records > cyclorama lift 3

Tomlab Köln, Germany tom7 (CD EP, 2000) Recorded at Noise Precision, Portugal, April 1998. Produced by Rafael Toral.

tracks

notes by rafael toral

After i finished recording Cyclorama Lift 1, i realised it had some problems. Looking for improvement, i went on to record Cyclorama Lift 2, to make a better but also longer version. Having meanwhile decided to release those works, Cyclorama Lift 2 became Aeriola Frequency's main piece, followed by Cyclorama Lift 1. A few months later, it became clear to me that Cyclorama Lift 1 was really not good enough. Not only it had technical problems, it also had an emotional resonance i didn't like (it sounded a bit sad to me), so i set to record new material. I wanted the second piece on the CD to have more joy, color and density. The first version from those new sessions was Cyclorama Lift 3. I was at first delighted with it, but soon realised it was too exhuberant, too rich to be on Aeriola Frequency. It was totally unbalanced with the comparatively austere Cyclorama Lift 2. I then recorded Cyclorama Lift 4, which came out denser as i expected, but surprisingly more relaxed and with a certain sort of spiritual mood that complemented Cyclorama Lift 2 very well. Aeriola Frequency was complete and later released on Chicago-based Perdition Plastics label.

Cyclorama Lift is a piece about the idea that electronic resonance is everywhere in our electronically mediated perception of sounds. Like a ghost-in-the-machine. It's performed with an empty circuit, basically a feedback loop using as main instruments two 8-second delays and a 4-band parametric equalizer. There's no input, the loop is constantly nourishing and digesting itself. The circulating sound is electronic resonance.

reviews

Talk about making something out of nothing! Rafael Toral is most strongly associated with the electric guitar, but on this one track CD single he bypasses instruments altogether. Instead the Portuguese audio magician coaxes tendrils of pure electronic resonance from a feedback loop generated by an equalizer and two 4-second delays. He fashioned the resulting hums, bubbles, and whistles into a gorgeous, shimmering piece that of music that satisfies Eno's ambient imperative; it sounds pleasant in the background, but give it your full attention and you'll be mesmerized by the masterfully layered flux of tones.

Bill Meyer for Magnet/USA

Part of an ongoing series including a release on Perdition Plastics, Cyclorama Lift 3 sees Portuguese avant-guitarist Rafael Toral setting aside that instrument in favor of the purity of electronic circuitry. Composed using only a mixing desk and delay, Cyclorama Lift 3 traces arcs of feedback as they cycle airily through the wires. Like an aural translation of the Aurora Borealis, tones morph and waft skyward, luminous and chameleon-skinned. Too fluid to be called austere, this is minimalism liquified, like the digital precision of Toral's contemporaries melted down into mercurial ebb. As a meditation on the idea that "electronic resonance is everywhere in our electronically mediated perception of sounds," it's an uncharacteristically beautiful, even spiritual, take on the information age. Call it electric animism.

Phil Sherburne for XLR8R/USA

"Cyclorama Lift 3" minimalistycznego gitarzysty Rafaela Torala idzie jeszcze dalej w kierunku eksperymentu. Toral, który wspólpracowal m.in. z czlonkami Sonic Youth, z Deanem Robertsem i Nuno Canavarro, wciela w zycie filozofie "im mniej tym wiecej". Dzwieki zarejestrowane na "Cycloramie..." pojawiaja sie znikad, to elektryczne duchy wylaniajace sie z ukladu typu "no input" (pozbawionego sygnalu wejsciowego). Strategia glebokiej muzyki ambientalnej nie jest niczym nowym, a jednak Toral stosuje ja na tyle
przekonywujaco, by stworzyc zludzenie mobilnosci i plastycznosci wielowarstwowej formy. Niektórzy uwazaja, ze to muzyka zimna i wykoncypowana. Moje osobiste skojarzenia sa akurat odwrotne. Gwiazda Tomlabu wlasnie zaplonela i, na razie, pali sie jasnym swiatlem.

Jacek Staniszewski, Neurobot (Poland)

Muzprosvet (Russia)

How often do we listen to performed or composed sound which hasn't been shaped or, at the very least, amplified and filtered by electrical systems? From PAs to effects boxes to the D/A convertors plugged into our computers; maybe Rafael Toral has a valid point when he states that "electrical resonance is everywhere".
'Cyclorama Lift 3' is attempt to explore this idea and amounts to an exercise in pure electrical feedback control; no input music. According to Toral's concise sleeve notes it was originally recorded for 'Aeriola Frequency' on Perdition Plastics but ended up on the cutting room floor because he judged it "too exuberant". Well perhaps, in context; it now sees the light of day on Tom Steinle's very fine Tomlab label.
Feedback this may well be but not the howling speaker blowing kind. It's more like the sound you might hear if you listened to wind whistling across the opposing end of a very long pipe. Or perhaps, if it were possible, many such pipes simultaneously, because what we hear contains many separate strands which ebb and flow, fold back and weave through one another; dominated by mid to high fequencies it's all whoops, warbles and trills. Such a prosaic description really doesn't do it justice though because, true to Toral's desire to show us "the ghost in the machine" his music conveys real [human] emotion and soul. Not sad in this case but, rather, uplifting. This is an individual piece which nevertheless sits well in the Tomlab ouevre.

[GM], Fällt Publishing