With last year's one-track, 47-minute statement piece Spectral Evolution, Portuguese drone mastermind Rafael Toral returned to the guitar after more than two decades of composing and recording with self-made electronics. The results were so staggering that some have declared Spectral Evolution the best experimental album of 2024. After dropping some other non-guitar music earlier this year, today he has announced a "companion work" for Spectral Evolution.
Traveling Light will be out next month on Drag City. Unlike Spectral Evolution, it is divided into discreet tracks — six of them, to be exact, each one remarking a jazz standard in Toral's impressionistic tones. Clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, and flautist Clara Saleiro each appear on one track. The opener and lead single, Toral's reinterpretation of 1937's "Easy Living," is a nine-minute journey that feels like a gorgeous yet unsettling sunrise slowly emerging over the land: warm, woozy, and a little weird. Immerse yourself in it below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Easy Living"
02 "Solitude"
03 "Body And Soul"
04 "You Don't Know What Love Is"
05 "My Funny Valentine"
06 "God Bless the Child"
Traveling Light is out 10/24 on Drag City. Pre-order it here.
