Space Studies
Central to all concert activity in the Space Program, Torals new large-scale project for electronic music, "Space Studies" is a series of live pieces with a disciplined matrix of decision-making possibilities. Rafael Toral has been practicing an approach to music centered on a universal, pre-historic and pre-aesthetical impulse to produce sound, aware that music and language may have a common root. Toral calls his field of work "post-free jazz electronic music".

Rafael Toral
Rafael Toral is researching performance possibilities in electronic music. His long-term "Space Program" is a quest for a discipline to structure musical discourse in "post-free jazz electronic music", using experimental, custom-built or modified instruments. Approaching jazz from an alien perspective, as a system of individual decision-making from the viewpoint of free spectrum electronics, his conception is concerned with gestural performance, instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity, and articulation of silence and sound. Developing solo work since 1987, Rafael Toral has performed throughout Europe, USA and Japan, and collaborated with Phill Niblock, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, Alvin Lucier, Jim ORourke, Evan Parker, Roger Turner and David Toop. He is a long time collaborator of Sei Miguel and a member of the Mimeo orchestra. Formerly known for his work with guitar and electronics and records such as "Wave Field" (1994) or "Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance" (2000), in 2003 he terminated that line of works to completely renew his approach to music. In 2004 he produced the first Anthology of Portuguese electronic music. In 2006 he released "Space", and more recently "Space Solo 1" (launching the Space Programs release series) and has recently begun directing collective groups.

www.rafaeltoral.net
www.myspace.com/rafaeltoral