin Lucier, with instructions to be played "very soft or very loud," this features Toral's trademark sound (lush, interstellar ambiance -- not immediately identifiable as guitar-derived) at its finest. Purely radiant and suitable for the ultimate immersion, this is an artifact of sonic genius. "The wave field is located somewhere inn far away region of the ambient territory, close to the frontier with a swampy area where abstract vibrations from liquid rock are solved under noise-charged clouds echoing some electrical irradiation. 'Wave Field 5' and '6' were recorded to hard disk from the vibrating body of a Fender Jaguar wired through a Morley wah, Korg guitar synth (no synth, filters only), Dod graphic EQ, Alesis reverb and compressor, Ashly Parametric EQ and Sansamp." -- Toral.

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Sound Mind Sound Body
Label:	MOIKAI
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	M07 CD

"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."

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Space Solo 1
Label:	QUECKSILBER (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	QUECK 011CD

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.

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 017LP

"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."

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Space
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 069CD

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.

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Early Works
Label:	TOMLAB (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	TOM 019CD

"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

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TO 048CD

"Design by Jon Wozencroft, photography by Heitor Alvelos Considered by the Chicago Reader to be 'one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists of the decade', Rafael Toral has been developing in the last 15 years 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 and in several states in the US. He's also a member of MIMEO, the electronic orchestra featuring Keith Rowe, Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, Kaffe Matthews and many others. VDCA is a collection of ten small pieces crafted by Toral with extreme precision and care through the last seven 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 [Moikai, USA], Wave Field [Dexter's Cigar/Drag City, USA] and Aeriola Frequency [Perdition Plastics, USA] but taking them into new dimensions."

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