Boomkat

Rafael Toral is hardly a new name on the scene, having contributed his characteristic avant-guitar experiments to collaborations with Sonic Youth, Keith Rowe and Peter Rehberg (under the MIMEO guise), Jim O’Rourke, John Zorn and David Toop to name but a few – but this disc sees the artist taking a new direction. The first (and possibly most important) part of his epic Space Program which is said to comprise of more than ten solo releases to be released over the next few years, the disc sees Toral laying down his guitar in favour of homemade electronic generators and modular synthesizer parts and moving into the realms of the 50s and 60s proto electronic experimentation. It’s notable that Toral gives thanks to the pioneers of free jazz (and notably ‘space’ jazz) who he claims gave him the most influence while writing this material. The tracks at first may not scream of jazz or improv in the classic sense, but listen closer and there is more than a passing similarity, indeed if we replaced synthesizer squelches with muted trumpet or tenor sax then the similarities would be far more evident. Toral has created with ‘Space’ a document of his experimentations, taking a voyage into strange new worlds, into the outer realms of cosmic exploration – pulses, drones, obscure noises from undiscovered dimensions. Space could not have been a more appropriate title for this immense disc, there is an hour of music to seek out on the disc yet it will only reveal itself to you slowly and on repeated exploration – there are weird and wonderful anomalies to be sought out here, make sure you’re among the first to discover them. One small step for man, one giant bleep for mankind…

Boomkat