Crackedmachine

Rafael Toral is a guitarist who lives at the end of the world… Well, Portugal to be exact. His ten beautiful solo guitar dronescapes might echo influences such as Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, Eno and the minimalist composers but he gives his instrument a unique voice. Really he’s up there alongside Robert Hampson and Christian Fennesz when it comes to new approaches to coaxing sublime sonic textures from that versatile six string thing. (…) Anyway, to describe Toral’s magical flights as ambience would be to do them a great disservice, but this is underwater moonlight music to drift and dream to. Perhaps the drone word is a deceptive one to use here as well, since he does hit the strings softly and these chiming patterns continually shift and expand.
Crackedmachine