***A remastered and expanded CD reissue of the Wave Field album from noted Portuguese sound explorer RAFAEL TORAL. In 1987, inspired in part by the massive impact potential of discreet gestures in the working principles of Fripp & Eno, Rafael crafted a unique signal path from his guitar, building pieces that have continued to grow ever since. First released in 1994, Sound Mind Sound Body drifts and drones with glacial majesty; spacious tones moving with deep orchestral resonance, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time. Now in a new CD master version! Includes bonus material not included on previous versions.
CD $13.50
06/27/2025
***A remastered and expanded CD reissue of the Wave Field album from noted Portuguese sound explorer RAFAEL TORAL. Since 1995 through today and into tomorrow, Rafael Toral’s guitar generated Wave Field continues breaking on our shores, a force of nature in unending evolution, oceanic and alive, deep and spacious. Rock music’s power liquefied into pure sound, metallic at loud volumes, hypnotic even when played quietly. A journey of music without notes, spatial and temporal waves expanding infinitely, with different LP and CD/digital masters still evolving... Includes bonus material not included on previous versions.
CD $14.50
06/27/2025
***Rafael Toral returns to the electric guitar after a decade-plus in his “Space Program,” composing only with self-built electronic modules. Here, the unique compositional fronts of guitar and electronics crush together in a powerful new synthesis.
CD $13.85
02/23/2024
LP $24.45
02/23/2024
***In 1987, RAFAEL TORAL began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless—almost fresher today than when they were first released. Rafael has spent the time since then developing his conceptions, with continued explorations in the many records that have followed. On the 30th anniversary of his start, Drag City is reissuing Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, his first two long out-of-print albums, on vinyl for the first time. Sound Mind Sound Body was partly inspired by exploring some of the working principles of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, extrapolated by Rafael via a unique signal path leading out of his guitar. He paid notice to the massive impact of discreet gestures, creating slow-moving tones and spacious orchestral resonances, drifting and droning with glacial majesty, hardly recognizable as guitar much of the time. The first of these pieces were recorded in 1987, and in 1994, they were released on Portugal’s AnAnAnA, with material evolved in the years between, producing a remarkable equilibrium over an hour’s listening. Further evidence of the necessity for gradual development exists in subsequent reissues: for the 1998 Moikai reissue, “AE 1” was recorded, and for this edition, “AER 7 E” was rerecorded and the material for “AE 2” was recorded for the first time ever—all from original processes as noted, and none of which will cause the listener to notice a change in the otherworldly atmosphere.
2XLP $28.75
05/25/2018
***In 1987, RAFAEL TORAL began making his own compositions and solo recordings. 30 years later, these recordings sound remarkably prescient and perfectly timeless—almost fresher today than when they were first released. Rafael has spent the time since then developing his conceptions, with continued explorations in the many records that have followed. On the 30th anniversary of his start, Drag City is reissuing Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, his first two long out-of-print albums, on vinyl for the first time. Wave Field, released in 1995, was a departure from the first album into new composition methods involving the dirty textures of rock guitar, sounding in the open ears of many listeners (like Jim O’Rourke, who issued the disc in the US on dexter’s cigar) as a synthesis of disparate elements—a nexus where Alvin Lucier, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Eno blend together. Here, the clangorous potential of the guitar was emphasized, giving a metallic edge to the two extended pieces and “radio edit” coda. The jacket paid subtle tribute to My Bloody Valentine, which, along with the radio edit, suggested a harmony between musical directions as wildly disparate as minimalist experimental and rock. Today, such a paradoxical intent is more widely considered as a part of the artist’s purview. This allows the sounds of Wave Field and Sound Mind Sound Body to sit perfectly among the forward-reaching music of today—as it continues to evolve in our ears, moving ever towards the next conception of listening space.
LP $20.50
05/25/2018