rafael toral
collaborations
Regular, long-term collaborations or special projects
photos
scores
music writing
1987 - 1994
Rafael Toral is a musician and artist. Born in Lisbon, he has been performing
live since 1984. Having attempted to study music, he realized his path
was one of exploration and discovery, to which conventional music teaching
was irrelevant. He learned acoustics, electronics and music writing, having
started to write music on paper after his former fascination with graphic
scores. In 1994, Wave Field determined a shift in composing methods,
taking from then on sound itself as the basic matter for all music, thus
rendering his work unwriteable. Considered later in the 1990's by the
Chicago Reader to be "one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists
of the decade", he has been working on the possibilities of ambient
music (variable attention listening process) and improvisation with higher
levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable
ways), among other things.
Developing solo work since 1987, with a strong focus on how sound phenomena,
ambient sound and artistic fruition are inter-related and weaving a unique
blend of references such as ambient, rock, chance and improvisation, Toral
recorded several solo CDs, two with the MIMEO orchestra and two with com
No Noise Reduction, an experimental project with long time friend and
collaborator Paulo Feliciano (see discography). He has performed throughout
Europe, Japan, Canada and extensively in the USA, as well as with Sei
Miguel, Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, John Zorn, Thurston Moore, Dean Roberts,
Christian Fennesz, Lee Ranaldo and Jim O'Rourke. He has also produced
rock bands (Pop dell'Arte, Tina and the Top Ten, Supernova, Toast, Clockwork),
presented video and multimedia installations and recorded music of Phill
Niblock and John Cage.
In 1996 Toral collaborated with Rhys Chatham as curator and coordinator
for 100 guitarists in Lisbon for his performance An Angel Moves too
fast to See. In 1998 he participated in the Acqua Matrix
show at Lisbon’s Expo’98, collaborating with David Toop and
an international creative team, composing a piece for remote-controlled
boat horns. Later in this year he becomes a member of the Mimeo orchestra.
In 1999, with Paulo Feliciano, built the “white cube”, a light
generating device interactive with sound spectrum, and participated as
guest in Sonic Youth's record NYC Ghosts and Flowers. In 2000,
again with Paulo Feliciano, participated, with the mixed-media installation
Toyzone (modified electronic toys, custom relay circuits and
multiple sensors), in “Sonic Boom – the Art of Sound”,
an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, alongside Christian Marclay,
Pan Sonic, Ryoji Ikeda and Brian Eno. In 2003 Toral produced the first
Anthology of Portuguese Electronic Music, and in early 2005 he collaborated
with Alvin Lucier, as assistant to setting up his "Empty Vessels"
installation at Serralves Museum, Porto.
Having produced video pieces since 1994, used in both live performances
and installations, his visual output has been increasing. His installations
usually have an interactive and unpredictable behavior, often using processing
of generative feedback systems, such as Toyzone or Echo Room,
a piece for delayed feedback random sound filtering, recently installed
at the ICC in Tokyo.
Between 2002 and 2004 he operated a radical change in most aspects of
his music practice and thinking, launching the so-called Space
program - a work program establishing approaches to real-time
performance and use of silence new to his past work, and including projects
for many live pieces and recordings.
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