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Josep Lluís Galiana and Joan Gómez Alemany pay tribute to Millares and Palazuelo

Josep Lluís Galiana and Joan Gómez Alemany pay tribute in an album to the painters Manolo Millares and Pablo Palazuelo

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05 Feb 2026

Liquen Records has released an album by Josep Lluís Galiana (soprano and tenor saxophone) and Joan Gómez Alemany (electronics) in which they pay tribute to, and are inspired by, the work of Manolo Millares (1926–1972) and Pablo Palazuelo (1915–2007), renowned painters from Gran Canaria and Madrid and leading figures in Spanish abstract art.

The work of the two Valencian musicians, with the collaboration of the Pablo Palazuelo Foundation, the Millares family, the Azcona Foundation and the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), is the soundtrack to three films premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo (MARCO), the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia, and the Antonio Pérez Foundation – Centre for Contemporary Art in Cuenca; and it is released in the centenary of the birth of Millares.

The record label, which has been dedicated for 10 years to promoting improvised and experimental music and includes in its catalogue works resulting from artistic innovation and experimentation across different disciplines, recorded the album Homenatge a Manolo Millares i Pablo Palazuelo at Liquen Studios, distributing it physically in Spain and on major digital platforms worldwide. The production originates from the book Cartas en torno a Manolo Millares, Pablo Palazuelo y otros, a correspondence between Alfonso de la Torre and Joan Gómez Alemany published by EdictOràlia in 2022, the year marking the 50th anniversary of Millares’s death.

Josep Lluís Galiana states that “it has been a great artistic challenge to take part in this recording project, in which we composed and performed musical improvisations based on the work of Manolo Millares and on the audiovisual work of both Millares and Joan Gómez Alemany, an artist with whom I have collaborated for eight years.”

The saxophonist, composer, writer, editor and cultural manager, who has developed an intense international career in free improvisation, electroacoustic creation, avant-garde jazz and musicological research for more than three decades, highlights that “in recent years I have delved into the visual poetics of Millares, which has brought me great emotions and conflicting feelings.” The album’s producer notes that “his painting has a striking force due to its darkness, its cracks, the simplicity of found materials… a painting (almost sculpture) that seems projected from the canvas, as if demanding to be heard by an engaged gaze. In the end, it has been a unique experience.”

For his part, Joan Gómez Alemany states that “this recording project, in a way, extends and gives a musical dimension to the book Cartas en torno a Manolo Millares, Pablo Palazuelo y otros, which I co-authored with Alfonso de la Torre and which was published by EdictOràlia.” The composer, visual artist and writer explains that “music dialogues with painting, cinema, writing and thought, translating Millares’s wound into acoustic scream and Palazuelo’s line into an abstract landscape”; and he emphasizes that “like letters, the compositions operate through layers, resonances and returns. Sound, image and word merge into an interdisciplinary experience where listening is thinking and vice versa.”

Soundtrack of three films

In the liner notes of the album Homenatge a Manolo Millares i Pablo Palazuelo, the art theorist and critic and specialist in contemporary Spanish art Alfonso de la Torre analyzes the three works included in the album, which serve as the soundtrack to three films.

Para Pablo Palazuelo, variaciones sobre un imposible paisaje was directed by Gómez Alemany with electroacoustic music by the author and premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo (MARCO) on 18 May 2023 (International Museum Day).

Millares 1972–2022 is also a film by Gómez Alemany, which premiered in its cinematic version at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia on 21 September 2022, and with live music by Galiana (saxophones) and Gómez Alemany (electronics) at the Antonio Pérez Foundation – Centre for Contemporary Art in Cuenca on 11 November of the same year.

Millares 1970 (work for saxophones and electronics) is a film by Manolo Millares and Elvireta Escobio, the artist’s wife, which originally included music by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, from which Galiana and Gómez Alemany draw inspiration for this new production. It premiered with a live concert at the Antonio Pérez Foundation – Centre for Contemporary Art in Cuenca on 11 November 2022; the premiere of this new soundtrack, previously recorded at Liquen Records Studio, took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo (MARCO) on 18 May 2023.

Josep Lluís Galiana

Josep Lluís Galiana (València, 1961), saxophonist, improviser, writer, composer, editor and record producer, has been a prominent figure in the international free improvisation scene, electroacoustic creation, avant-garde jazz, ethnomusicological research and cultural dissemination for more than three decades. He is the author of numerous books, essays, poetry collections and contributions to specialized journals and newspapers, including La libre improvisación musical: fuente inagotable de inteligencia emocional, Tiempo de reverberación. Una aproximación histórica a la música experimental valenciana…, the poetry books Haikus d’estiu and Sons compartits, and the essay Improvisación Libre. El gran juego de la deriva sonora or Emociones sonoras. De la creación electroacústica, la improvisación libre, al arte sonoro…, among others.

He also has over 200 compositions in his catalogue and more than 70 released albums on various labels, both solo and in collaboration with renowned artists such as Agustí Fernández, John Butcher, Wade Matthews, Josu de Solaun, Ramón López, Carlos D. Perales, Avelino Saavedra, Jesús Gallardo, El Pricto, José Manuel Berenguer, Miguel Molina, Gregorio Jiménez, Ruiz del Puerto, Sisco Aparici, Vicente Gómez, Ferran Besalduch, Ricardo Tejero, Íñigo Ibaibarriaga, Mike Cooper, Carlos Galán, Guillermo Bazzola, Paloma Carrasco, Thomas Bjelkeborn, Adolf Murillo, Gonzalo Biffarella, Bartolomé Ferrando, Víctor Sequí and Joan Gómez Alemany, among many others. His work has been presented at major international festivals in Portugal, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the USA, China, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and Spain. In 2016, he founded the publishing house EdictOràlia Llibres i Publicacions and the record label Liquen Records, dedicated to improvised and experimental music.

In the field of teaching, he has held the Chair of Orchestra and Choir at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Castelló (2002–2003), where he founded its Big Band. He has also been a professor of Music History and Aesthetics at the Professional Conservatory of Valencia (2002) and at the Professional Conservatory of Cullera (2004–2005), in addition to teaching numerous courses, workshops and seminars on improvisation and other musicological, artistic and cultural topics in Argentina, Greece, Sweden and Spain.

Joan Gómez Alemany

Joan Gómez Alemany (València, 1990) is a composer, visual artist and writer. He began a Bachelor’s degree in Composition with Oliver Rappoport (Conservatori del Liceu) and completed it with Clemens Gadenstätter (Kunst Universität Graz). He holds a Master’s in Composition (KUG) with Franck Bedrossian and a Master’s in Opera (KUG) with Gadenstätter. He is also a graduate in Piano and holds a degree in Fine Arts. He is currently completing his PhD at the Universitat Politècnica de València. His catalogue currently includes more than 60 works for orchestra, opera, ensemble, electroacoustic music, etc.

His compositions have been commissioned or performed at festivals such as Darmstädter Ferienkurse, impuls (Graz), ManiFeste–IRCAM (Paris), reMusik.org (Saint Petersburg), Mixtur (Barcelona), Ensems (València), COMA (Madrid), Klang (Copenhagen), Lens Dans Festival (Brussels), MPArt Festival (Larisa, Greece), Mostra Sonora Sueca, Festival Contemporani d’Alacant, Àgora Actual Percussió, etc., and performed by ensembles and musicians such as Arditti, Nikel, Recherche, Multilatérale, Schallfeld, Adapter, Parcours, MCME, Delirium, Synergein Project, Grupo Cosmos 21, Container, Aer Duo, IEMA, Szene Instrumental, Alxarq Percussió, BCN216, Shifter and others.

His music has also been premiered by orchestras such as the SWR under Gregor Mayrhofer and the JOGV under Pablo Rus Broseta. In 2022, his chamber opera (interdisciplinary project) Glücklich, die wissen, dass hinter allen Sprachen das Unsägliche steht was premiered at the Graz Opera with conductor Leonhard Garms. His scores are mainly published by Universal Edition, and his music has been released on 8 CDs for Liquen Records, Viajero Inmóvil Records and IBS Classical.

His music has been heard in Germany, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Israel, the Czech Republic and Russia, and broadcast on ORF, SWR, RNE, À Punt FM, Catalunya Ràdio and Radio Círculo de Bellas Artes.

 

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