Directions
Space Quartet
O quarteto de Rafael Toral, Hugo Antunes, Nuno Morão e Nuno Torres celebra a noção de Espaço, no sentido em que a existência deste passa frequentemente por contenção. Como exemplos, Toral refere a não interrupção do discurso de alguém e o não bloqueio de um caminho ou passagem, quando é possível. Enquanto regra social, facilita o convívio e o fluir dos corpos, mas é um aspecto essencial sobretudo na música improvisada, tão dependente da escuta mútua (e respeito) entre os músicos. E se "Directions" parte de uma divisão clara entre instrumentos acústicos e electrónica, é no encontro de todos que acontece jazz, com as modulações electrónicas de Toral a serem tanto base do conjunto como ligação entre elementos e, em última análise, voz activa no discurso musical, enquanto parte do grupo de instrumentos que dialogam. Quase mascarada de sax livre em "Such a hungry yearning burning inside of me", a electrónica oferece o seu ponto de vista valioso na invenção deste universo musical em quarteto.
"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 Morão 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." (Label PR)
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