From out of the dark, sparks of feedback birdsong signal a return to the singular sonic environments of Rafael Toral. A year after Spectral Evolution, his acclaimed album of electric guitar conceptions, comes the companion work: Traveling Light, out October 24 on Drag City. Sharpening his focus around a set of jazz standards, his move from abstract form to solid song elicits glints from beyond time and space, transpiring to be one of the major accomplishments in Toral's long history.

The first single, Toral’s take on “Easy Living,” radically redrafts the 1937 jazz standard. A noirish feel accesses sedate depths unheard in any previous version of this song, performed over the years by many, including Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, Paul Desmond, Bill Evans, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Steve Coleman. Languid and elegant, gliding through re-harmonized changes and altered eras of music, Rafael’s version hits with out-of-this-world emotional resonances — a 21st century guitar ballad classic-to-be.

In the early years of his practice, Toral used the guitar as a generator to create discreet texture and droning tones. Later, he abandoned the guitar entirely, focusing on self-made electronics to render his music with a post-free jazz perspective. For the music of Spectral Evolution and Traveling Light, Toral has combined his methodologies: radically expanding the space within their harmonies with his self-made machines, while engaging directly with his instrument and the chords of the material. In addition to Toral’s proxy orchestra of guitars, sine wave, feedback and bass guitar, Traveling Light features the sounds of clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, flautist Clara Saleiro, who each guest on one song.

In every contour of Traveling Light’s path — arrangement, improvisation and production — the spring of the old pours through the new in an unstoppable flow. The result is a listening experience of these standards that remains “in the tradition,” even as the elongated harmonies seem to alter time such that, as Toral notes, “the chords become events on their own.”

Rafael Toral 2025/2026 Performances

Oct. 11, 2025 - Venice, Italy @ La Biennale di Venezia
Oct. 18, 2025 - Coimbra, Portugal @ Jazz Ao Centro Clube
Oct. 24, 2025 - Braga, Portugal @ Theatro Circo
Oct. 31, 2025 - Barcelona, Spain @ Casa Montjuïc
Nov. 1, 2025 - Madrid, Spain @ Bcosof
Nov. 13, 2025 - Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK @ Star and Shadow
Nov. 14, 2025 - Manchester, UK @ Hallé St Peter's
Nov. 15, 2025 - Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Nov. 16, 2025 - London, UK @ Cafe OTO
Nov. 28, 2025 - Florence, Italy @ Centro Pecci
Jan. 21, 2026 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Culturgest