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Space Quartet: Directions

By Mark Corroto
July 7, 2021
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Listen closely to Directions by

Rafael Toral

electronics

" data-original-title="" title="">Rafael Toral's Space Quartet and try to ignore the voice in your head of June Tyson chanting, "space is the place, space is the place." While this is an instrumental production and Toral was born more than fifty years after

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra, a similar aura permeates these six tracks. It's not that Toral is dealing with the evolution of big band music through the lens of Afrofuturism, like Sun Ra's early use of synthesizers and electronic keyboards. Toral has adopted and adapted customized electronics into his space program. This space music which began in 2004 as a solo investigation, has evolved from circuits and motherboards into a kind of merger with anthropoids. There was collaboration with the likes of

Jim O'Rourke

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim O'Rourke,

Davu Seru

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Davu Seru

Sei Miguel

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Sei Miguel,

Chris Corsano

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Chris Corsano, John Edwards, Evan Parker,

Christian Marclay

turntable

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian Marclay, and

Rhys Chatham

multi-instrumentalist

" data-original-title="" title="">Rhys Chatham. His first Space Quartet (Clean Feed, 2018) included bassist

Hugo Antunes

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Hugo Antunes (heard here), but he has altered his lineup by adding drummer Nuno Mor?o and saxophonist Nuno Torres.

The result of Toral's experiments is his ability to manipulate electronic and acoustic feedback as an instrument in the same manner Torres plays his saxophone. Their organic musical call and response "Photonic Radiation" is as conversational as say, a saxophone/trumpet dialogue, if that back and forth was played out in the avant-garde arena. Like his musical compatriot

Christof Kurzmann

multi-instrumentalist

" data-original-title="" title="">Christof Kurzmann, Toral plays his instrument, not the other way around. The electric pitches that inform "Such A Hungry Yearning Burning Inside Of Me" coax Antunes' muscular bass attack and the energy ramps up with Mor��o's busy drumming before the cackle and squawk of Torres fills the space. The bookended "Directions" and "Other Directions" glide by with an easily consumable swing, delivering a kind of ancient bebop futurismo.

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Track Listing

Directions; Photonic Radiation; Southern Grooves; Such A Hungry Yearning Burning Inside Of Me; Moonlight Through The Pines; Other Directions.

Personnel

Rafael Toral

electronics

Hugo Antunes

bass, acoustic

Nuno Mor?o

percussion

Nuno Torres

saxophone

Album information

Title: Directions | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Clean Feed Records

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