Simple

Simple Lp(Fluid Audio, 2024) Composición, grabación y producción: Pepo Galán.Artistas invitados: Sita Ostheimer, Karen Vogt, Bicyclops, Mark Crocker, Ohmu, Hannah Elizabeth Cox, Lee Yi, Daniel Rosenholm y Mi Cosa de Resistance.Masterización: Rafael Anton Irisarri / Black Knoll Studio (NY).Diseño: Daniel Crossley / Fluid Audio. «Every time I record a new album, I tell myself: “Next time, I’ll make more subtle and simple songs.” Yet, I always end up adding new layers, new details, and new ideas, eventually driving myself crazy mixing the songs a million times. That easy, straightforward album never seems to materialize. This same concept of simplicity is something I want to apply to my daily life-thinking about simplifying and not giving too much importance to things. But in the end, it all comes down to personality. I’m a perfectionist-meticulous and conscientious about my work-because that’s just how I am. I tend to make my music overly complicated because it’s in my nature, and it’s hard for me to change. Ultimately, I find peace and simplicity by letting myself be guided by my “wild” instinct, not worrying about what others might think. Even when I know there are technical flaws that could be fixed, sometimes I embrace them because I perceive them differently and love the way they turned out. This album is full of technical errors, layers I no longer recognize, saturations, and tracks that sound outdated. In a way, I’ve had less and less time to record music, fewer resources, and I care less about perfection. I’ve just let things happen naturally.»(Pepo Galán) Volver a discografía Comprar

Family harmony

Family harmony Lp(Fluid Audio, 2023) Composición, grabación y producción: Pepo Galán.Artistas invitados: Warmth, Benoît Pioulard, Sita Ostheimer, Karen Vogt, Awakened Souls y Markus Guentner.Masterización: Rafael Anton Irisarri / Black Knoll Studio (NY).Diseño: Daniel Crossley. As the name suggests, «Family harmony» blends the work of Pepo Galán with a number of collaborators, whose synergy creates an album of unique yet connected soundscapes. The ambient terrain he explores with artists including Warmth, Sita Ostheimer, Karen Vogt, Benoit Pioulard, Awakened Souls and Markus Guentner embodies an unparalleled sonic unity. Journeying from a place of nostalgia and melancholy, towards the hope promised by new beginnings, a sense of stepping into the unknown seeps through each composition. Karen Vogt’s haunting vocal in «A wave that carries me» echoes with an intimate familiarity that serves to reassure the listener as they travel into new territory. Additional vocals that weave through the collection resonate deep within, yet simultaneously speak of something unforeseen. As in life, the loss of what was combines with an anticipation of what is to come, mingling emotions and experiences to construct unexpected perspectives. Volver a discografía Comprar

Tomorrow the sun will rise

Tomorrow the sun will rise Lp – recopilatorio (Autoeditado, 2021) Composición, grabación y producción: Pepo Galán. Fotografía original: George Korunov. «‘Tomorrow the sun will rise’ es un álbum creado a partir de una recopilación de composiciones propias publicadas en otros sellos discográficos. He seleccionado mis favoritas y las he compilado para que el oyente las disfrute en una sola obra conjunta. Algunas de estas canciones son composiciones solistas y otras incluyen a mis colaboradores habituales, así como amigos e invitados. Espero que disfruten escuchándola tanto como yo disfruté compilándola para ustedes.» (Pepo Galán) Volver a discografía Comprar

Soledad

Soledad Lp(Stereoscenic, 2021) «En memoria de mi tía Soledad.» Composición y grabación: Pepo Galán. Producción: Andrew J Klimek. «Recuerdo con bastante frecuencia la quietud del mar. Había veces en las que ni siquiera rompían las olas en la orilla. La calma y los zumbidos de los barcos me trasladaban a una dimensión de paz y libertad. Desde el amanecer hasta la puesta del sol, nadando entre aguas cristalinas con la presencia constante de cangrejos, caracolas y chanquetes. Deseando la llegada del verano para ir a casa de mi tía Soledad en las playas de El Palo, en compañía de mis primos y hermanos, amigos del barrio y viejos pescadores que me saludaban cada mañana con una sonrisa honesta y amigable. Sin duda, estos son mis mejores y repetidos recuerdos. Una tarde cualquiera de esta actualidad incierta, conseguí transportarme a aquella preciosa etapa de mi vida, y encontré la inspiración para grabar este álbum. Mi tía ya estaba muy enferma. Y conseguí grabarlo antes de su pérdida. Una semana después, escuchaba la canción “Soledad”, mientras trabajaba, y en ese preciso momento me llamaron al teléfono para darme esa gran mala noticia: Soledad acaba de fallecer. ¿Casualidad o una fuerte conexión? Muchas gracias a Andrew Klimek por acoger esta historia sonora y a los grandes músicos y amigos que se prestaron a remezclar mis canciones de verano.»(Pepo Galán) Volver a discografía Comprar

For Victoria

For Victoria Lp (Fluid Audio, 2019) «Música tejida desde el alma, para mi hija Victoria.» Composición, grabación y producción: Pepo Galán. Masterización: Rafael Anton Irisarri / Black Knoll Studio (NY). Voces: Sita Ostheimer. Diseño: Daniel Crossley. Pepo Galán’s «For Victoria» is an X-ray in musical form – black notes are imprinted upon a white stave in the same way that white bones are pressed against a black background – checking out things on a deeper level, highlighting and revealing what was once invisible. On this record, the unseen turns visible, although it isn’t in an entirely obvious way. A September breeze shakes the leaves. Vibrations quiver in the air, sent from a booming speaker. Both breeze and music are present – we feel them – and while they still affect the world, their actions causing reactions upon it, they remain hidden to the naked eye. Specifically relating to photography, «For Victoria» shuns the shallowness of appearance, going beyond the surface level of an image. The surface never reveals the whole, but Galán’s music reveals the hidden. The music emits a series of strobing synths which are drenched in a strong (but painless) blast of electromagnetic radiation, and washed-out vocals – provided by Sita Ostheimer – dreamily point to other things, urging listeners to lift up the underside of the rock. Producing images of the inside of the music’s body, For Victoria shines a grainy light upon and through its unique skeleton, revealing highly-detailed tones and sounds from another world which are now bleeding through into this existence, acting as a new kind of birth and a new emergence into the forgiving daylight of transparency. Something has been knitted from within, like a baby in the womb, and a light distortion ruffles the overall atmosphere, obscuring its visibility and hindering total clarity. It also mimics the vague and speckled black-and-white image of the X-ray, presenting an ultra-bright truth and allowing the eyes to gaze beyond skin. The image is both perfect and imperfect. The distorted appearance of «Autumn Youth» highlights vague inconsistencies within a final X-ray image. Softer harmonies offer gentle shades, lining up with the spectral blurring of bone – either lit up in a bright blue or a ghostly white – against black and vacant backgrounds. Victoria takes precedence here (the opening track is named after her), and over the course of its six tracks, the music continues to develop. From conception to birth, the music traces a line through inner things. On the outside, a ballooning baby bump reveals the inner growth of a pregnancy, and Galán’s photographs leave imprints upon the world, too; a negative image highlights the invisible. Volver a discografía Comprar

How not to disappear (completely)

How not to disappear (completely) Lp(Lontano Series, 2019) Composición y producción: Pepo Galán.Masterización: Andrea Porcu.Artwork: Meneh Peh.Publicación: Rohs! Records. Imperfección. Paradoja. Humanidad. Pepo Galán regresa demostrando la cualidad imperfecta del ser humano, las paradojas que cohabitan sin conflicto y que caminan en un mismo sentido, formando un camino regado de sonoridades de amplio espectro, un hábitat sonoro donde el signo vital de estos tiempos que albergan guerras, avaricias y demás oscuros sentimientos se contrarrestan con una nueva óptica donde alberga esperanza. Esa nueva esperanza se llama “How not to disappear (completely)”. El artista malagueño complementa su visión del mundo con este nuevo disco donde las micro notas, el añejo sonido de cintas, los loops rotos y texturas melancólicas se expanden sobre unas composiciones que representan la nueva senda sonora por la que Galán está transitando, formando un corpus musical donde la incomunicación y desidia sentimental – representado en su álbum “Human Values Disappear” (El Muelle Records, 2017) – justifica un esperanzado reflejo con “How not to disappear (completely)”. Volver a discografía Comprar

Strange parentheses

Strange parentheses Lp(Archives, 2018) Composición, producción y mezcla: Pepo Galán.Masterización: Taylor Deupree.Fotografía: Brian Young.«Samoa»Piano: Sergio Díaz De Rojas.Strings: Reyes Oteo.Trombone: Carlos Rodríguez.Lyrics: Marisa Ares.Voice: Sita Ostheimer.«Bleeding Eyes»Voice Sampler: Sita Ostheimer.«U Broke Me»Lyrics and Voice: Roger Robinson. «We look back and watch scenes of films that we have lived intensely and that have left marks in our lives, small traces that make up our life story. These vital traces are part of the germ of «Hard education», new ep by Pepo Galán in which he revisits a time before the discovery of new sounds, more electronic sonorities that created new paths through which Pepo Galán transits to the present. Starting from a variation in his current method of composition and creation, Pepo Galán creates tenuous and mysterious environments with the help of field recordings and analog instruments until he reaches sounds close to a dark techno that celebrates times of discovery and sonic epiphanies. Spanish composer Pepo Galán lands on the exquisite imprint Archives with a follow-up to the acclaimed Human Values Disappear.This time, the artist steps out of his comfort zone to create a record that melts the boundaries of ambient music, challenging our preconceived notion of how a drone record should sound. Part of the charm of Strange Parentheses lies in its seamless blend of genres, quickly shifting from early day Kranky sounds (Dead fish on the shore, In a Straight Line) to more glitch-inspired pieces (High Seas Tempest, Almost Alone in this Life). However, the biggest strength – and surprise – of the album lies in its delicate use of vocals. For this endeavour, Pepo recruited the talented German choreographer Sita Ostheimer, who brings her impressive vocal range to three of the album’s tracks. Sita’s symbiotic performance adds a newfound intensity to the mix, echoing the emotional resonance of artists like Grouper or Julianna Barwick. These refined sounds become palpable in the album’s centerpiece, S a m o a, a song that starts off with a delicate Sonic Pieces-inspired piano, gradually evolving into a soul-crushing ballad. Here, Pepo builds a wall of guitar and string sounds around Sita’s vocals, transporting us to a state of mind that is equal parts melancholic and blissful. This gravitational pull between darkness and hope acts as a guiding light throughout the rest of the album, eventually landing on a high note with the tear-jerking sounds of U Broke Me. By the time the pitched-down vocals fade away, it is safe to assume that Pepo Galán has produced another exquisite record, one that rivals the heights reached by Human Values Disappear, confirming him as one of the most exciting artists to watch in our modern ambient landscape.» (Carlos Maquieira) Volver a discografía Comprar

Human values disappear

Human values disappear Lp(El Muelle Records, 2017) Masterización: Taylor Deupree / 12K Mastering.Artwork: Jenna Murphy / Velvet Black Pixel. Existe una frase que se pronuncia con mucha rotundidad en la actualidad: “vivimos tiempos duros”. Para Pepo Galán, esa sentencia es una definición del mundo en el que nos encontramos. «Human values dissapear» contiene, desde su título, una declaración de intenciones por parte del artista, ofrecer una personal visión del mundo que nos rodea cuya metáfora idónea sería un barco que viaja a la deriva para acabar hundiéndose, poco a poco, ante la acción y permisividad de sus pasajeros. Con todas estas reflexiones, Pepo Galán realiza un tratado sociológico y emotivo de nuestro contexto, un viaje hacia recovecos emocionales donde rara vez nos sentimos cómodos, entre la frustración y la congoja pero que, en algún momento, se atisba una pequeña parcela de esperanza, una isla donde poder convivir gracias a los valores que un día se perdieron. Volver a discografía Comprar

Arrástrame mar

Arrástrame mar Lp (Nova Fund Recordings, 2017) Composición, masterización y art cover: Pepo Galán. Volver a discografía Comprar

To a better place

To a better place Lp(El Muelle Records, 2016) Arte: Pepo Galán. Volver a discografía Comprar