With whirring synths and chirping guitars, Rafael Toral’s Spectral Evolution sounds like a message sent from space to earth. The latest album by the experimental musician is a monumental drone suite in which horns morph into electronic instruments for a soundscape that sounds natural as much as it sounds otherworldly.
Since his teenage years growing up in Portugal, Rafael Toral has felt enticed by the potential of sound. Rising to prominence via his nineties guitar work, the experimental musician set the instrument aside and started honing, at the start of the century, Space Program, a thirteen-year investigation of the performance possibilities of an ever-expanding assembly of unique electronic instruments. In 2024, a new phase comes about with Spectral Evolution, Toral’s ‘most difficult and ambitious record’, in his own words. Informed by drone music and vintage jazz, the new ambient suite draws a deep line in the sand between Toral and his past works.
Rafael Toral performs at Le Guess Who? 2024 on Thursday, 7 November as part of the program co-curated with Semibreve and supported by TIMES. Also performing at the festival are a.o. DARKSIDE, Tashi Wada, CHELA, Erika Angell, Klara Lewis & Yuki Tsujii and many more.
