Reviews | Rafael Toral

Space Solo 1

Gonzo Circus magazine Na twee jaar van stilte brengt het Duitse Quecksilber, het experimentele bijhuis van Staubgold, nieuw werk uit van Rafael Toral. ‘Space Solo 1’ is het vervolg op ‘Space’ en hoort thuis in een langlopende serie die de Portugese componist en visueel kunstenaar Toral vorig jaar startte.
Sentireascoltare Spesso del tutto subordinati alle dinamiche corporee di chi li maneggia (si dia un’occhiata ai video presenti nella pagina web del musicista), gli apparecchi di Toral diventano quasi protesi di un corpo umano che non ha più parola, interfacce fisiche tra la propria cassa di risonanza interiore e il rumore dello spazio esterno
Paris transatlantic in 1995 he found himself in the hackers' paradise of Amsterdam's STEIM improvising with "a modified toy with a messed-up pitch control". But there's a maturity to Space and Space Solo 1 that's lacking in the earlier work, a sense that Toral has finally...
Igloo Magazine he leaves room for open air white noise that's pretty hush. But not too much, as there's a sense of antsy, frictitious disorder at play. Echo Feed plays into the whole notion that life may exist outside our perception with its nod to 50's b-movie elongated bleeps and warm vortex exterior, built for two.
Foxy Digitalis Uh.. that is to say, timeless, and at the same time totally up to the minute. Amazing.
ei-mag Machine music of the first order, Space Solo 1 is the pure work of a pure agonist. In terms of uncovering new methods of origination and the accompanying demands of continuing to up the ante among listeners, Toral has departed the safety of the pale and begun demarcation of his very own protectorate.
Boomkat Space Solo 1 is the first of these records and let me tell you now it’s got my brain splattered all over the nice clean white wall behind me. Continuing the themes explored on the first disc we again see Toral getting into the thick of
Caleidoscoop Op zijn nieuwste werk Space Solo 1 gaat hij daar gewoon mee verder. In de eerste compositie “Portable Amplifier” maakt hij gebruik van de feedback van een versterker die hij volgens een ingewikkeld procédé filtert.
Dusted He obtains trills, decays, and tonal variations on the opening track “Portable amplifier” that one might expect from a wind instrument blown by a master. (...) Plenty of people say that they make creative music — Rafael Toral delivers it.
Fuck You, Counselor Just know that, at his best, the man is like Kaoru Abe goin feet-first into a gravitationally completely collapsed star, if you know what I'm sayin.
Jazz e Arredores Space Solo 1, que retoma alguns dos aspectos enunciados em Space, enquanto quadro de referência, ponto de partida e de chegada, apresenta-se simultaneamente como desenvolvimento e condensação do trabalho anterior, no modo como exprime uma relação íntima e intrínseca com a acção corporal.

Space Solo 1

Na twee jaar van stilte brengt het Duitse Quecksilber, het experimentele bijhuis van Staubgold, nieuw werk uit van Rafael Toral. ‘Space Solo 1’ is het vervolg op ‘Space’ en hoort thuis in een langlopende serie die de Portugese componist en visueel kunstenaar Toral vorig jaar startte.

Sentireascoltare

Spesso del tutto subordinati alle dinamiche corporee di chi li maneggia (si dia un’occhiata ai video presenti nella pagina web del musicista), gli apparecchi di Toral diventano quasi protesi di un corpo umano che non ha più parola, interfacce fisiche tra la propria cassa di risonanza interiore e il rumore dello spazio esterno

Paris transatlantic

in 1995 he found himself in the hackers' paradise of Amsterdam's STEIM improvising with "a modified toy with a messed-up pitch control". But there's a maturity to Space and Space Solo 1 that's lacking in the earlier work, a sense that Toral has finally...

Igloo Magazine

he leaves room for open air white noise that's pretty hush. But not too much, as there's a sense of antsy, frictitious disorder at play. Echo Feed plays into the whole notion that life may exist outside our perception with its nod to 50's b-movie elongated bleeps and warm vortex exterior, built for two.

Foxy Digitalis

Uh.. that is to say, timeless, and at the same time totally up to the minute. Amazing.

ei-mag

Machine music of the first order, Space Solo 1 is the pure work of a pure agonist. In terms of uncovering new methods of origination and the accompanying demands of continuing to up the ante among listeners, Toral has departed the safety of the pale and begun demarcation of his very own protectorate.

Boomkat

Space Solo 1 is the first of these records and let me tell you now it’s got my brain splattered all over the nice clean white wall behind me. Continuing the themes explored on the first disc we again see Toral getting into the thick of

Caleidoscoop

Op zijn nieuwste werk Space Solo 1 gaat hij daar gewoon mee verder. In de eerste compositie “Portable Amplifier” maakt hij gebruik van de feedback van een versterker die hij volgens een ingewikkeld procédé filtert.

Dusted

He obtains trills, decays, and tonal variations on the opening track “Portable amplifier” that one might expect from a wind instrument blown by a master. (...) Plenty of people say that they make creative music — Rafael Toral delivers it.

Fuck You, Counselor

Just know that, at his best, the man is like Kaoru Abe goin feet-first into a gravitationally completely collapsed star, if you know what I'm sayin.

Jazz e Arredores

Space Solo 1, que retoma alguns dos aspectos enunciados em Space, enquanto quadro de referência, ponto de partida e de chegada, apresenta-se simultaneamente como desenvolvimento e condensação do trabalho anterior, no modo como exprime uma relação íntima e intrínseca com a acção corporal.

Space Elements Vol I

Vital Weekly This is indeed 'free' music, where each player makes his own decision, and as such its perhaps 'jazz', and again perhaps Toral's own term 'post-free jazz electronic music' covers the entire ground. It's music that goes without much precedent of the past, and surely marks something new. That by itself is a great effort, but the results are nice also!
Caleidoscoop Zo krijg je het unieke universum waar massa en tijd geen rol spelen, maar waarbij ze slechts houvast bieden om die ruimtes te bevatten. Klinkt wellicht ingewikkeld en ik moet zeggen dat is het ook. Maar eenmaal beseffende waar je naar aan het luisteren bent, creëert het een prachtig nieuwe werkelijkheid die je een droomwereld laten binnenstappen. Het is meer een ervaring dan een luisterplaat. Onbeschrijflijk knap!
Squid's Ear Toral favors bursts of overtones that are gone before you can assign precise intervals to their voicing. In their inexplicable appearance and disappearance, they resemble a living species, imbued with a sense of absence and an energy that enables them to swing and squiggle in distinct ways before they vanish and leave but an imprint behind.
Dusted 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.
Bodyspace este primeiro “Elements” encontra um Rafael Toral com uma percepção musical mais aberta ao exterior, nunca deixando de se fixar nas suas metas particulares. Esta é uma electrónica que não rejeita a improvisação mas não é jazz, é livre e não é “free”, desafia os contextos.
Paris Transatlantic There's an economy and clarity of line to his own playing that connects him to a long line of less-is-more jazz musicians, from Frankie Trumbauer to Bill Dixon, via Lester Young, Jimmy Giuffre and Chet Baker.
Westzeit Gemeinsam mit seinen musikalischen Partnern, darunter der Jazzmusiker und Trompeter Sei Miguel, gelingt es Toral, diese Idee als Balance zwischen konzentrierter Erwartung und gelöster Experimentierlust sinnlich erfahrbar zu machen.
The Wire the sounds are beautifully executed with immaculate precision and intimately recorded.

Space Elements Vol I

Vital Weekly

This is indeed 'free' music, where each player makes his own decision, and as such its perhaps 'jazz', and again perhaps Toral's own term 'post-free jazz electronic music' covers the entire ground. It's music that goes without much precedent of the past, and surely marks something new. That by itself is a great effort, but the results are nice also!

Caleidoscoop

Zo krijg je het unieke universum waar massa en tijd geen rol spelen, maar waarbij ze slechts houvast bieden om die ruimtes te bevatten. Klinkt wellicht ingewikkeld en ik moet zeggen dat is het ook. Maar eenmaal beseffende waar je naar aan het luisteren bent, creëert het een prachtig nieuwe werkelijkheid die je een droomwereld laten binnenstappen. Het is meer een ervaring dan een luisterplaat. Onbeschrijflijk knap! 

Squid's Ear

Toral favors bursts of overtones that are gone before you can assign precise intervals to their voicing. In their inexplicable appearance and disappearance, they resemble a living species, imbued with a sense of absence and an energy that enables them to swing and squiggle in distinct ways before they vanish and leave but an imprint behind.

Dusted

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.

Bodyspace

este primeiro “Elements” encontra um Rafael Toral com uma percepção musical mais aberta ao exterior, nunca deixando de se fixar nas suas metas particulares. Esta é uma electrónica que não rejeita a improvisação mas não é jazz, é livre e não é “free”, desafia os contextos.

Paris Transatlantic

There's an economy and clarity of line to his own playing that connects him to a long line of less-is-more jazz musicians, from Frankie Trumbauer to Bill Dixon, via Lester Young, Jimmy Giuffre and Chet Baker.

Westzeit

Gemeinsam mit seinen musikalischen Partnern, darunter der Jazzmusiker und Trompeter Sei Miguel, gelingt es Toral, diese Idee als Balance zwischen konzentrierter Erwartung und gelöster Experimentierlust sinnlich erfahrbar zu machen.

The Wire

the sounds are beautifully executed with immaculate precision and intimately recorded.

Space

The Wire 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.
Terz 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.
Ananana newsletter 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.
Jazz e Arredores ...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.
Boomkat 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.
Caleidoscoop 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.
Flur (Mailing Lust) 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
Neumu Space finds Portuguese musician Rafael Toral restructuring his approach to musical creativity. (...) a purity too measured to be real and too all-encompassing to look beyond.
Público É um álbum notável, onde é fácil o ouvinte se perder perante as imensas portas de entrada que o seu edifício cuidadosamente estruturado abre.
Smallfish 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.
Bagatellen 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.
Other Music 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.
Goon 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.
Musiquemachine 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.
All music guide For listeners familiar with his previous works the shock is brutal, but once you get used to the retro-futuristic sound palette, the composer's touch starts shining through: skillful thematic development, dizzying passages, nice contrasts between activity and calm.
apArtes Não se espera de Toral a lealdade a máximas teóricas; ele é fundamentalmente um artesão do empírico à procura do futuro.
Blitz Se é dos que imaginam a obra de Rafael Toral como uma série de peças áridas de ruído insolúvel, mergulhe no absorvente Space e descubra outra coisa.
Foxy Digitalis The background hiss present here and there as well as various beeps reminiscent of spaceship controls go well with the improvised “main instrument” parts. Over the course of three lengthy tracks, Toral leaves the sounds enough room to settle in and leave a lasting impression.
Ontonson 3年かかって辿り着いたのは、なんと、自作の電子楽器を用いたコンテンポラリージャス作品！音楽的な影響を最も受けたジャズとエレクトロニクスの接点を探り、融合を目指すための新しいアプローチを模索しています。まさに今後の音楽的進化の方向性を示してみせる青写真のような仕上がり。
Popmuzik は電子楽器によるコンテンポラリージャス作品とも呼べるだろう。この後、本作を基礎とした二つのシリーズが同時進行で行われる予定。
Trust/ Hinterland Die Kunst bei solchen Tracks ist es natürlich, die Aufmerksamkeit des Hörers zu erhalten, und das beherrscht Rafael Total meisterlich, schafft er es doch, die akkustischen Events eben so zu verteilen, daß man genug Zeit hat, sich ihnen gebührend zu widmen, sie quasi kennen zu lernen und zu verabschieden.

Space

The Wire

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.

Terz

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.

Ananana newsletter

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.

Jazz e Arredores

...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.

Boomkat

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.

Caleidoscoop

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.

Flur (Mailing Lust)

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

Neumu

Space finds Portuguese musician Rafael Toral restructuring his approach to musical creativity. (...) a purity too measured to be real and too all-encompassing to look beyond.

Público

É um álbum notável, onde é fácil o ouvinte se perder perante as imensas portas de entrada que o seu edifício cuidadosamente estruturado abre.

Smallfish

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.

Bagatellen

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.

Other Music

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.

Goon

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.

Musiquemachine

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.

All music guide

For listeners familiar with his previous works the shock is brutal, but once you get used to the retro-futuristic sound palette, the composer's touch starts shining through: skillful thematic development, dizzying passages, nice contrasts between activity and calm.

apArtes

Não se espera de Toral a lealdade a máximas teóricas; ele é fundamentalmente um artesão do empírico à procura do futuro.

Blitz

Se é dos que imaginam a obra de Rafael Toral como uma série de peças áridas de ruído insolúvel, mergulhe no absorvente Space e descubra outra coisa.

Foxy Digitalis

The background hiss present here and there as well as various beeps reminiscent of spaceship controls go well with the improvised “main instrument” parts. Over the course of three lengthy tracks, Toral leaves the sounds enough room to settle in and leave a lasting impression.

Ontonson

3年かかって辿り着いたのは、なんと、自作の電子楽器を用いたコンテンポラリージャス作品！音楽的な影響を最も受けたジャズとエレクトロニクスの接点を探り、融合を目指すための新しいアプローチを模索しています。まさに今後の音楽的進化の方向性を示してみせる青写真のような仕上がり。

Popmuzik

は電子楽器によるコンテンポラリージャス作品とも呼べるだろう。この後、本作を基礎とした二つのシリーズが同時進行で行われる予定。

Trust/ Hinterland

Die Kunst bei solchen Tracks ist es natürlich, die Aufmerksamkeit des Hörers zu erhalten, und das beherrscht Rafael Total meisterlich, schafft er es doch, die akkustischen Events eben so zu verteilen, daß man genug Zeit hat, sich ihnen gebührend zu widmen, sie quasi kennen zu lernen und zu verabschieden.

Harmonic Series 2

BlowUp Stando alle dichiarazioni de neo-minimalista portighese, il secondo volume dell'Harmonic Series, iniziata su vinile Table of the Elements, è l'ultimo documento di una devozione per il suono continuo coltivata nel susseguirsi di permutazioni di una medesima idea e di una medesima pratica.
Dusted Computer-generated sine waves rise and fall against a backdrop that modulates between shimmering hums and low, throaty growls. Higher-pitched slivers of feedback and distant buzzes drift in and out of the piece, like high cirrus clouds and distant, isolated thunderheads.
Brainwashed Through a meticulous cycle of blends and pans, Toral reaches a powerful sonic density from the tight flux of three or four blank tones rather than a congestion or distortion of the stereo field. The gritty, psychedelic edge that touched Toral's early work is totally absent; instead Harmonic Series seems to develop out of the resulting negative space, a lyric-less tone poem to the information age
Ananana newsletter Toral, longe já dos seus trabalhos ambientais de início, procura a destilação total da harmonia, a sublimação do Ambiental. Passados os minutos iniciais de introdução, toda a restante «Harmonic Series 2» é um campo de tensão e surpresa que apenas os mais pacientes podem ter recompensa.
Almostcool On Harmonic Series 2, he takes the sounds of three different inputs and distills them down to their most base levels, creating one long droning piece that almost sounds like the musical equivalent of those humming tones that you can hear when standing under such large conduits of electricity.
All music guide Toral adds layer upon layer of treated sine waves, along with guitar soundscapes and analog electronics. If the piece takes some time to take off, it eventually reaches a gorgeous state of flux where sine waves and guitars fuse into a single complex organism.
Popmuzik 本作は2003年7月の初来日時のライヴでも披露された音源をベースに新たに編集、マスタリングを施したもので、コンピュータでサイン・ウェイヴを自在にコントロールし、静寂感に満ちた電子音から夢幻的なサイケデリック・サウンドまで、オーガニックな変化に富んだピュアなエレクトロニクス・ミュージックを作り上げている

Harmonic Series 2

BlowUp

Stando alle dichiarazioni de neo-minimalista portighese, il secondo volume dell'Harmonic Series, iniziata su vinile Table of the Elements, è l'ultimo documento di una devozione per il suono continuo coltivata nel susseguirsi di permutazioni di una medesima idea e di una medesima pratica.

Dusted

Computer-generated sine waves rise and fall against a backdrop that modulates between shimmering hums and low, throaty growls. Higher-pitched slivers of feedback and distant buzzes drift in and out of the piece, like high cirrus clouds and distant, isolated thunderheads.

Brainwashed

Through a meticulous cycle of blends and pans, Toral reaches a powerful sonic density from the tight flux of three or four blank tones rather than a congestion or distortion of the stereo field. The gritty, psychedelic edge that touched Toral's early work is totally absent; instead Harmonic Series seems to develop out of the resulting negative space, a lyric-less tone poem to the information age

Ananana newsletter

Toral, longe já dos seus trabalhos ambientais de início, procura a destilação total da harmonia, a sublimação do Ambiental. Passados os minutos iniciais de introdução, toda a restante «Harmonic Series 2» é um campo de tensão e surpresa que apenas os mais pacientes podem ter recompensa.

Almostcool

On Harmonic Series 2, he takes the sounds of three different inputs and distills them down to their most base levels, creating one long droning piece that almost sounds like the musical equivalent of those humming tones that you can hear when standing under such large conduits of electricity.

All music guide

Toral adds layer upon layer of treated sine waves, along with guitar soundscapes and analog electronics. If the piece takes some time to take off, it eventually reaches a gorgeous state of flux where sine waves and guitars fuse into a single complex organism.

Popmuzik

本作は2003年7月の初来日時のライヴでも披露された音源をベースに新たに編集、マスタリングを施したもので、コンピュータでサイン・ウェイヴを自在にコントロールし、静寂感に満ちた電子音から夢幻的なサイケデリック・サウンドまで、オーガニックな変化に富んだピュアなエレクトロニクス・ミュージックを作り上げている

Harmonic Series LP

Aquarius warm and sonorous, gossamer strands of crystalline low end drone, nestled in equally diaphanous tendrils of analog electronics and computer generated sinewaves. Truly sublime.
Other Music He gets the most out of each note pushing the edges of structure with long sustained notes and mind-bending drones that pull the listener in and out of consciousness. One of Toral's finest works!
Pazzi per il vinile Quello che differenzia Toral da altri sound engineer, a lui contemporanei, è la corposità del suono delle sue installazioni, l'impatto ipnotizzante delle sue stratificazioni, anche lì dove le chitarre incidono meno del solito, come in 'Harmonic Series 0'. In dieci anni Toral è diventato un maestro nel suo genere.

Harmonic Series LP

Aquarius

warm and sonorous, gossamer strands of crystalline low end drone, nestled in equally diaphanous tendrils of analog electronics and computer generated sinewaves. Truly sublime.

Other Music

He gets the most out of each note pushing the edges of structure with long sustained notes and mind-bending drones that pull the listener in and out of consciousness. One of Toral's finest works!

Pazzi per il vinile

Quello che differenzia Toral da altri sound engineer, a lui contemporanei, è la corposità del suono delle sue installazioni, l'impatto ipnotizzante delle sue stratificazioni, anche lì dove le chitarre incidono meno del solito, come in 'Harmonic Series 0'. In dieci anni Toral è diventato un maestro nel suo genere.

Electric Babyland / Lullabies

Babysue While on the surface this music may sound simple, it actually took a great deal of time and concentration to create it. Heady and atmospheric in the best way possible...this album is a luxury for those willing to dabble in the unknown. Superb.
Pitchfork The disc starts to wind up (or perhaps down) with the third piece, "Rdm", plunking the tongs in its most straightforward way. It twinkles like Sun Ra's "Medicine for a Nightmare" melody, the speeds tweaked in the middle as it both warps fast and then slows before finally reaching a shimmering stasis.
A puta da subjectividade Electric Babyland / Lullabies envolve o ouvinte numa dormência serena, embalado pela extrema sensibilidade de Rafael Toral, no que se traduz numa experiência verdadeiramente memorável, a repetir todas as noites.
Autres Directions Rafael Toral fascine et berce l'auditeur... Sur Electric Babyland, Toral joue de fréquences, composant par touches naïves, à l'aide de xylophones et boîtes à musiques, des paysages sonores introspectifs, que tourmentent quelques bleeps particulièrement clairs et quelques moustiques électroniques aux battements énervants...
Sentireascoltare Lasciarsi cullare tra le trame di Electric Babyland, farsi sfiorare da questi suoni rareffatti e pregni di così ingenua bellezza è quanto di più appagante possa offrirvi l’attuale elettronica impegnata.
Neural.it Tutto è fluido, suadente e composto, microemozioni concrete attivate da un continuum di suoni in perenne stato di espansione. Una buona prova.
Hayfever Rafael Toral spielt Schlaflieder, führt durch ein elektrisches Babyland und widmet diese Soundforschung ganz explizit seiner Tochter. Schön, dass relativ freie Strukturen auch von Vaterliebe durchzogen sein können.
Bounce 詩的で繊細な音色を奏でつつもお馴染みのフィードバックで、他の追従を許さないラファエル流サウンドスケープを展開。美しさが全編に響き渡る、涙腺ユルユルの一枚です。
Racoon The palette for the five Electric Babyland tracks on this disc—processed music-box—is a new one for Toral but he makes characteristic magic from it.

Electric Babyland / Lullabies

Babysue

While on the surface this music may sound simple, it actually took a great deal of time and concentration to create it. Heady and atmospheric in the best way possible...this album is a luxury for those willing to dabble in the unknown. Superb.

Pitchfork

The disc starts to wind up (or perhaps down) with the third piece, "Rdm", plunking the tongs in its most straightforward way. It twinkles like Sun Ra's "Medicine for a Nightmare" melody, the speeds tweaked in the middle as it both warps fast and then slows before finally reaching a shimmering stasis.

A puta da subjectividade

Electric Babyland / Lullabies envolve o ouvinte numa dormência serena, embalado pela extrema sensibilidade de Rafael Toral, no que se traduz numa experiência verdadeiramente memorável, a repetir todas as noites.

Autres Directions

Rafael Toral fascine et berce l'auditeur... Sur Electric Babyland, Toral joue de fréquences, composant par touches naïves, à l'aide de xylophones et boîtes à musiques, des paysages sonores introspectifs, que tourmentent quelques bleeps particulièrement clairs et quelques moustiques électroniques aux battements énervants...

Sentireascoltare

Lasciarsi cullare tra le trame di Electric Babyland, farsi sfiorare da questi suoni rareffatti e pregni di così ingenua bellezza è quanto di più appagante possa offrirvi l’attuale elettronica impegnata.

Neural.it

Tutto è fluido, suadente e composto, microemozioni concrete attivate da un continuum di suoni in perenne stato di espansione. Una buona prova.

Hayfever

Rafael Toral spielt Schlaflieder, führt durch ein elektrisches Babyland und widmet diese Soundforschung ganz explizit seiner Tochter. Schön, dass relativ freie Strukturen auch von Vaterliebe durchzogen sein können.

Bounce

詩的で繊細な音色を奏でつつもお馴染みのフィード
バックで、他の追従を許さないラファエル流サウンドス
ケープを展開。美しさが全編に響き渡る、涙腺ユルユル
の一枚です。

Racoon

The palette for the five Electric Babyland tracks on this disc—processed music-box—is a new one for Toral but he makes characteristic magic from it.

Engine

Touching Extremes A live recording of an exhibition by Rafael Toral in Paris, "Engine" is like watching a butterfly evolve from a cocoon to all his chromatic splendour. Scored for guitar, bass and a series of devices ranging from feedback circuits to analogue modular systems, this piece shows once and for all Rafael is not just a "guitarist"

Engine

Touching Extremes

A live recording of an exhibition by Rafael Toral in Paris, "Engine" is like watching a butterfly evolve from a cocoon to all his chromatic splendour. Scored for guitar, bass and a series of devices ranging from feedback circuits to analogue modular systems, this piece shows once and for all Rafael is not just a "guitarist"

Early Works

Chronic'Art Early Works réunit en effet six pièces pour guitare composées par le prodige portugais entre 1987 et 1990, soit près de quatre ans avant la sortie de son premier album solo (Sound Mind Sound Body, Ananana, 1994, réédité sur Moikai, 1999).
The Wire Acclaimed Portuguese guitarist Toral has excavated private tapes dating from 1987 to 1990 to shed light on his later course of development.
Dusted Early Works predates the drone aesthetic of Sound Mind Sound Body, while its precision in ambient soundscapes is not far removed from that defining last year's brilliant Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance.
Bounce ゆらめくようなサステイン・トーンの渦は、なんとも官能的でさえもあり、それは10年以上も前の音源をコンパイルした本作でも変わらない。が、最後にいわゆる通常のギター即興も披露しているところがこの盤のポイント。西山伸基

Early Works

Chronic'Art

Early Works réunit en effet six pièces pour guitare composées par le prodige portugais entre 1987 et 1990, soit près de quatre ans avant la sortie de son premier album solo (Sound Mind Sound Body, Ananana, 1994, réédité sur Moikai, 1999).

The Wire

Acclaimed Portuguese guitarist Toral has excavated private tapes dating from 1987 to 1990 to shed light on his later course of development.

Dusted

Early Works predates the drone aesthetic of Sound Mind Sound Body, while its precision in ambient soundscapes is not far removed from that defining last year's brilliant Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance.

Bounce

ゆらめくようなサステイン・トーンの渦は、なんとも官能的でさえもあり、それは10年以上も前の音源をコンパイルした本作でも変わらない。が、最後にいわゆる通常のギター即興も披露しているところがこの盤のポイント。西山伸基

VDCA

Octopus A écouter rêveusement dans l'attente de pouvoir, un jour prochain, observer le sillage des avions, tout en étant étendu sur le fond de l'océan.
Crackedmachine to describe Toral's magical flights as ambience would be to do them a great disservice, but this is underwater moonlight music to drift and dream to.
Fällt one of the most beautiful guitar-generated albums you could possibly imagine.
AmbiEntrance These 10 guitar-powered tracks from Rafael Toral waft on gentle waves of mutant feedback spirals. The Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance are explored with much emphasis on the latter by the Portuguese musician, producer and sound engineer. Churning metallic radiance envelops Desirée in a lightly boiling fogbank
Touchingextremes Toral's timbres are so delicate and particular, they possess a beauty of their own; this musician achieves the not easy result of keeping your mind relaxed even when frequencies explored are far from smooth territories.
Freq1C the feeling generated is more that Rafael Toral is actively listening to the sounds he's making as both an outsider and creator. Regardless of the truth or not of this impression, the end result is a disc which roams from the rising effects trails into the tightly-controlled diversion of feedback into rhythms and half-framed melodies and chords
Popkomm Exegese des klanglichen Moments. Woran er arbeitet sind immer noch Drones, aber er ertastet ihre Materialität mit einer Feinfühligkeit, dass sie in seinen Händen wie filigrane, aber strukturell absolut klare Figuren scheinen. Blendend schön.
Fake jazz Eventually guitars turn into space dust, microcosmic particles, and huge walls of tones and feedback that strain to hold together under the wait of the gravity of the stars.
Baltimore Citypaper Toral has released several sparse, slow-blooming guitar-and-effects minimalism epics, but Violence of Discovery is his finest recording, in part because he focuses his efforts on a more intimate scale.
XLR8R There's a radical simplicity here: you sense that Toral isn't forcing anything, just letting things exist as they are. Violence... is a breathtaking glimpse into the unadorned sphere of being.
Remote Induction As an album Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance is a mix of understated guitar melodies, floating and minimal construction, within which we can hear the light vibrations of strings and the atmospheric impact of those
Tijd Cultuur De eerste secondes van de opener Désirée, dicht op elkaar gestapelde geluidslagen, sleuren je meteen in een haast religieuze trance, een duik onder het wateroppervlak die steeds dieper gaat en intensifieert naarmate het album vordert.
All music guide On the closing Mixed States Uncoded one finds a post-rockish lazy nostalgia that was quite impossible to imagine upon hearing the opener Désirée, a soundscape much closer to something that would come out of a metallic sound sculpture than an electric guitar.
Incursion roughness is transformed into gentility, a chord is transformed into a stunning drone. Silence and sound interact in these pieces to great effect; the listener treasures the continuous ebb and flow of this wondrous music. Highly recommended.
Chicago Reader Rafael Toral's Wave Field (Moneyland, 1995) and Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance (Touch, 2001) are two of the most gorgeous records of guitar music made in the past decade - and part of their beauty derives from how far they venture from the familiar language of the guitar.
The Ticket Net als Fennesz en O'Rourke gebruikt hij de gitaar in combinatie met analoge technologie als een complex instrument waar hij subtiele en intrigerende drones uit puurt en de meest onmogelijke geluiden uit haalt. Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance - wat een fantastische titel trouwens! - is zonder meer Toral's beste werk tot nu toe.
Vital Weekly Delicate pieces and Toral succeeds well in doing his great things in a short context too. Beautiful stuff.
Signal to Noise So many artists aim for beauty and come up with mere prettiness; on "Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance" Toral hits the target
BlowUp Dieci infatti sono inusualmente stavolta, come tenui acquarelli figli di una stessa tela fatta di delicate trame ambientali. Detto cosí potrebbe sembrare un disco di sensibile fragilitá. No, tutt'altro, la mano di Toral é decisa ed attenta, egli sparge con cura i suoi colori, le sue tinte chiaroscurali, senza sbavature.
The Guardian a gorgeous sensual timbre that hardly depends upon any conventional harmony, melody or pulse at all. The sound flows slowly from one grandiose texture to another.
Muzprosvet Тораль использует электрогитару как генератор звука, его импровизациям присуща высокая степень риска - то есть во время игры происходят вещи, которые заранее предусмотреть невозможно, иными словами аппаратура ведёт себя непредсказуемо. Это его четвёртый соло-альбом Тораля, на нём - короткие пьесы мастера, импровизации которого могут превышать и 20 минут.
Grinningtroll 私が普段、北欧の寒色系の音ばかり聴いているせいも多少はあるだろうが、しかしそれにしてもこのアルバムの音は暖色系だ。太陽の光の温かさのようなものをじんわり感じるサウンド。そのサウンドは広がり、色彩をゆらゆらと幻想的に変化させ、歪み、別の音へと変貌していく。
Dusted (Reissue 2011) What music as rich and subtle as Toral’s teaches us on Violence... is that just because we don’t have the words ready or the tools at hand to describe and interpret the sounds, it doesn’t mean we should put off the search.

VDCA

Octopus

A écouter rêveusement dans l'attente de pouvoir, un jour prochain, observer le sillage des avions, tout en étant étendu sur le fond de l'océan.

Crackedmachine

to describe Toral's magical flights as ambience would be to do them a great disservice, but this is underwater moonlight music to drift and dream to.

Fällt

one of the most beautiful guitar-generated albums you could possibly imagine.

AmbiEntrance

These 10 guitar-powered tracks from Rafael Toral waft on gentle waves of mutant feedback spirals. The Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance are explored with much emphasis on the latter by the Portuguese musician, producer and sound engineer. Churning metallic radiance envelops Desirée in a lightly boiling fogbank

Touchingextremes

Toral's timbres are so delicate and particular, they possess a beauty of their own; this musician achieves the not easy result of keeping your mind relaxed even when frequencies explored are far from smooth territories.

Freq1C

the feeling generated is more that Rafael Toral is actively listening to the sounds he's making as both an outsider and creator. Regardless of the truth or not of this impression, the end result is a disc which roams from the rising effects trails into the tightly-controlled diversion of feedback into rhythms and half-framed melodies and chords

Popkomm

Exegese des klanglichen Moments. Woran er arbeitet sind immer noch Drones, aber er ertastet ihre Materialität mit einer Feinfühligkeit, dass sie in seinen Händen wie filigrane, aber strukturell absolut klare Figuren scheinen. Blendend schön.

Fake jazz

Eventually guitars turn into space dust, microcosmic particles, and huge walls of tones and feedback that strain to hold together under the wait of the gravity of the stars.

Baltimore Citypaper

Toral has released several sparse, slow-blooming guitar-and-effects minimalism epics, but Violence of Discovery is his finest recording, in part because he focuses his efforts on a more intimate scale.

XLR8R

There's a radical simplicity here: you sense that Toral isn't forcing anything, just letting things exist as they are. Violence... is a breathtaking glimpse into the unadorned sphere of being.

Remote Induction

As an album Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance is a mix of understated guitar melodies, floating and minimal construction, within which we can hear the light vibrations of strings and the atmospheric impact of those

Tijd Cultuur

De eerste secondes van de opener Désirée, dicht op elkaar gestapelde geluidslagen, sleuren je meteen in een haast religieuze trance, een duik onder het wateroppervlak die steeds dieper gaat en intensifieert naarmate het album vordert.

All music guide

On the closing Mixed States Uncoded one finds a post-rockish lazy nostalgia that was quite impossible to imagine upon hearing the opener Désirée, a soundscape much closer to something that would come out of a metallic sound sculpture than an electric guitar.

Incursion

roughness is transformed into gentility, a chord is transformed into a stunning drone. Silence and sound interact in these pieces to great effect; the listener treasures the continuous ebb and flow of this wondrous music. Highly recommended.

Chicago Reader

Rafael Toral's Wave Field (Moneyland, 1995) and Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance (Touch, 2001) are two of the most gorgeous records of guitar music made in the past decade - and part of their beauty derives from how far they venture from the familiar language of the guitar.

The Ticket

Net als Fennesz en O'Rourke gebruikt hij de gitaar in combinatie met analoge technologie als een complex instrument waar hij subtiele en intrigerende drones uit puurt en de meest onmogelijke geluiden uit haalt. Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance - wat een fantastische titel trouwens! - is zonder meer Toral's beste werk tot nu toe.

Vital Weekly

Delicate pieces and Toral succeeds well in doing his great things in a short context too. Beautiful stuff.

Signal to Noise

So many artists aim for beauty and come up with mere prettiness; on "Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance" Toral hits the target

BlowUp

Dieci infatti sono inusualmente stavolta, come tenui acquarelli figli di una stessa tela fatta di delicate trame ambientali. Detto cosí potrebbe sembrare un disco di sensibile fragilitá. No, tutt'altro, la mano di Toral é decisa ed attenta, egli sparge con cura i suoi colori, le sue tinte chiaroscurali, senza sbavature.

The Guardian

a gorgeous sensual timbre that hardly depends upon any conventional harmony, melody or pulse at all. The sound flows slowly from one grandiose texture to another.

Muzprosvet

Тораль использует электрогитару как генератор звука, его импровизациям присуща высокая степень риска - то есть во время игры происходят вещи, которые заранее предусмотреть невозможно, иными словами аппаратура ведёт себя непредсказуемо. Это его четвёртый соло-альбом Тораля, на нём - короткие пьесы мастера, импровизации которого могут превышать и 20 минут.

Grinningtroll

私が普段、北欧の寒色系の音ばかり聴いているせいも多少はあるだろうが、しかしそれにしてもこのアルバムの音は暖色系だ。太陽の光の温かさのようなものをじんわり感じるサウンド。そのサウンドは広がり、色彩をゆらゆらと幻想的に変化させ、歪み、別の音へと変貌していく。

Dusted (Reissue 2011)

What music as rich and subtle as Toral’s teaches us on Violence... is that just because we don’t have the words ready or the tools at hand to describe and interpret the sounds, it doesn’t mean we should put off the search.

Cyclorama Lift 3

Fällt true to Toral's desire to show us "the ghost in the machine" his music conveys real [human] emotion and soul.
Neurobot 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.
XLR8R 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.
Magnet 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.
BlowUp Rafael arriva alla terza uscita assembrando sette registrazioni effettuate tra il '94 e il '96 in duetto con altri musicisti dell'ambito. Due pezzi sono eseguiti insieme a Jim O'Rourke. Il primo, Blackbird, si regge quasi interamente sulla fisarmonica suonata dal chicagoano, flebile, sottilissima e sposa perfetta delle altrettanto impalpabili e fantasmatiche presenze elettroacustiche di Toral

Cyclorama Lift 3

Fällt

true to Toral's desire to show us "the ghost in the machine" his music conveys real [human] emotion and soul.

Neurobot

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.

XLR8R

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.

Magnet

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.

BlowUp

Rafael arriva alla terza uscita assembrando sette registrazioni effettuate tra il '94 e il '96 in duetto con altri musicisti dell'ambito. Due pezzi sono eseguiti insieme a Jim O'Rourke. Il primo, Blackbird, si regge quasi interamente sulla fisarmonica suonata dal chicagoano, flebile, sottilissima e sposa perfetta delle altrettanto impalpabili e fantasmatiche presenze elettroacustiche di Toral

Chasing Sonic Booms

Improvisor There are sounds, not notes, or rather singular waves of sounds, oscillating slightly and changing their timbral coloring. Toral is quite consistent in this minimal approach.
Opprobium Another great offering from Ecstatic Peace (thanks, Thurston!), and one we could all do with exploring in depth. Truly, Rafael Toral has the Right Stuff.
Your Flesh A collection of solo performances and duets that the Portuguese guitarist Toral recorded from 1994 to 1996. Chasing Sonic Booms highlights both the strengths and weaknesses Toral works with.
Retro Noise I'm suprised Rafael Toral's name isn't currently more prominent in...well, in any musical circles, but especially noise and improv. I still hear about him from time to time, and he's clearly still pretty active, but I don't know, it just feels like he should be talked about more.

Chasing Sonic Booms

Improvisor

There are sounds, not notes, or rather singular waves of sounds, oscillating slightly and changing their timbral coloring. Toral is quite consistent in this minimal approach.

Opprobium

Another great offering from Ecstatic Peace (thanks, Thurston!), and one we could all do with exploring in depth. Truly, Rafael Toral has the Right Stuff.

Your Flesh

A collection of solo performances and duets that the Portuguese guitarist Toral recorded from 1994 to 1996. Chasing Sonic Booms highlights both the strengths and weaknesses Toral works with.

Retro Noise

I'm suprised Rafael Toral's name isn't currently more prominent in...well, in any musical circles, but especially noise and improv. I still hear about him from time to time, and he's clearly still pretty active, but I don't know, it just feels like he should be talked about more.

Aeriola Frequency

All music guide The record stands as one of few releases in history to have no source of sound -- all of the tones used to create its two long compositions were drawn from a feedback loop consisting of two delays and an equalizer, with no actual input.
Scaruffi Il suono e' semplicemente un infinito loop di chitarra dalle variazioni infinitesimali talmente travistato da risultare una nebulosa sonora internamente cangiante.
Vital Weekly I am reminded of a roman catholic ritual were they make two steps forward and then one back: this music is kinda like that. Whenever it goes forward, it seems to be going backward at the same time.
Motion This is not in any sense, then, "easy" but it is seductive in the extreme, and, I'd venture, Toral's best work to date. That said, I harbour a strong suspicion that there's a lot more to come.
Green Mountain Music An electronic thrumming wave trapped in a small aluiminum box - floating in space - tied to a shelf - on Mir.
BlowUp Suoni nascosti in ogni anfratto, insopportabili a tratti e ambigui per sempre. Un mondo intero che nasce solo per implodere.

Aeriola Frequency

All music guide

The record stands as one of few releases in history to have no source of sound -- all of the tones used to create its two long compositions were drawn from a feedback loop consisting of two delays and an equalizer, with no actual input.

Scaruffi

Il suono e' semplicemente un infinito loop di chitarra dalle variazioni infinitesimali talmente travistato da risultare una nebulosa sonora internamente cangiante.

Vital Weekly

I am reminded of a roman catholic ritual were they make two steps forward and then one back: this music is kinda like that. Whenever it goes forward, it seems to be going backward at the same time.

Motion

This is not in any sense, then, "easy" but it is seductive in the extreme, and, I'd venture, Toral's best work to date. That said, I harbour a strong suspicion that there's a lot more to come.

Green Mountain Music

An electronic thrumming wave trapped in a small aluiminum box - floating in space - tied to a shelf - on Mir.

BlowUp

Suoni nascosti in ogni anfratto, insopportabili a tratti e ambigui per sempre. Un mondo intero che nasce solo per implodere.

Wave Field

Orchêstra Wave Field est une multitude de vagues sonores déferlantes, de timbres dérivants l'un sur l'autre. Le guitariste portugais surdoué nous entraine sur des mouvements ondulatoires surprenants.
Chicago Reader Too dirty to call ambient, too gentle to call industrial, Toral's unique sound entails a static investigation of space and volume.
Media Nugget It sounds like a liquid distillation of My Bloody Valentine's revelatory Loveless (the cover is an homage to that record), and has the heady, soundscape qualities of No Pussyfooting by Fripp and Eno, except that it's more lush, more beautiful, and thoroughly modern-sounding.
All music guide his soundscapes are thoroughly ambient textures, but with a rock-guitar background that separates them from electronically based ambient projects
Chicago Reader Played at low volume, Wave Field (Moneyland) is a beautiful record whose liquid flow is reminiscent of Brian Eno's experiments with ambient music. Turn it up and it becomes a churning, mesmerizing, layered soundcape of molten feedback and chiming overtones.
New York Press Resounding frequencies overlap and gyrate, wiggling their way inside your body. The notes, tones, and clusters of guitar-induced and effects-generated notes reverberate amongst each other. It almost sounds underwater:

Wave Field

Orchêstra

Wave Field est une multitude de vagues sonores déferlantes, de timbres dérivants l'un sur l'autre. Le guitariste portugais surdoué nous entraine sur des mouvements ondulatoires surprenants.

Chicago Reader

Too dirty to call ambient, too gentle to call industrial, Toral's unique sound entails a static investigation of space and volume.

Media Nugget

It sounds like a liquid distillation of My Bloody Valentine's revelatory Loveless (the cover is an homage to that record), and has the heady, soundscape qualities of No Pussyfooting by Fripp and Eno, except that it's more lush, more beautiful, and thoroughly modern-sounding.

All music guide

his soundscapes are thoroughly ambient textures, but with a rock-guitar background that separates them from electronically based ambient projects

Chicago Reader

Played at low volume, Wave Field (Moneyland) is a beautiful record whose liquid flow is reminiscent of Brian Eno's experiments with ambient music. Turn it up and it becomes a churning, mesmerizing, layered soundcape of molten feedback and chiming overtones.

New York Press

Resounding frequencies overlap and gyrate, wiggling their way inside your body. The notes, tones, and clusters of guitar-induced and effects-generated notes reverberate amongst each other. It almost sounds underwater:

Sound Mind Sound Body

BlowUp Altre meraviglie verrano per Toral negli ultimi anni, ma partire da Sound Mind Sound Body è percorso obbligato e fondamentale.
Amazon.com editorial review Toral's manipulation of digital glitches on "Loopability I" foreshadows the work of artists like Pole and Oval, and he evokes the calmof a Zen rock garden on the generously proportioned "AER 7 E," which arises out of an exquisite latticework of decaying harmonics.
Vital Weekly Described by the label as the first Portuguese ambient record. Toral uses guitars, bass and sampler to create, i must admit, a classical sensed ambient record.
Subtonic こういった長い尺の音というのは、時間の流れ方を意識的にコントロールするための一つの手段であるような気もします。せわしなく動き回ることを余儀なくされる、今のような社会の中ではこういった音楽は本当に貴重な存在だなと思います。

Sound Mind Sound Body

BlowUp

Altre meraviglie verrano per Toral negli ultimi anni, ma partire da Sound Mind Sound Body è percorso obbligato e fondamentale.

Amazon.com editorial review

Toral's manipulation of digital glitches on "Loopability I" foreshadows the work of artists like Pole and Oval, and he evokes the calmof a Zen rock garden on the generously proportioned "AER 7 E," which arises out of an exquisite latticework of decaying harmonics.

Vital Weekly

Described by the label as the first Portuguese ambient record. Toral uses guitars, bass and sampler to create, i must admit, a classical sensed ambient record.

Subtonic

こういった長い尺の音というのは、時間の流れ方を意識的にコントロー
ルするための一つの手段であるような気もします。せわしなく動き回ることを余儀なくされる、今のような社会の中ではこういった音楽は本当に貴重な存在だなと思います。

Esfíngico

Age of Everything new jazz has emerged in an unexpected place. This time Lisbon is where it's at.
A Trompa É novo e merece ser comemorado.
Jazzreview Like it or not, Miguel is most assuredly on to something here, which is a notion that parallels the promotional notes, stating his John Cage influences. Indeed, the subversive flair, asymmetrical currents and darkly woven fabrics of sound, intrinsically taunt the mind’s eye.
Monsieur Délire De la superbe, de la classe, une écoute exigente qui récompense l’effort.
Free Jazz A weird but very enjoyable sonic environment is the end result, carefully crafted, full of emotional tension and opening new directions for music in a clever and creative way.
Gapplegate We live in exciting times.
Point of Departure The music is, of course, not random, but the product of artfulness, the hardest kind of all – the art that doesn’t sound like art. This is brilliant, idiosyncratic music from an independent minded composer-instrumentalist.
Paris Transatlantic Esfíngico has been on high rotation since it arrived and has egged me on to try and dig up more of Sei Miguel's earlier work.

Esfíngico

Age of Everything

new jazz has emerged in an unexpected place. This time Lisbon is where it's at.

A Trompa

É novo e merece ser comemorado.

Jazzreview

Like it or not, Miguel is most assuredly on to something here, which is a notion that parallels the promotional notes, stating his John Cage influences. Indeed, the subversive flair, asymmetrical currents and darkly woven fabrics of sound, intrinsically taunt the mind’s eye.

Monsieur Délire

De la superbe, de la classe, une écoute exigente qui récompense l’effort.

Free Jazz

A weird but very enjoyable sonic environment is the end result, carefully crafted, full of emotional tension and opening new directions for music in a clever and creative way.

Gapplegate

We live in exciting times.

Point of Departure

The music is, of course, not random, but the product of artfulness, the hardest kind of all – the art that doesn’t sound like art. This is brilliant, idiosyncratic music from an independent minded composer-instrumentalist.

Paris Transatlantic

Esfíngico has been on high rotation since it arrived and has egged me on to try and dig up more of Sei Miguel's earlier work.

Space Elements Vol II

OMG Vinyl Joined by a metric shitload of genius musicians, Toral’s new record is a wild exercise in jazz and electronics.
Boomkat The character of this music is incredibly tricky to pinpoint, and Toral's work seems to take inspiration from free-jazz as much as it does the extreme edges of electronic music.
The Sound Projector The instrumentation here (vibraphone, trumpet, percussion, Fender Rhodes) isn’t too far away from what you’d expect to find at any Miles Davis session recorded after 1970, and perhaps it isn’t too fanciful to suggest Toral is attempting a contemporary update on electric free jazz.
Le Son du Grisli Peut-être parce qu’on ne l’attendait pas vraiment, alors, Rafael Toral réussira à surprendre les plus blasés d'entre les blasés de sonorités uniques.
Crow with no Mouth His sound world is both grounded, burrowed deep into the loam and silt, and filled with flights and flares of satellite sparks, calls from the deep in all directions.
Vital Weekly The pieces have clear musical structures full of subtleties. Toral shows a very personal style and power, and paints beautiful and unusual panoramas.
Foxy Digitalis It’s quite a bold project, and an undoubtedly radical and necessary one. Whether or not the album succeeds, “Space Elements Vol. II” produces an aural environment that is an absolute joy to be within.
Jazzdimensions Der Portugiese Rafael Toral bezeichnet seine Musik als "post-free jazz electronic music", was zwar ein verwirrender Begriff ist, aber Sinn macht, wenn man sich sein neues Album "Space Elements Vol. II" anhört. "Der Körper spielt die Musik," ist sein Credo.
Paris Transatlantic Quite how these gizmos function, or how they're played, I couldn't say, but he's clearly mastered them, and is able to control their pale shuddering beauty with exemplary precision and enormous delicacy.
De:Bug Ganz so elementar klingt Torals Musik vielleicht nicht, dafür ist es umso spannender, ihm zuzuhören, wie er ganz allmählich eine neue Syntax der elektronischen Musik entwirft.
Cyclic Defrost This is weird, intelligent, and convincing music.
Freejazz The music is unlike anything you've heard before. It is fresh, open, extreme yet very welcoming.
Popmatters ...a spectacular meditation on the relationship between sound and atmosphere that gets better with each new release.

Space Elements Vol II

OMG Vinyl

Joined by a metric shitload of genius musicians, Toral’s new record is a wild exercise in jazz and electronics.

Boomkat

The character of this music is incredibly tricky to pinpoint, and Toral's work seems to take inspiration from free-jazz as much as it does the extreme edges of electronic music.

The Sound Projector

The instrumentation here (vibraphone, trumpet, percussion, Fender Rhodes) isn’t too far away from what you’d expect to find at any Miles Davis session recorded after 1970, and perhaps it isn’t too fanciful to suggest Toral is attempting a contemporary update on electric free jazz.

Le Son du Grisli

Peut-être parce qu’on ne l’attendait pas vraiment, alors, Rafael Toral réussira à surprendre les plus blasés d'entre les blasés de sonorités uniques.

Crow with no Mouth

His sound world is both grounded, burrowed deep into the loam and silt, and filled with flights and flares of satellite sparks, calls from the deep in all directions.

Vital Weekly

The pieces have clear musical structures full of subtleties. Toral shows a very personal style and power, and paints beautiful and unusual panoramas.

Foxy Digitalis

It’s quite a bold project, and an undoubtedly radical and necessary one. Whether or not the album succeeds, “Space Elements Vol. II” produces an aural environment that is an absolute joy to be within.

Jazzdimensions

Der Portugiese Rafael Toral bezeichnet seine Musik als "post-free jazz electronic music", was zwar ein verwirrender Begriff ist, aber Sinn macht, wenn man sich sein neues Album "Space Elements Vol. II" anhört. "Der Körper spielt die Musik," ist sein Credo.

Paris Transatlantic

Quite how these gizmos function, or how they're played, I couldn't say, but he's clearly mastered them, and is able to control their pale shuddering beauty with exemplary precision and enormous delicacy.

De:Bug

Ganz so elementar klingt Torals Musik vielleicht nicht, dafür ist es umso spannender, ihm zuzuhören, wie er ganz allmählich eine neue Syntax der elektronischen Musik entwirft.

Cyclic Defrost

This is weird, intelligent, and convincing music.

Freejazz

The music is unlike anything you've heard before. It is fresh, open, extreme yet very welcoming.

Popmatters

...a spectacular meditation on the relationship between sound and atmosphere that gets better with each new release.

Space Elements Vol III

Bad Alchemy Er beamt mit diesen elektrisch-elektronischen Geräuschemachern die Phantasie in ein außerirdisches Vogelparadies, bewohnt von Vogelautomaten oder Automatenvögeln, die zwitschern und knarren, jaulen und schnarren, kollern und heulen wie nichts von dieser Welt.
Boomkat When he strikes up a uniformity with the other instruments (as with a collection of bells on ‘III.III’) it sounds like little else I’ve come across. Recommended.
Westzeit Der dritte Band der „Space Elements“ setzt die programmatische Mission des Rafael Toral fort. Alles klingt klar, überraschend und zutiefst motiviert.
Dusted At this juncture in the Space Program’s evolution, Vol. III is notable not for its bracingly new and novel sound, but for how easily and naturally Toral is able to mesh his sound with that of his collaborators.
De:Bug “Vol. III” klingt noch selbstbewusster als die beiden Vorgänger, und das Zusammenspiel mit anderen Instrumenten – diesmal sind es überwiegend Schlagzeug und Perkussion – wirkt immer selbstverständlicher.
OMG Vinyl This collection of albums features Toral burning through some completely way-out improvisational, experimental jazz. The entire record is pretty far left of conventional, but it’s sure exciting to listen to.
Foxy Digitalis one of Toral’s greatest attributes as a composer is his lack of retroflexion in ideas and an ability to work in an inventive and unprecedented creative direction.
Paris Transatlantic It's beautifully recorded, executed with precision and delicacy and sounds great, whatever you want to call it.
Vital Weekly As ever the music is intelligently composed and performed very disciplined. This makes it work!
Signal To Noise Seven years past its inception, Rafael Toral’s Space Program is here to stay. This record is his third volume of improvisations with other musicians, and while the participants may not be as famous as some on the previous editions, they’re the most closely and consistently attuned to what this music is about.
Tiny Mixtapes It all hangs loosely together like a wizard’s sleeve hanging off his bony arm, and the success rate of these odd instrumental pairings (squeaked clarinet and metal brushes; soft street bells and subtle “tap”s; cymbal-tom slaps and… SHIT, I DON’T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS IS) is near-perfect.

Space Elements Vol III

Bad Alchemy

Er beamt mit diesen elektrisch-elektronischen Geräuschemachern die Phantasie in ein außerirdisches Vogelparadies, bewohnt von Vogelautomaten oder Automatenvögeln, die zwitschern und knarren, jaulen und schnarren, kollern und heulen wie nichts von dieser Welt.

Boomkat

When he strikes up a uniformity with the other instruments (as with a collection of bells on ‘III.III’) it sounds like little else I’ve come across. Recommended.

Westzeit

Der dritte Band der „Space Elements“ setzt die programmatische Mission des Rafael Toral fort. Alles klingt klar, überraschend und zutiefst motiviert.

Dusted

At this juncture in the Space Program’s evolution, Vol. III is notable not for its bracingly new and novel sound, but for how easily and naturally Toral is able to mesh his sound with that of his collaborators.

De:Bug

“Vol. III” klingt noch selbstbewusster als die beiden Vorgänger, und das Zusammenspiel mit anderen Instrumenten – diesmal sind es überwiegend Schlagzeug und Perkussion – wirkt immer selbstverständlicher.

OMG Vinyl

This collection of albums features Toral burning through some completely way-out improvisational, experimental jazz. The entire record is pretty far left of conventional, but it’s sure exciting to listen to.

Foxy Digitalis

one of Toral’s greatest attributes as a composer is his lack of retroflexion in ideas and an ability to work in an inventive and unprecedented creative direction.

Paris Transatlantic

It's beautifully recorded, executed with precision and delicacy and sounds great, whatever you want to call it.

Vital Weekly

As ever the music is intelligently composed and performed very disciplined. This makes it work!

Signal To Noise

Seven years past its inception, Rafael Toral’s Space Program is here to stay. This record is his third volume of improvisations with other musicians, and while the participants may not be as famous as some on the previous editions, they’re the most closely and consistently attuned to what this music is about.

Tiny Mixtapes

It all hangs loosely together like a wizard’s sleeve hanging off his bony arm, and the success rate of these odd instrumental pairings (squeaked clarinet and metal brushes; soft street bells and subtle “tap”s; cymbal-tom slaps and… SHIT, I DON’T KNOW WHAT ANY OF THIS IS) is near-perfect.

Live at Outfest

Foxy Digitalis The energy on display in Live at Outfest is completely through the roof.

Live at Outfest

Foxy Digitalis

The energy on display in Live at Outfest is completely through the roof.

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