Re: [microsound] Take Rafael Toral elsewhere?

[steinbrüchel <steinbruchel@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi peter
here's the accompayning press blah from the staubgold website and in the
booklet of the release it's slightly more detailed. when i read the text and
then listen to the music i just don't think he was or is successful in what
his aims are. the album is nice and has some interesting sounds, but it's
not at all a new approach to anything. i even think it's less interesting
and complex then his previous work.

especially the part in the text where it's stating .".. but this sounds like
the blueprint for a new approach to both jazz and electronics with a single
stroke".

sure it's the combination of electronic abstract gliding tones and some
trumpet or similar (probably by sei miguel) over it, but "new approach with
a single stroke" just sounds like a joke to me.

maybe my expectations where or are to high, but for a release with a press
text stating all these things (3 years research, blabla...) it's just by far
not good (or new) enough.

best to all,
ralph.

--

"Space", the new album by Rafael Toral, marks a radical change in his music
after 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar and electronics. "The future
perspectives of my former approach to music were threatening to become a
comfortable, formulaic 'modus operandi'. It would be against my nature to
accept such a development, so I serenely decided to terminate it."

It took him three years to find his way into a complete renovation of his
music: "For a new endeavor I needed new information, and I discovered that
the field of knowledge in music that I had most to learn from was jazz.
There is a long line of connections and fusions between jazz and electronic
music, and I envisioned that a step beyond would not be more jazz with
electronics, but on electronics." It may sound exaggerated, but this sounds
like the blueprint for a new approach to both jazz and electronics with a
single stroke.

In his emerging new conception of electronic music, Toral looks to the value
of human performance while sharing values from jazz culture. His playing is
"articulated with a kind of individual decision, a sense of phrasing and a
sensibility to rhythm and form that have little in common with the types of
electronic music we know". Quoting Sei Miguel, he says it's "not composed,
not improvised, and not a compromise between the two".

In recent years, Rafael Toral has been developing and performing solo
concerts on his instruments (modified or custom-built electronic devices) in
a field of work he calls the "Space program". He slowly merged hours of live
and studio recordings into "Space" (the program's first release), which is
no less than a full orchestra of such instruments. The result suggests that
the expression "space-jazz" was invented before the music it would describe
best.

The "Space program" is a vast and ambitious undertaking, featuring two
parallel series of record releases: "Space Elements" - centering each volume
on a certain instrument, while adding few others and featuring
collaborations; and the "Solo Series" - documenting solo performance on
various instruments. The album "Space" belongs to none of the series. It is
the "Space program's" fundamental release.

--

Am 28.9.2006 11:44 Uhr schrieb "p jørgensen" unter <p@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> please explain, ralph.
>
> /peter
>
> Den 27/9-2006, kl. 16.30, skrev steinbrüchel:
>
>>> In other news, I'm really enjoying Raphael Toral's new lp. He's moved
>>> on to
>>> making his own hardware I think.
>>
>> i was very disappointed with this new release by raphael toral.
>> especially
>> after reading the contents of the booklet and his aim towards music.
>> check
>> also the interview/article on him in the new issue of the wire...
>>
>> ralph
>>
>> --
>> http://www.synchron.ch .:.::.:.
>>
>>
>>
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--
http://www.synchron.ch .:.::.:.



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