Spectral Evolution Rafael Toral SKU: M14 Barcode: 0781484901419 22.00 £22.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Moikai Released Date: 23rd February 2024 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info After a two-decade interlude, Jim O’Rourke’s Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like ‘Sound Mind Sound Body’ and ‘Wave Field’ (both reissued by Drag City in recent years), Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. In the early years of the 21st century, Toral laid the guitar aside, along with the focus on extended tones that had defined much of his music until that point. He began his ‘Space Program’, a thirteen-year investigation of the performance possibilities of an ever-expanding set of custom electronic instruments, played with a fluid phrasing and rhythmic flexibility inspired by jazz. Dedicated to honing his skills on these idiosyncratic instruments, Toral has performed with them extensively both solo and in many collaborations, including in his Space Quartet, where his mini-amplifier feedback integrates seamlessly into the frontline of a classic post-free jazz quartet rounded out with saxophone, double bass, and drums. Since 2017, Toral’s work has been entering a new phase, often still centred around the arsenal of self-built instruments developed in the Space Program, but with a renewed interest in the long tones and almost static textures of his earlier work; he has also, after more than a decade, returned to the electric guitar. ‘Spectral Evolution’ is undoubtedly Toral’s most sophisticated work to date, bringing together seemingly incompatible threads from his entire career into a powerful new synthesis, both wildly experimental and emotionally affecting. The record begins with a brief ‘Intro’ that sets the stage for the unique sound world explored throughout the remainder of its duration: over sparkling clean guitar figures, Toral stages a duet between two streams of modulated feedback, seeming less electronic than like mutant takes on a muted trumpet and an ocarina. This segues seamlessly into the stunning ‘Changes’, where a dense array of Space instruments solo with wild abandon over a thick carpet of slowly moving chords, growing increasingly chaotic over the course of eight minutes yet always fastened to the lush harmonic foundation. On these and many other moments on the record, Toral manages the almost miraculous feat of having his self-built electronic instruments (which in the past he had seen as ‘inadequate to play any music based on the Western system’) play in tune. In an unexpected sidestep away from any of his previous work, the chord changes that underpin many of the episodes on ‘Spectral Evolution’ are derived from classic jazz harmony, including takes on the archetypal Gershwin ‘Rhythm Changes’ and Ellington-Strayhorn’s ‘Take the ‘A’ Train’, albeit slowed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of environment in its own right. Threading together twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole, ‘Spectral Evolution’ alternates moments of airy instrumental interplay with dense sonic mass, breaking up the pieces based on chord changes with ambient ‘Spaces’. At points reduced to almost a whisper, at other moments Toral’s electronics wail, squelch, and squeak like David Tudor’s live-electronic rainforest. Similarly, his use of the guitar encompasses an enormous dynamic and textural range, from chiming chords to expansive drones, from crystal clarity to fuzzy grit: on the beautiful ‘Your Goodbye’, his filtered, distorted soloing recalls Loren Connors in its emotive depth and wandering melodic sensibility. The product of three years of experimentation and recording and synthesizing the insights of more than thirty years of musical research, ‘Spectral Evolution’ is the quintessential album of guitar music from Rafael Toral. Artist Rafael Toral Genre Leftfield / Experimental Label Moikai Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings Intro Changes Descending First Short Space Take the Train First Long Space Fifths Twice Second Long Space Your Goodbye Second Short Space Ascending Changes Reprise Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Leftfield / Experimental View Product Quick View Galdre Visions Galdre Visions Leftfield / Experimental | Stones Throw | 1LP, 45rpm Released 26th February 2021 £16.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Galdre Visions Galdre Visions £16.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Stones Throw SKU: LR181LP Formats: 1LP, 45rpm Released Date: 26th February 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Richard Skelton These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound Electronica | Phantom Limb | 2LP Released 26th September 2020 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Richard Skelton These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound £22.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Phantom Limb SKU: PHNTM015LP Formats: 2LP Released Date: 26th September 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Phew Vertical Jamming Leftfield / Experimental | Disciples | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 21st October 2022 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Phew Vertical Jamming £21.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Disciples SKU: DISC7.5LP Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 21st October 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Jungstötter One Star Leftfield / Experimental | PIAS | 1LP Released 28th April 2023 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Jungstötter One Star £21.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: PIAS SKU: PIASD5075LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 28th April 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Hinako Omori a journey… Leftfield / Experimental | Houndstooth | 1LP Released 19th August 2022 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Hinako Omori a journey… £21.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Houndstooth SKU: HTH156RP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 19th August 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Prefuse 73 Rivington Não Rio Leftfield / Experimental | Temporary Residence | 1LP Released 11th May 2015 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Prefuse 73 Rivington Não Rio £19.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Temporary Residence SKU: TRR239LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 11th May 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Group Listening Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1 Leftfield / Experimental | Prah Recordings | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 4th May 2018 £16.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Group Listening Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1 £16.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Prah Recordings SKU: PRAH013LP Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 4th May 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Small Isles The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea Leftfield / Experimental | AKP Recordings | 1LP Released 1st October 2021 £18.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Small Isles The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea £18.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: AKP Recordings SKU: AKP0041 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 1st October 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Richard Youngs Under Stellar Stream Leftfield / Experimental | Jagjaguwar | 1LP Released 22nd October 2009 £13.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Richard Youngs Under Stellar Stream £13.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Jagjaguwar SKU: JAG157LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 22nd October 2009 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Louis Carnell 111 Series Leftfield / Experimental | Mute | 2LP Released 26th April 2024 £30.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Louis Carnell 111 Series £30.00 Genre: Leftfield / Experimental Label: Mute SKU: STUMM507 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 26th April 2024 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Leftfield / Experimental Start again
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