IKLECTIK presents:
Rafael Toral – electronic instruments
Alex Ward – clarinet
Roger Turner- drums & percussion
John Edwards – double bass
Tuesday 27th March | doors 8pm – start 8.30pm | £8/£6 cons | Tickets on the door
Rafael Toral
Rafael Toral (born 1967) plays electronic music with the mind of a saxophone or trumpet player, applying jazz discipline and working practices to his abstract electronics. The result is a music full of paradoxes: melodic without notes, rhythmic without a beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free. On stage, with a human, physical stance, he delivers music full of clarity and space, once described as “a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peers”.
Formerly known for his work with guitar and electronics and acclaimed records such as Wave Field (1994) or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance (2000), he radically renewed his approach to music in 2004, working with custom electronic instruments. “Electronic music performance is still too often somehow disconnected from the body, looking more like laboratorial activity in which musicians seem to be spiritually absent. It lacks the movement, the warmth of the body in direct, physical relation with the instrument and the space. I got to think of a way to play electronic music with an approach based on the musician, balancing intuition and discipline, as i noted to be common among jazz musicians.”
Rafael ToralAmong his many collaborations are Jim O’Rourke, Evan Parker, John Edwards, Joe Morris, Michael Zerang, Chris Corsano, Tatsuya Nakatani, Manuel Mota, Roger Turner, David Toop, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, C Spencer Yeh and many others. Rafael Toral has performed throughout Europe, Canada, USA, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, in places like: Elastic Arts, Chicago; ZDB, Lisbon; Kings Place, London; EMPAC, Troy, NY; STEIM, Amsterdam; The Toff, Melbourne; Paradiso, Amsterdam; Tonic, New York; Super Deluxe, Tokyo; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stadtgarten, Cologne; Rhiz, Vienna; Mills College, Oakland, CA; Experimental Intermedia, New York.
DISCOGRAPHY (selection)
Moon Field, Room 40, 2017
Space Solo 2, Staubgold, 2017
Live in Minneapolis, Clean Feed 2012
Space Elements Vol. III, Staubgold/ Taiga, 2011
Space Elements Vol. II, Staubgold / Taiga 2010
Space Elements Vol. I, Staubgold / Taiga, 2008
Space, Staubgold/ Taiga, 2008
Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance, Touch 2001
Wave Field, Dexter’s Cigar 1998
Video
Rafael Toral solo in Brussels
Rafael Toral and Afonso Simões live at ATP, Minehead, UK
Rafael Toral and Ryan Jewell live at Oberlin, OH, USA
Audio
https://rafaeltoral-r.
https://rafaeltoral-r.
https://rafaeltoral-r.
Alex Ward
Alex Ward is a clarinettist, guitarist and composer based in London. Besides his work in free improvisation with musicians such as John Edwards, Dominic Lash, Thurston Moore, Joe Morris and Steve Noble and his performance roles in groups including the Duck Baker Trio, Simon Fell’s ensembles and This Is Not This Heat, he leads his own ensembles Forebrace, Item 10 and the Alex Ward Quintet/Sextet and plays guitar, sings and co-writes the material for the avant-rock duo Dead Days Beyond Help.
Roger Turner has been working as an improvising percussionist since the early 1970’s :
solo work, collaborations with experimental rock musics & open – form song, extensive work with dance, film and visual artists, workshop formations and the hands-on politics of independent record labels and work situations, plus involvements in numerous jazz-based ensembles have all contributed to this process.
has collaborated with many of the finest european & international musicians from annette peacock to phil minton, cecil taylor to keith rowe
tours & concerts have been throughout europe, australia, canada, u.s.a., mexico, china and japan. https://www.turners-site.com
John Edwards
John Edwards has always been involved with a wide diversity of musical styles and situations. At home with composed and improvised music he is one of the busiest musicians on the scene. Edwards is involved in dozens of projects and groups, performing at major festivals throughout Europe as well as in Brazil, Mexico, US, Turkey, Canada and Russia. With the Stellari String Quartet he performed and gave master classes at the Luzerne Contemporary Music festival.
Probably best known for his work with Evan Parker, John Butcher, Peter Broetzmann, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Smith and Sonny Murray, John has been in groups such as God and B-shops for the Poor and continues today to collaborate with electro-accoustic composer John Wall, Robert Wyatt, Spring Heel Jack, FunDaMental and perform in groups with Mulatu Astatke, Louis Moholo, Marshall Allen, Ingrid Laubrock and Charles Hayward, to name but a few.
Within the world of contemporary dance Edwards worked extensively with Virgilio Sieni, The Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs, collaborating also with many other artists including Mal Pelo and Fine Kwiatkowski.
John features on close to 200 recordings and his solo CD Volume on Evan Parker’s PSI label received critical acclaim.