Rafael Toral’s most recent album, 2024’s Spectral Evolution, consisted of a single 42-minute track, divided into loose, flowing movements, but based on the chord changes of the Gershwin chestnut “I Got Rhythm.” On his follow-up, Traveling Light, the Portuguese guitarist works smaller, refashioning six jazz standards using his “space instruments”— electronic contraptions of his own invention that modulate feedback, distort signals, and utilize other instruments like the theremin to create eerie tones, transforming them into something decidedly nontraditional.
As on Spectral Evolution, Toral radically decreases tempos, letting chords elongate into languorous drones that sound more like electric organ than guitar. It’s a simple yet effective…
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Entrancing tunes to calm the soul… 
Michigan-based artist 
The second album from 
Americana is nothing if not a broad brush. In the case of 
This new release features the complete 88-minute score, adding nearly a half hour of music to the program originally released on Hollywood Records. The extras include a demo of a short suite Zimmer and collaborator Steve Mazzaro prepared in 2014 to be performed live in concert.
Strangely, Red Record’s 2025 remastered reissue of 
Anyone who’s studied meditation or watched a Formula 1 race knows you can travel great distances without going anywhere at all — and enjoy the process of not getting there. There’s pleasure in following a circuit so frequently and so closely that everyday bits of the landscape become landmarks (we always pass that bullet-holed stop sign on this route) and a pang when those landmarks change (they replaced the stop sign!). 
Since the prime time of Bossa Nova in the late ’50s and early to mid-’60s, Brazilian music was one of the rare ones that was consistently able to cross the language barriers around the world, often bringing us some incredible music full of emotional intensity and intricate musicianship that cannot do anything else but transcend borders.
…Consisting of Koshiro Hino – he of Osaka’s goat (jp) – and cellist Yuki Nakagawa, 
The latest album from London-raised, Berlin-based artist 
In 2017, Real Gone Music reissued guitarist Jesse Ed Davis’ first two albums — his eponymous debut and Ululu — as Red Dirt Boogie: The Atco Recordings 1970-1972. It drew press notice partly because Davis was so prominently featured in that year’s award-winning documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World by directors Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana. It re-centered attention on his three fine studio albums, including 1973’s Keep Me Comin’ from Epic. Real Gone Music steps in again with this rarities collection. It contains 17 unissued performances including songs, alternates and outtakes recorded during sessions for his first two albums. It loosely coincides with the Liveright publication of Douglas K. Miller’s excellent biography…
There’s a quiet hum of excitement about 
Banjoists 
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost fourteen years since Paul Motian’s passing, but the substantial amount of music he produced as both sideman and leader stays with us as a reminder of his pivotal contributions. Among those keeping the Motian flame alive is pianist