records > SPACE

Staubgold Berlin, Germany staubgold 069 (CD, 2006)	Taiga Minneapolis, MN, USA TAIGA 1 (2LP, 2007)

Space, the new album by Rafael Toral, marks a radical change in his music after 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar and electronics. "The future perspectives of my former approach to music were threatening to become a comfortable, formulaic 'modus operandi'. It would be against my nature to accept such a development, so I serenely decided to terminate it."
It took him three years to find 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." It may sound exaggerated, but this sounds like the blueprint for a new approach to both jazz and electronics with a single stroke.
In his emerging new conception of electronic music, Toral looks to the value of human performance while sharing values from jazz culture. His playing is "articulated with a kind of individual decision, a sense of phrasing and a sensibility to rhythm and form that have little in common with the types of electronic music we know". Quoting Sei Miguel, he says it's "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 two parallel 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."
Staubgold's press release.


reviews


The first thing you hear is a laser blast: a fat, toothsome laser blast, which could have been fired into Space from any number of sci-fi B movies from the last 40 years.The next thing you hear is silence, and the rest of RafaelToraI's latest sound essay unfolds almost entirely from these two elements. Beyond the title, space has a double significance within the work. It's selfconsciously futurist and extraterrestrial, greedily absorbing acoustic vocabularies from the sci-fi section of library music sound design. Toral himseif namechecks the Forbidden Planet soundtrack and Star Wars.
But this new music is also spacious. It may be rich and various in texture, but that's not to say it's cluttered. Long pauses litter the tracks. Toral constructs each of the sound events not only through their tone, duration and attack, but through the silences that frame them. Each acquires its own poise and balance. Space is a major departure from his previous work. Instead of long parallel lines of infinitely sustained guitar, it snaps, pops, crackles and disappears. Instead of investigating singularity and the detail of how ft can be micro managed and modulated, it's gloriously, thrillingly multiple, with a thriving population of sounds.
For Space, Toral has started with what is - on the surface - a technical tabula rasa. Previous records, from 1995's Wave Field to 2001's private anthology Violence Of Discovery and Calm Of Acceptance saw Toral develop a form of tabletop guitar technique in which the guitar was simply the sound source, one played through a battery of pedals and FX, eliciting super-saturated neon drones. But there are no guitars here, only a set of homemade electronic instruments, circuits and feedback systems adapted and reworked to produce some kind of sound, however limited its palette might be.
Toral's playing makes a virtue of these limitations though, and focuses hard on the dialogue between different sounds. Themes and lines are established then discarded, subside into silence or are inverted by counterpoint: an outbreak of jittering crackle disappearing into looming swells of low-end gloom. In a sense, Space retires the established RafaelToral as an artist and puts in his place an all-new electro-Improv retro-futurist. After 20 years of guitar work, Toral is looking for nothing less than a totally fresh language to work in.
Language is an apposite term for what happens in Space. The sounds are distinctly vocal at times: beyond the laser-like squelches and zaps Is a field of clipped gurgles that could be R2D2 quotes, as though the record eavesdrops on a sound designer commissioned to devise an alien language. 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.
In fact, Toral sees Space as a kind of hypothetical Jazz projected from the late 60s into a world where electronic instruments had been accepted and integrated within its modes. There is a history of cross- pollination between jazz and electrics - you only have to hear Sun Ra's supercharged keyboard solos to see how the one can liberate the other. Toral may even be familiar with an earlier Space, David Durrah's synthesizer excursions. But electricity also split jazz, like folk, down the middle, setting post-bop fusion against luddites happy to retread Charlie Parker forever. For Dylan at Newport, read Miles Davis.
Jazz is a faux-ami in relation to Space. Toral is aiming for a live engagement with electronic instruments (as opposed to laptops or sequencers and the spectrum of readymade sound they make available) and a real-time exchange of ideas and actions. It's jazz insofar as its in a steady state of flux: attentive listening and responsive playing. But essentiallyToral's project begins and ends in improv. The kind of improvisatory practices that came out of the tail end of post-bop are no longer sufficiently described by the term jazz, so much of its results bear only a passing resemblance to the genre the word denotes.The same applies here.
But why argue about semantics? There are some frenetic but cool bass tones that evoke OutTo Lunch. There's even a brass section, which slips seamlessly into the mix and sounds comfortably at home among the electrical ping-pong which surrounds it. Besides, there's a playfulness to Space that's more important than any pedantic musical taxonomy. Toral's projected parallel universe and imaginary genealogies have a Borgesian quality. They're less literal statements than points of departure.
The sheer volume of releases planned for the Space programme emphasises Toral's farewell to the guitar. Ten are already planned, including one series to focus on individual instruments in turn and another to document further spontaneous explorations with the full toolbox. As fresh as this new work sounds, it'll be a while before the whole programme reveals itself, as Toral continues to wrestle with the different characters and potentialities of his homemades, in all their irascible, user-unfriendly quirks.
Sam Davies, The Wire, September 2006


Großartiges Album! Toral, einer der eigenwilligsten, experimentellsten und progressivsten Gitarristen der Jetztzeit transformiert die Idiome der Experimentalelektronik in eine Form von Jazz, die Zeitgemäßheit wirklich annimmt, anstatt retrospektive Loops zu kreieren. Wäre Jazz da, wo Toral jetzt ist, würde space natürlich klingen - so klingt es far away. Sehr schöne konzeptuelle Linernotes ergänzen diese natürliche Reise.
Honker, Terz.org


Já há algum tempo que Rafael Toral parecia divorciado da guitarra, mas se “Space” confirma o interesse que nos últimos anos o músico português tem revelado pela electrónica “vintage”, há algo de mais importante ainda que o demarca da sua anterior discografia: em vez das “soundscapes” tão densas quanto leves e dos “drones” necessitando de longas durações para se instalarem, o que temos agora é um grande ascetismo sonoro e uma mimetização do fraseado dos instrumentos de sopro (oiça-se o jogo na última peça, “Space III”, entre o instrumentário electrónico, o trompete de bolso de Sei Miguel e o trombone alto de Fala Mariam) em enquadramento idiomático de jazz. O que quer dizer que a mudança de rumo de Toral é efectiva e global, indo mesmo às raízes do seu entendimento da música, e que assim se abre um caminho que, surpresa das surpresas em tempo de alguma estagnação, tem muito de inédito. Já não se trata de jazz com electrónica, algo que se vem fazendo há décadas com melhores ou piores resultados, sobretudo estes últimos, mas de jazz electrónico, uma categoria bem diferente e de que não nos lembramos de algum praticante. A utilização do silêncio e a grande economia de materiais sonoros podem remeter-nos para as novas tendências da improvisação, mas, citando Sei Miguel, Toral diz que, se esta música não é composta, também “não é improvisada e não é um compromisso entre composição e improvisação”.
Rui Eduardo Paes, Ananana Newsletter 296


Saiu na Staubgold o novo disco de Rafael Toral, músico com carreira e espaço próprios na música experimental de base electrónica feita por portugueses em Portugal, e no estrangeiro, com luminárias como John Zorn, Christian Fennesz, Thurston Moore, Phill Niblock, Keith Rowe, Alvin Lucier, Evan Parker, David Toop, Jim O’Rourke ou a MIMEO / Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra. É talvez do ponto de vista do jazz que este disco melhor se compreende, até por referência ao trabalho anterior de Rafael Toral. Como o músico assinala, em instâncias de fusão entre jazz e electrónica, o passo adiante na relação entre os dois sistemas seria o jazz em electrónica.
Este é o ponto de partida conceptual para a recente jornada sonora de Rafael Toral, novo ciclo que ora se inicia. Encerrados que estão os anteriores, sem que encontre abismos ou evidências de corte radical com os discos que marcaram a última década – Wave Field (Moneyland, 1995), Aereola Frequency (Perdition Plastics, 1998), e especialmente Violence of Discover and Calm of Acceptance (Touch, 2001), à cabeça de um importante ciclo ambiental – urge agora dar ordem às novas inquietações e preparar-lhes adequada tentativa de resposta, através da colocação de uma série de novas questões a que Rafael Toral chama Space Program, o seu breviário criativo para os tempos que se avizinham, de que Space constitui porventura a trave-mestra. Toral é um prático. Posta a guitarra entre parêntesis, ela que tão fielmente serviu o programa ambient, socorre-se das ferramentas que concebe e manufactura, e faz por progredir na exploração das propriedades físicas do som, matéria-prima de Space.
A ligação artística a Sei Miguel é outra das chaves interpretativas da obra. É pelo jazz e seus sintagmas pós-Miles Davis, enquanto combinações de unidades da mesma e múltipla linguagem musical, que ambos vão. A participação do trompetista (e de Fala Mariam em trombone) no último dos três temas sublinha o concept de Toral e epitomiza esta ideia, mais que de convergência, de sobreposição no mesmo regime de dois sistemas de valores, som e silêncio, jazz e electrónica, que passam a ter um futuro e uma arqueologia comuns.
Ponto a ponto, átomo a átomo, os sons são agregados através de espaços de silêncio, que resumem o momento anterior e anunciam o passo seguinte. Através do uso de sons glaucos provenientes de teclados etéreos, Toral gere cor e textura com habilidade, via modelação sistémica e criação de ambientes hipnótico-futuristas, cromaticamente sedutores. Os espaços deixados por preencher só acentuam o dramatismo da orquestração. Voam vistosos pássaros celestes por entre poeira de estática e cristais que vibram à sua passagem. Sugestões de beleza zen carregada de radiação eléctrica, liquefacção sonora, domínio do imponderável ou da gravidade reduzida. Fica-se siderado no espaço sideral.
Eduardo Chagas, jazzearredores


Rafael Toral is hardly a new name on the scene, having contributed his characteristic avant-guitar experiments to collaborations with Sonic Youth, Keith Rowe and Peter Rehberg (under the MIMEO guise), Jim O’Rourke, John Zorn and David Toop to name but a few - but this disc sees the artist taking a new direction. The first (and possibly most important) part of his epic ‘Space Program’ which is said to comprise of more than ten solo releases to be released over the next few years, the disc sees Toral laying down his guitar in favour of homemade electronic generators and modular synthesizer parts and moving into the realms of the 50s and 60s proto electronic experimentation. It's notable that Toral gives thanks to the pioneers of free jazz (and notably ‘space’ jazz) who he claims gave him the most influence while writing this material. The tracks at first may not scream of jazz or improv in the classic sense, but listen closer and there is more than a passing similarity, indeed if we replaced synthesizer squelches with muted trumpet or tenor sax then the similarities would be far more evident. Toral has created with ‘Space’ a document of his experimentations, taking a voyage into strange new worlds, into the outer realms of cosmic exploration – pulses, drones, obscure noises from undiscovered dimensions. ‘Space’ could not have been a more appropriate title for this immense disc, there is an hour of music to seek out on the disc yet it will only reveal itself to you slowly and on repeated exploration – there are weird and wonderful anomalies to be sought out here, make sure you’re among the first to discover them. One small step for man, one giant bleep for mankind...
Bookmat


Het zou kunnen dat je de afgelopen 20 jaar de naam Rafael Toral wel eens langs hebt zien komen. Waarschijnlijk ben je dan een liefhebber van experimentele muziek, want dat is de hoek waar de in Lissabon geboren muzikant, componist, producer en videoartiest toch het meest van houdt. Hij experimenteert meestal met gitaar en elektronica en maakt daarmee hybrides van ambient, avant-garde, rock, improvisaties en IDM. Hij heeft gespeeld in de bands No Noise Reduction en MIMEO en samengewerkt met artiesten als Sei Miguel, Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, John Zorn, Thurston Moore, Dean Roberts, Christian Fennesz, Alvin Lucier, Evan Parker, David Toop, en Jim O'Rourke. Een veelzijdig artiest, die met zijn nieuwste cd Space toch weer een nieuwe weg inslaat. Naar eigen zeggen kan hij het meeste leren van jazzmuziek. Ook zegt hij dat er al veel fusies zijn geweest met jazz en elektronica, maar dat hij een stap verder wil gaan. Dit heeft hem drie jaar gekost, maar nu toont hij zijn 3 nieuwste stukken, variërend in lengte van 13,5 tot 25 minuten. Hij heeft hier geen jazz met elektronica willen maken, maar met de elektronische muziek en jazzelementen een blauwdruk voor een nieuwe benadering van zowel jazz als elektronische muziek. De muziek heeft inderdaad elementen van beide, maar tegelijkertijd ook niet. Hij heeft een universum geschapen, waarin tijd en massa geen rol spelen. De elektronische klanken spelen met de jazz en omgekeerd. Het lijkt geïmproviseerd en gecomponeerd tegelijk. Het is eigenlijk heel lastig te duiden, want het klinkt zo nieuw. Rafael Toral lijkt geslaagd te zijn in zijn opzet. Veel belangrijker nog is dat hij een prachtige en intrigerende nieuwe plek in de ruimte heeft ontdekt.
Jan Willem Broek , Caleidoscoop, 22 september 2006


Rafael Toral transpôs a barreira entre o universo rock e a electrónica com a maior naturalidade, perseguindo apenas o seu sentido de exploração na direcção que o Cosmos o mandava seguir. Para já, «Space» é o culminar de um percurso que já celebrou a aeronáutica e ultrapassou a atmosfera para melhor poder escutar as pulsações de corpos celestes. Toral quase encena sequências de filmes de ficção científica clássicos, obviamente pontuadas por disparos laser de que nos lembramos de séries como «Flash Gordon». A livre marcha dos objectos sonoros recorda brevemente algumas experiências antigas de Jorge Lima Barreto (Anar Band, por ex), igualmente fundadas num discurso jazz entendido como ponto de partida para um grande desconhecido. A participação de Toral em ensembles de Sei Miguel é devolvida com a participação deste e de Fala Mariam em «Space». Parecendo um culminar, o álbum na verdade marca o início de um novo ciclo de esperiências para Rafael Toral, um projecto a longo prazo moldado pelos sons extraídos dos instrumentos e gadgets que o músico constrói para si. Não apenas a atenção ao espaço sideral mas a criação de um espaço de actuação próprio, uma estrutura que permita a Toral organizar o modo como apresenta os seus sons, especialmente quando o faz perante uma audiência. O artigo de fundo que lhe é dedicado no número 272 da Wire esclarece alguns pontos sobre o projecto Space Program, faz um resumo histórico das suas colaborações com Jim O'Rourke, Phil Niblock e outros músicos, celebra quase duas décadas de dedicação aos limites do som.
Flur, Mailing Lust


After over 15 years spent sewing together guitar-based electroacoustic sound collages, Space finds Portuguese musician Rafael Toral restructuring his approach to musical creativity. To this end, he casts aside the guitar that served him so well, and wholeheartedly embraces a series of modified and custom-built electronic devices. Abrupt as this shift may seem, there is a certain continuity with past experiences.
Before long, the atmospheres of alien whistles and sublimely slow oscillations, queasy yet immersive, resemble certain streams of jazz. In fact, Toral plays his electronic contraptions much like a traditional acoustic instrument. At 12 minutes, the album's first selection subtly, lethargically, spaciously unites the dazzling rhythmical sequences of acoustic instruments with the ineffable atmospheres of the electronic realm.
Although lustrous drones and chirrups do inhabit these tracks, a level of harmonic and rhythmic complexity is at work, not to mention a general level of ambiguity and caution. Much of this may be taken from Toral's fractured approach to playing; pinprick feedback spikes, sparkling accents, and quivering particles of sound-dust float weightlessly through an extended wash of beatific hum, but shift in tone and pattern, gradually evaporating like foam on the sea. All of this leaves many empty pockets between the drifting, kinetic sound cascades. These gaps work to feed a sense of anticipation and, given the compositions' eerily snaking nature, further a feeling of apprehension before the strange, seemingly confident presence of these works.
While the third composition sees Toral stringing some strangled flurries of alto sax into the mix, denoting the album's clearest link to his past, at the same time, the earnest electronics go the opposite route, tearing off some of the constraints of the figural and entering upon more of a pure play of form. This gives the track an equilibrium and a secret conflict, a purity too measured to be real and too all-encompassing to look beyond.
Max Schaefer, neumu, Sep 2006


«Space» é um disco alienígena. Deslocado das actuais correntes estéticas, insere-se no cruzamento imaginário da liberdade e diálogos do jazz com a experimentação electrónica, que Toral teve o engenho de criar quase do zero (...). É um álbum notável, onde é fácil o ouvinte se perder perante as imensas portas de entrada que o seu edifício cuidadosamente estruturado abre. A espaços, os dispositivos electrónicos digladiam-se como brinquedos fora de controlo, emitem sons que parecem lasers ou sinos, ou irrompem como se fossem instrumentos de sopro, baixos e percussão - referências futuristas cruzam-se com elementos aparentados do jazz. Há longos períodos de silêncio ou quase-silêncio, como que a envolver os múltiplos acontecimentos sonoros dispostos em múltiplas camadas e episódios (de tensão e distensão). As frases musicais derivam de decisões instantâneas, mas observam uma disciplina estruturante, seguindo a ideia que Sei Miguel imprime às suas formações: música "não composta, não improvisada, nem um compromisso entre as duas". Curiosamente, é com o aparecimento surpreendente de Sei Miguel (trompete de bolso) e Fala Mariam (trombone alto) na terceira e última parte do disco, que se gera o momento mais belo de «Space» - os instrumentos tradicionais entram que nem uma luva na peça, assinalando o cordão umbilical da nova linguagem de Toral e sobrepondo o "futuro" (a hipotética evolução do jazz que redundaria em «Space») com o jazz presente. 
Pedro Rios, PÚBLICO


A fascinating 3 -track work from Rafael Toral which is predominantly constructed using a modified MS2 pocket amplifier which was then manipulated and processed using feedback and assorted filters as well as added trombone and trumpet. The end result is a free flowing, vaguely experimental textural soundscape that's full of flavour and wonderfully engaging moments. The range of tones and sounds that he's managed to acquire from such limited sources really is marvellous and overall if you're a fan of the label or the artist you should seriously check this out. Excellent.
Smallfish


These two recordings share at least one thing in common aside from the presence of Rafael Toral. Both musicians, Miguel and Toral, are attempting to extend the improvising tradition from its current state (taomud, if you will) and, perhaps paradoxically, both are using explicitly jazz-derived approaches to do so. Whether this experiment will ultimately prove quixotic only time will tell but both discs offer some amount of tantalization, enough to merit a serious listen or three.
"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." Hence, “Space”, Rafael Toral’s latest project and, indeed, quite a bit different than what one might have expected. You can hear the jazz allusions fairly early on, especially the scattershot, often electronically enhanced trumpet (there’s a lot of trumpet) and the dreamy electric keyboards. This is overtly gestural music, a far remove from recordings like “Aeriola Frequency”. Depending on one’s frame of reference, some of the actual *sounds* employed could try one’s patience. Personally, what I think of as the “Star Wars ray gun effects”, that liquid-y zap sound or variants thereof which surface with some frequency here, are a lot for me to get past. But forging on, you arrive in an area that bears a bit of a resemblance to Milesian electronic music, albeit without the funk. This perception is certainly helped not only by the trumpet’s presence but also by what seems to be an electric piano, one that conjures up Corea at his fluffiest. Maybe if you took one of those Miles interludes, those spacey sections between themes, and stretched it out, taffy-like, you’d approximate this music. Just when you think matters might become excessively smooth, Toral pulls back from the edge for a small dose of rough static though the overall course of his ideas inevitably circles back to decidedly more manually articulated events. The keyboard might take on a dancing, marimba-like character even as the trumpet sputters out white-noise sprays; flute-y, birdcalls flit through synth chords that Sun Ra at his cheesiest might eschew. The mix can prove uneasy to your average eai listener, as things never unravel along any of the pathways you expect, generally drifting back into tonality. Even at its most abstract, we’re still in something approximating Bill Dixon territory (though Sei Miguel is closer as far as that goes). But when things gel—and the music does cohere miraculously and unexpectedly at numerous points even if it meanders more than one would like—you begin to get at least a glimmer of what, I think, Toral is working toward. The lovely, overdubbed trumpet chorale during the third and final track is both beautiful in and of itself and striking in context. And at the very end you hear a cascade of sputtering static pops which, if I’m not mistaken, actually have their origin in the trumpet; what you first hear as random electronics, you have to reevaluate as gesture-driven, a nice little conundrum. Whether he ultimately reaches the promised land or not is an open question—even at its best I don’t see “Space” as being *the* answer by any means—but enough of the disc is challenging in a rarely heard way to make it worthwhile charting his journey.
Brian Olewnick, Bagatellen

[So I heard from Rafael and, unsurprisingly, I was wrong in some of my guesses as to instrumentation on his disc. Much of what I heard as processed trumpet stemmed from his (very ably controlled) amp feedback and the sounds that are remarkably like an electric piano derive from sine waves activated by sensor-laden gloves. Who knew? Not me!]
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at August 30, 2006 05:11 PM


This is unreal -- Toral, stepped fully out of his Loveless phase, hauls off and invents this new style of electronic structured improv that's so close to the sound, textures, and phrasing of Euro free jazz, you'd almost imagine there'd have to be five bald old men on a stage somewhere, twittering away to the sounds of their own heads. But no, Toral maintains some really choice, dignified, and inspired moments all throughout Space, a five-part crawl from oblique and haunted Bill Dixon-esque passages, to round-toned chill-out sessions, to sputtering outbursts worthy of electric Miles or Don Ellis, all strung together in a pace that engrosses even passive listening experience. Unlike anything I've heard in years, and essential to check out.
Other Music


Vom Kosmos und in anderen Räumen
Rafael Toral, portugiesischer Musiker und Künstler veröffentlicht im September auf dem Berliner Label Staubgold sein musikalisches Manifest »Space«

Der Name »Space« bezieht sich auf Torals aktuelles Arbeitsfeld, das so genannte »Space program«. Unter diesem Label fasst Toral seine Arbeit im Bereich der Fusionierung von zeitgenössischer elektronischer Musik und Jazz, freier Improvisation und John Cages Konzept der Stille zusammen. Dies geschieht als Solomusiker, in Kollaborationen oder sogar mit ganzen Orchestern, im Studio und mit besonderem Fokus auf Live-Performances. Geplant ist eine Reihe von zwei parallelen Veröffentlichungsserien: zum einen »Space Elements«, hier scheint es vornehmlich um die Sounds eines bestimmten Instruments zu gehen, zum anderen die »Solo Series«, das die eigenen Konzerte an verschiedensten Instrumenten dokumentieren soll. Das Album »Space« schließt sich gewollt keiner der beiden Serien an, sondern kann, oder soll vielmehr, als die allem übergeordnete Veröffentlichung des gesamten »Space program« verstanden werden.
Space Jazz
In den 1990er Jahren wurde Toral als einer der talentiertesten und innovativsten Gitarristen bezeichnet. Er spielte zusammen mit Jim O’Rourke, John Zorn, Lucier, Parker, David Toop, Sonic Youth, Christian Fennesz und vielen mehr. Im Jahre 2000, als gerade das Album »Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance« erschien, erreichte Rafael Toral einen Punkt in seiner musikalischen Laufbahn, an dem es sich beängstigend komfortabel anfühlte. Die Zukunft seiner Musik und seines Denkens würde wohl von nun an nach einem bestimmten Schema oder einer Formel funktionieren, was Toral eigentlich immer verhindern wollte. Aufgrund dieser Erkenntnis beschloss er einen Neuanfang. Von nun an beschäftigte er sich mit dem Musikgenre, das ihm bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt am fremdesten erschienen war: Jazz.
In den persönlichen Anmerkungen zum Album »Space« schreibt Toral, dass im Mittelpunkt seines »Space program« das Performen und Spielen an und mit zum Teil selbst gebauten oder manipulierten elektronischen Geräten und Instrumenten steht. Dabei wird aus der imaginierten Tradition einer elektronischen Jazzkultur heraus eine Mischung aus elektronischer und elektro-akustischer Musik der 1950er und 1960er Jahre mit modernen live Electronics erzeugt, unterbrochen von langen Passagen der Stille. Was sich daraus entwickelt, lässt sich wohl am besten mit dem Begriff Space Jazz beschreiben.
Das Album pendelt zwischen akademischer Strenge, präzise platzierten Tönen und tief in den Raum verschobenen Flächen sowie Free-Jazz-Improvisationen. Aus diesen an verschiedenen elektronischen Klangquellen erzeugten Improvisationen ist der Sound einer Art ›Frikkelbox‹ am deutlichsten zu identifizieren. In einem klar abgesteckten Rahmen wächst ein zwischen dem selbstverlorenen Tun und dem bewussten Spiel alternierendes Spannungsfeld heran.
Torals Kosmos
Rafael Toral spielt mit den Erwartungen des Zuhörers. Ein Rhythmus wird lediglich angedeutet. Die Dinge lösen sich auf, noch bevor sie zur vollen Entfaltung gelangen konnten, verschwinden hinter und im freien Spiel mit den schwerlich identifizierbaren Klangerzeugern. Kleine Raffinessen treffen auf diffuse Tonverwehungen, Klangbündel werden an lange, stille Flächen gelegt. »Space« ist ein minimales Album, das nach dem Maximum an musikalischem Ausdruck sucht. Es quietscht und fiepst, es kommuniziert, es spricht, allerdings nicht immer mit dem Zuhörer. Toral schafft sich seinen eigenen Kosmos, und uns steht es frei, ihm zu folgen.
Stephane Leonard, Goon Magazine, Aug. 2006


Rafael Toral’s Space is mixture sci-fi sound effects, ala the first Star trek, electronic tones that rarely pick up much of a pace, and Journeys into an odd circuit board take on jazz and well space its self- literal lots of silence and slow build ups. Sound elements are allowed to hover and grow, or disappear off down a black hole, leaving the listener stranded for a few moments, until the next space cruiser comes along.
It takes patience to tune into this- please don’t expected quick hits or lots of structural moves- things take time to hook onto and move along with. But that said when it does click Toral really does suck you in with his mix of creepy/ oddly comfy space music- you’ll find your self slow drifting and merging with strange and warming  constellation. Hovering over planets of pink through to green. Things only really pick up pace and become somewhat normal towards end the last track, when move around the stereo channels alien rhythmic taping, is joined by lonesome and Smokey saxophone. That paints strange pictures in ones mind of an intergalactic bar at the end of a far off star system, as the dawn hours crawl in, just a few bizarre looking denizens remaining.
An interesting experiment in sound, which can be rewarding if you persevere with it. Through one feels some times Toral is concentrating on how many weird sounds he can make, and too little with moving things on. But to be fair this is the first fruit of his space compositions project, that promise to occupy his time in the years to come both live and in the studio. So maybe things will firm up on later releases.
Musiquemachine