Rafael Toral - Traveling Light *Pre-Order

From out of the dark, the crackle of feed-
back birdsong signals a return to the land

of sound environments exclusive to the
music of Rafael Toral. A year and a half
after his epochal electric guitar album,
Spectral Evolution, Traveling Light finds
him sharpening his focus, moving boldly

from abstract forms to concrete composi-
tions in the form of a set of jazz standards.

Based on Toral’s discography, this may
seem an unlikely endeavor, but happily,
Traveling Light transpires to be one of
the major accomplishments in his long
history, expressing these songs on their
own terms through the unique listening
lens of his music.

It’s nearly a century since the innova-
tion that electrified the guitar, almost a

century since the era of songs like “Easy
Living” and “Body and Soul.” Since then,
guitars and songs have been played
hundreds of different ways by thousands
of diverse individuals. After a century of
progress, they probably should sound like
something else again! And they do, as
Toral sidesteps the traditional logic of how to play a song, moving outside the
framework with which one would expect a standard to be treated.
Three decades ago, in the early years of his practice, Toral used the guitar as
a generator, to create discreet texture and droning tones. Later, he abandoned
the guitar entirely, focusing on self-made electronics to render his music, and
the silence from which it came, with a post-free jazz perspective. For the music

of Spectral Evolution and Traveling Light, Toral has combined his methodolo-
gies, radically expanding the space within their harmonies with his self-made

machines, while engaging directly with his instrument and the chords of the
material. The result is a listening experience of these standards, that remains
“in the tradition,” even as the elongated harmonies seem to alter time such
that, as Toral notes, “the chords become events on their own.” At points, the
long tones animate the sacred ennui of liturgic music, the choir or the organ
standing in for silent contemplation while rumbling the ground beneath our
feet. Another echo of the concentric circling of music in time...
Further time-loops emerge throughout the duration of Traveling Light. The
simple, organic quality of these reshaped songs and sounds, arranged by
Toral for guitar with sine waves, feedback and bass guitar forms a proxy

orchestra of sorts! One of Toral’s self-made devices incorporates a there-
min—another near-century old innovation in electronics conceived for use

in classical music—to modulate feedback melodies here. Meanwhile, this
altered space is visited by canonical jazz sounds on four tracks, as clarinetist
José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player
Yaw Tembe and flautist Clara Saleiro each guest on one song. In this new
landscape, history and tradition are exemplified, like a toast to Earth cultures
made on the alien terrain of Mars.
In every contour of Traveling Light’s path—arrangement, improvisation and
production—the spring of the old pours through the new in an unstoppable
flow. This is the sound of life, a nexus point for the music of the last century
and the music ever unfurling toward the far horizons of the next century.

rack List:

SIDE A
1. Easy Living
2. Solitude

SIDE B
3. Body and Soul
4. You Don't Know What Love Is

SIDE C
5. My Funny Valentine
6. God Bless the Child

SIDE D - LP ONLY TRACK
7. Bonus Track