The Squid's Ear Magazine


Space Quartet (Toral / Antunes / Morao / Torres): Directions (Clean Feed)

An exploration of space, not outer, but the space we give to each other, the space between events and the space between musical expression, as composed by electronic artist Rafael Toral, using acoustic & electronic feedback and amplification with his quartet of Hugo Antunes on double bass, Nuno Mora on drums & percussion and Nuno Torres on saxophone & electronics.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Rafael Toral-acoustic feedback, electronic feedback, amplifier, direction

Hugo Antunes-double bass

Nuno Morao-drums, percussion

Nuno Torres-saxophone, electronics


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UPC: 5609063005684

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF568
Squidco Product Code: 30305

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Scratch Built Studio, in Lisbon, Portugal, on October 7th, 2019, and March 8th, 2020, by Nuno Morao.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Not to interrupt someone who is talking, is giving space. To stand aside and not in the doorway is creating space. To refrain from judging too fast is leaving space. We need space more than ever now. To back off. To slow down. To be quiet. Anything that happens in open space, happens in a more positive way. More vulnerable, hopefully more grounded.

If you thought that Rafael Toral's quartet was named after some reference to Sun Ra's spatial jazz, here is the confirmation that there's much more at stake than that, even if the many allusions to the Saturn envoy are also true. Space is the valorization of pauses, interstices, a certain measure of expression and narrative, a way to create transparencies and, most of all, a return to a human dimension, aware of its heart beating, its organic, silent thinking/ inner living of bodily functions. It's in the air surrounding us and inside us.

Since his seminal Space (2006), Rafael Toral has been playing with custom electronic instruments paradoxically inadequate for jazz phrasing, but making of them, however, a vehicle for music as free as conceivably possible. Powerfully propelled by the inventiveness and clarity of double-bassist Hugo Antunes, the cross-boundary, sharp drumming of Nuno Mor"o and the multi-language intelligence of alto saxophonist Nuno Torres, Toral's electronic feedbacks are molded by a galaxy of things including noise, rock, ambient and electronic music, inspired by the thinking of space pioneers like Bill Dixon or Miles Davis. If, nowadays, there's plenty of acoustic ensembles playing as if the conventional instruments were electronic, in Directions the approach goes inversely. It couldn't be more defying."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"Rafael Toral, born in Lisbon, 1967 has been intrigued by the potential of sound and the functions of music since he was a teenager. As a composer and performer, he has been deeply involved with Rock, Ambient, Contemporary, Electronic and Free Jazz music in different periods of his life.

Working with electric guitar and electronics, in the 1990's he created a blend of Ambient and Rock and recorded acclaimed albums like Wave Field or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance. By the early 2000's he arrived to a sense of accomplishment about his previous 15 years of work, also realizing the world needed a different creative response. He decided to start something new, as radically different from the previous phase as possible. In a transition to vulnerable action, he launched the alien-sounding Space Program in 2004, using experimental electronic instruments. It's been an ambitious long-term project exploring an approach to electronic music based on silence, through decision making and physical gesture, in a way inspired by post-free Jazz. The resulting music, "melodic without notes, rhythmic with no beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free - riddled with paradox but full of clarity and space", has been described as "a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peers".

In the last 15 years he's been thinking and practicing an understanding of silence as "space", with a clear function in music creation but also as a metaphor for social relationships and a statement on information and sensory overload.

Performing solo or in numerous collaborations (including Jim O'Rourke, Jim Baker, Sei Miguel, Chris Corsano, John Edwards, Evan Parker, Tatsuya Nakatani, Manuel Mota, Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Christian Marclay, Sonic Youth, Rhys Chatham, Lee Ranaldo, C Spencer Yeh, and many others), he has been touring throughout Europe, Canada, USA, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Also active in visual and spatial arts, Toral has produced video and several installations from 1994 to 2003.

In 2014 he relocated to the mountains in central Portugal for a more sustainable life. In 2017, having concluded the Space Program's recording series, Toral is entering a wider field with multiple directions and possibilities. From his mountain studio, he also offers mastering services."

-Rafael Toral Website (http://rafaeltoral.net/about/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Hugo Antunes was born in 1974 in Portugal. In 2011 released "The future of the past" VELKRO album on Pling records. In 2010 released "Roll Call", for Clean Feed records. In 2009 was awarded with an INOV ART scholarship (Did a research over improvised music in Brussels Belgium.); In 2009 enrolled as a bachelor student in the Royal Belgium Conservatory in Brussels, studying with Christophe Walleme; In 2008 during the Coimbra Jazz Festival, he was invited to participate in Jazz Orchestra Workshop conducted and oriented by the alto saxophone player Michael Attias, which ended with a live performance in the Festival; In 2006 attended a Berklee summer workshop, in Perugia, Italy, oriented by Dave Clark; In 2005 enrolled as a full-time bachelor student in the Amsterdam's Conservatorium of Music. His major was Double Bass Jazz with Prof. Franz Van der Hooven; In 2004, during the Coimbra Jazz Festival, was invited to participate in Jazz Orchestra Workshop conducted and oriented by the double bass player Adam Lane, which ended with a live performance in the Festival; In 2003, during the Estoril Jazz Festival, attended a workshop with Rufus Reid; In 2002 attended a Jazz workshop taking place in Valencia, Spain, with Mário Rossy; In 2000(/2002) initiated his musical and double bass studies at "Luís Villas Boas" (Hot Club) in Lisbon.

Bands and musicians he worked with: Gerry Smullian USA; Michael Attias (USA); Nate Wooley (USA); Alexandra Samsonova Trio and Quartet with Jesus Santandreu; Carlo Magni Trio; Michel Charenc (France); Benny Lackner Trio with Mathieu Chazarenc; Carlos Carli Trio with German Kucich; Harmonics player Olivier Ker Orio; Phil Abraham (Belgium); Albert Bover (Spain); Christian Brewer (England); Quentin Collins (England); Michel Joussin (France); Loopless; VELKRO; Alexi Tuomarila (Finland); Robin Verheyen (Belgium); Winchovski (Belgium). Music and performence with: Nastio Mosquito, Trienal S. Paulo (Brasil), "Africalls", Casa de África, Spain, Las Palmas in 2008; "Evento", Bordeaux, France in 2009; Nastio e Kalaf, "Festival Mistura" 2008, at S. Luiz, Lisbon. "VOUS", International collective on improvised music, tap-toe, poetry, video. Lisbon, Portugal 2008, Apt, France 2009; "Deus.Pátria.Revolução.", play by Luis Bragança Gil e Luisa Costa Gomes, at CCB in Lisbon , Portugal 2008; S. João do Porto, Porto, Portugal 2009. Music and improvised dance: Ana Borges, Portugal; Luis Marrafa, Portugal/Belgium.

Taught Double bass at Escola das Artes de Sines, and others, in Portugal. Workshops over Improvised music in Portugal and Norway.

-Jazz In Belgium Website (http://www.jazzinbelgium.com/person/hugo.antunes)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Nuno Morão: Musician | Sound engineer, Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

• Scratch Built Studio | CABO Studio; • The Selva; • Hamar Trio; • Joana Barra Vaz; • Ar.Co - Center for Art & Visual Communication; • ECOSAcademic education; • University of Évora

He was born in Lisbon in 1976. In 1983, he began his musical studies at the School of Music of Loures. He was later student at the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon, Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, University of Aveiro, School of Music of Lisbon and University of Évora (where he is about to graduate in Jazz).

He studied composition, organ of tubes, piano, drums, varied percussion and a panoply of plastic instruments. In the company of several musicians and projects, he practices improvisation and exploratory music (PARK, PINKDRAFT, IKB Ensemble, VGO, Hamar Trio, The Selva).

He works as a musician, composer and sound engineer (in theater, dance, performance, installation, cinema, web, audiobooks and new media), as well as operator, director, editor and sound mixer. In addition to the musical projects mentioned above, he is also an active member of Ensemble JER, Common Name, Nuno Sanches and co-editor of BOCA (audiobooks). He enjoys walking, collecting varied documentation and photographing the national railway. 40 years old. Born in Lisbon, where he lives and works as a musician, composer and sound designer (theater, performance, installation, cinema, web and new media), as well as a sound recordist, mixer, editor and director."

-Linked In (https://pt.linkedin.com/in/nmorao)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Studied alto saxophone within a jazz tradition spectrum. His continuous solo experimental research explores a wide scope of sound material through the use of the extended technics. Participates in several ensembles of improvisational music, electro acoustics and reductionism. Collaborates with musicians such as, Ernesto Rodrigues, Ricardo Jacinto, Sei Miguel, Fala Mariam, João Castro Pinto, Rafael Toral, Manuel Mota, David Stackenäs, Travassos, Paulo Raposo, Carlos Santos, Shiori Usui, C. Spencer Yeh, Cyril Bondi and d'incise, and developed projects as CACTO and PinkDraft, In the recent years has been also collaborating in several different projects at the intersection of the performative areas of dance, theatre and the visual arts (PARQUE, Les Voisins, Eye Height, Adriana Sá, Beatriz Cantinho). Participates and curates experimental and community radio initiatives."

-Creative Sources (http://creativesourcesrec.com/artists/n_torres.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Directions 10:37

2. Photonic Radiation 07:57

3. Southern Grooves 12:33

4. Such a hungry yearning burning inside of me 05:05

5. Moonlight through the pines 07:18

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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