The first quartet album for electronic improviser Rafael Toral's Space Quartet is a live album from Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto in Coimbra, performed with Hugo Antunes on double bass, Nuno Morao on drums & percussion, Nuno Torres on alto saxophone & electronic instrument, with Toral using acoustic & electronic feedback to bring the classic jazz quartet lineup into new spaces.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2022 Country: Portugal Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Tracks 1 and 2 recorded live at Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto in Coimbra on October 5th, 2019.
Tracks 3 and 5 recorded live at ALICE in Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 13th, 2019.
Track 4 recorded live at gnration in Braga on May 22nd, 2021.
Personnel:
Rafael Toral-acoustic feedback, electronic feedback, amplifier, direction
"Electronic music with a human touch - that's what Rafael Toral proposed himself to do when he started with the Space Program. Or electro-acoustic music, to be more exact, because his adapted amplifiers and other feedback and sinusoidal devices are combined with conventional instruments, played by fellow Portuguese musicians Nuno Torres on alto sax, Hugo Antunes on doublebass (note their superb opening section in "Black and White") and Nuno Morao on drums (his swing in the pure-gold final section of "Landing in Copenhagen", among other suprising grooves, is stranger than Ringo's).
Freedom of Tomorrow is not a statement but a question (yes, "tomorrow is the question", always true) a new opus from the Space Quartet, entirely recorded live, in concerts taking place in Coimbra, Portugal and Copenhagen, Danmark (*). Toral's "jazz-like phrasings" and the overall quartet dynamics gain from it, presenting "Freedom of Tomorrow" new steps of the ongoing explorations of this unique quartet. And unique because what you find here - if not already knowing it from previous albums - has nothing to do with the use of electronics in fusion, avant-jazz or free improvisation. Quoting Rafael Toral himself, here's a bunch of new metaphors "to the many dimensions of the notion of space in our lives". No, not necessarily the Space in which Sun Ra inhabited. That would come with no surprises. This other music is made of surprises, from the first minute to the last."-Clean Feed
"After all, the idea behind the Space Quartet has always been just one: To promote a musical form that would serve as a metaphor to the many dimensions of the notion of space in our lives.
The SPACE QUARTET is based on a near-classic jazz lineup of drums, double bass and two soloist voices, of which one or both are abstract electronics, and operates in a post-free context, bringing in elements from the outer limits of disparate genres.Evolving since 2014, the Space Quartet now features the inventiveness and clarity of double-bassist Hugo Antunes, the cross-boundary, sharp drumming of Nuno Morão and the multi-language intelligence of saxophonist Nuno Torres. This lineup provides the best home ever for Rafael Toral's unique phrasing style in custom electronic instruments of his own invention. Melodic without notes, rhythmic without a beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free, his music has been described as "a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peers". The quartet's ever renewing, ever unfolding dynamics create widely diversified moments, from Japanese calligraphy to fire-jazz, fruit of how its members make decisions within the Quartet's space-driven framework.
"After the conclusion of the 13-year-long Space Program series, Space Quartet marks a new horizon in Rafael Toral's ongoing music explorations. Referring both to a record and a band configuration, Space Quartet embodies a maturing moment for the Portuguese musician. As one of the most internationally-recognized figures in the leftfield domains of music, Toral describes the album as "an advanced application of the Space Program principles": electronic music with a human touch.
The electronics are the driving core of the ambitious Space Quartet, setting it apart from many examples of electronics in jazz. Inspired by some of the principles and methods of enigmatic master Sei Miguel, the music develops solely according to the musicians' free decisions. The result is a sense of flux and ever-renewing forward motion, continuously unfolding into new places, through spirit and matter from jazz-rock to ambient music and "the singing of standards from another planet" (Toral dixit). One thing is for sure: you've never heard anything like this before. "-Rafael Toral/Space Quartet website