Rafael Toral
Rafael Toral is a musician and sound engineer also active in visual arts. Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1967, 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. His work focuses mainly on the possibilities of ambient music (variable attention listening process), the electric guitar as a sound generator and improvisation with higher levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable ways). Exploring relations between sound phenomena such as resonance or difference tones and the human capacity for creative listening, Toral has developed a sound world weaving a unique blend of references such as ambient, rock, chance and improvisation.
Rafael Toral is a musician and sound engineer also active in visual arts. Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1967, 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. His work focuses mainly on the possibilities of ambient music (variable attention listening process), the electric guitar as a sound generator and improvisation with higher levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable ways). Exploring relations between sound phenomena such as resonance or difference tones and the human capacity for creative listening, Toral has developed a sound world weaving a unique blend of references such as ambient, rock, chance and improvisation.
Sirocco: A Compendium Of Experimental Music Made In Portugal Vol.2
As famous as the Northern Wind or Mistral, Sirocco is a Mediterranean wind that blows from the Sahara Desert, and is widely responsible for huge and cinematic sand storms, and also for a strange phenomenon called “blood rain”, due to the red sand that eventually mixes with the falling rain. I’ve also heard that “Life is in the blood“, so let the wind blow! Without any further delay, Wasser Bassin proudly presents: Rafael Toral, Han, Tózé Ferreira, The Beautiful Schizophonic, Discmen, Gala Drop…
Jupiter and Beyond
Jupiter, the gas giant in our Solar System, with thunderstorms a thousand times more powerful than on Earth, rainfalls of diamonds in the atmosphere, temperatures below -100°C, plenty of hydrogen, 79 moons and a South pole that looks like an abstract painting, has just the kind of environment this music seems to emanate from.
Jupiter and Beyond, the second collaborative effort of composer/performer Rafael Toral and percussionist João Pais Filipe as a duo (after Saturn in 2016), is definitely not…
Moon Field
On Moon Field, Rafael Toral breaks new ground, it is his first edition that moves outward, beyond the Space Program series. This collection of three extended and interlocking works, mark the beginning of a transitional period into a new phase. Building on the explorations of his almost decade and a half of work with the Space Program, Mood Field seeks a more open sensibility and integrates a range of new elements and new directions. These elements reposition the potential interplays of his chose…