Margarida Azevedo

Live in Lisbon by Hilmar Jensson, Rafael Toral

You can listen here.

A record with Rafael Toral. What more needs to be said? It’s simple: just like cooking with the right ingredients and an experienced hand, the result can only be delicious.

And that is exactly the result of this duo. Tasty!

Sensitive to what the other feels, attentive to what moves them. Two distinct realities that intersect and form one.

Hilmar Jensson was a stranger to me until I heard this record. And that’s how I started my discovery about his musical world. An Icelandic with a warm and molded sound. A guitar that transports us to Rafael Toral’s electronic space.

A single track. Forty-six minutes and forty-six seconds of abstraction. On a day when the clouds hid the sun, when the hustle and bustle of passers-by bothers our inner peace, nothing like putting the record on and disconnecting from our reality. Letting ourselves be carried away to other places, other realities, other scenarios. And in that, Toral is a master. He is the master of many of my journeys both mentally and on paper. The ease of taking me to space without needing special suits and then being in the Amazon rainforest is so great that it makes my brain’s electrical stimuli feel good.

I flow between feeling rational and cerebral to feeling emotional and inexplicable.

Once again I found myself asking: “But where have I been that I miss going to a series of concerts in Lisbon that would fill me with good energy”.

This record is a must have and listen to, but live the charm must be even greater. I like that. More than a good album, I like not to be disappointed when I listen to live projects. And a good live recording has these things, it brings with it a regret of having missed the presence.

I’m extremely sensitive to certain high frequencies (high-pitched sounds) and that’s why my, so mentioned in other texts, difficulty in dealing with certain wind instruments, and on this album there is a moment that awakens that small moment of shiver in me. It’s not a shudder that I know well, but when it happens I’m perfectly aware that the problem is me and my fragility at certain frequencies. Not that it causes me pain but it awakens in me a certain animosity towards the sound. I decided to go see what this passage is and it only lasts two seconds. I’ve been training my ear to deal better with high frequencies and with each passing day I react better to it. And before I know it, I’m already at thirty-two minutes and the record is approaching the end too quickly.

An intense journey between the rational and the spiritual, between space and the Earth, in a game of perceptions that sharpens our senses and makes us want to be part of this vast universe that was created between Portugal and Iceland.