Description
Immerse yourself in an idyllic blend of sonic flavors as legendary musician Rafael Toral, transports listeners with his melange of jazz standards, electronica, and creative innovation on his album “Traveling Light”. The album marks a triumphant continuation from his previous release, ‘Spectral Evolution’, armed with a palette fashioned from real instruments and synthesis. Produced in the vein of iconic names like Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Ralph Rainger, and Billie Holiday, Toral weaves a nostalgic ambiance, rendered with a modern twist that is entirely his own.
Toral’s journey in “Traveling Light” begins with ‘Easy Living’, a Ralph Rainger composition from 1937. Here, he stretches the original chord sequence with pulsating guitar tones and sine waves. Painting with a broader, tangible melodic brush, Toral delicately crafts riffs and intimate woodwind elements that transport us to a bygone era, in a fashion reminiscent of Clara Rockmore’s ‘The Art of the Theremin’. It’s a dive into the foundations of American culture, reintroducing familiar forms and contemporizing them in subtle, innovative ways.
Moving forward, Toral serves “Body and Soul” (a 1930 standard famously covered by Frank Sinatra) with a tapestry of harmonies that delve deep into the roots of European sacred music. Featuring whispers of Rodrigo Amado’s tenor interspersed in thick polyphonic hums, we find in these crafted spaces a nod to the enduring influence of African American spirituals and gospel music on many contemporary genres like jazz, pop, and country.
The concluding notes of the album are its most resonant. In “My Funny Valentine” and “God Bless the Child”, Toral suspends listeners between clarity and ambiguity. Experimenting with an overlay of stark fingerpicked improvisations, he takes us on a musical expedition spanning Chicago’s rich timeline of music, from hot jazz to post-rock. Finally, he wraps up the album with Clara Saleiro’s ethereal flute dance around chiseled distortions, fading to silence. It’s a poignant ending, the encapsulation of Toral’s life’s work rendered in absorbing soundscapes.
In “Traveling Light”, Toral reinvents a century of guitar melodies and songs, pioneering his unique, nontraditional approach to music. This album is a collage of tradition and innovation, stitched together with Toral’s expertise in guitar, feedback, bass guitar, and a range of self-made electronic devices. One such piece of Toral’s innovated machinery features a classic theremin, harking back to age-old electronic innovations, used to modulate feedback melodies. Adding to this panorama of sound are the stylings of jazz musicians José Bruno Parrinha, Rodrigo Amado, Yaw Tembe, and Clara Saleiro.
“Traveling Light” is a journey through time with Rafael Toral. It pays homage to the deep-seated foundations of various music cultures whilst pioneering a path forward, guiding the way towards uncharted terrains in music. The album is simultaneously old and new, showcasing Toral’s skillful interweaving of time periods and soundscapes. It invites us to tap into a fascinating continuum of music, tracing its evolution from the last century to the cusp of the next.
