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Rafael Toral
Wave Field
Drag City - Cat No: DC702
- updated:2025-06-10
Cause for celebration — he's coming to Japan! Jim O'Rourke appears to be visiting Japan in summer 2025 at the invitation of Eiko Ishibashi. Here's a vinyl reissue of a 1995 work by Portuguese experimental guitarist Rafael Toral. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
Track List
-
A. Wave Field 5
25:22 -
B1. Wave Field 5 (Continued) / Wave Field 6
21:35 -
B2. WF Radio Edit
3:01

The first reissue in seven years of a masterpiece that seemed to anticipate sound art and ambient music! It's been called Portugal's answer to Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room" and my bloody valentine's "LOVELESS" — a hidden classic of '90s ambient.
The audio samples are excerpts from the 1995 mastering, so use them to get a feel for it. The real thing is on the record! Way too cool!!!
Released on both MOIKAI, Jim O'Rourke's label, and Dexter's Cigar, his reissue label — that's how head-over-heels he was for it. And that connects right to this visit to Japan.
The artist's own comments below are interesting too.
While listening to the final mix, I was surprised that "Wave Field" becomes a completely different experience depending on the volume you play it at. I had noticed it works as ambient music at low volume, but when I played it loud, a dense, energy-filled electrical current rose up out of it. It was by no means merely ambient — it was deeply hypnotic, music where you could feel the "waves" in your body. (Rafael Toral) (Original Japanese text by Shhhhh)