Composer Alejandro Román and I have released Skotos, the second volume of our discographic project Mikrokosmos. It is distributed by Novus Promusica and available in all digital platforms.

If the first volume, Phos, opened a path toward clarity and essence through a series of luminous miniatures, Skotos invites us into its inevitable counterpart: ambiguity, fragmentation, introspection. This second volume of Mikrokosmos traces a sonic cartography that ventures into the abyssal, into resonant shadows and suggestive textures. Across four very different yet thematically intertwined works, this album proposes a journey inward: from cell to silence, from sea to memory, from technique to raw emotion.

Células, op. 83, was born from the composer’s personal fascination with the microscopic world and its complexity, which becomes here a compositional metaphor. The work comprises 129 micropieces, each a sonic portrair of a unicellular organism inspired by its shape, behaviour, or function. Together they form a larger organism, unified by a network of thematic relations. The work is structured in two books, the first focusing on prokaryotic cells (archaea and bacteria), while the second explores eukaryotic life (protists, fungi and individual human cells). The musical language shifts accordingly: austere for Archaea, rhythmically varied for Monera, harmonically rich for Protista, dense for Fungi, and deeply human in Animalia, which closes with three pieces portraying human cells. Played continuously without breaks, these musical cells create an organic and immersive experience.

Entre arrecifes, op. 11 is a brief but poignant work written as an allegory of human existence. Coral reefs—beautiful yet hazardous formations in shallow waters— represent here the coexistence of beauty and danger. Life between reefs, like life itself, is alluring but fraught with hidden threats. The music flows like a gentle underwater current, interrupted by harmonic tensions and sudden shifts, echoing the unpredictable paths we navigate in life.

OidaRadio 2, op. 59 was composed in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of Spain’s national classical music station, Radio Clásica. The piece pays tribute both to the broadcaster and to the fugue as a historical musical form. The title is a phonetic palindrome: “radio” reversed becomes “oida(r)” (“heard”), reflecting the dual nature of the piece—about listening, about media, about inversion. Based on a two-voice twelve-tone invention from Román’s student days, the work unfolds as a Prelude and fugue in 5/4 time (five letters, two voices—”Radio 2”). Four musical palindromes are derived from the letters r-a-d-i-o using twelve-tone techniques. Structurally, the fugue follows a traditional model: exposition, episodes, stretto, pedal point, and coda. The final section, quotes note-for-note the two-part fugue in E minor (BWV 855) from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, superimposed over the rhythmic frame of his own fugue. The result is a piece of structural ingenuity, historical homage, and musical depth.

The album concludes with Piezas Tétricas, Op. 64, a trilogy of short piano works originally written for the 2010 short film Quédate conmigo by Zoe Berriatia—a strange and emotionally intense love story with horror overtones. The music, like the film, deals not with abstract darkness but with emotional death: loss, cruelty, vulnerability. The titles are revealing: I’m Dead, That has been very cruel, Stay with me. Each piece evokes a distinct psychological state. The first is stark and resigned, the second more dramatic and piercing, the third is almost a whispered plea. The musical language is sober, with shadowy harmonies, broken lines, and silences charged with emotion.

I am happy to announce the release of my third album: Mikrokosmos, Vol. 1 “Phos”, distributed by Novus Promusica and available in digital platforms.

This album, the first volume of a double project whose counterpart (Skotos) will explore darker territories, brings together a selection of piano works by Alejandro Román focused on luminosity, essence, and evocation. Each piece contains a microcosm of sound, where brevity is not a limitation but a vessel of poetic concentration. The album reveals a sonic world full of nuance, lyricism, humor, and character.

The album opens with Collar de Haikus, Op. 68, a collection of twenty micropieces for piano conceived as musical translations of Japanese haikus. Román found in this poetic genre—defined by its brief structure (5-7-5 syllables), connection with nature, and the evocation of fleeting imagery—the perfect excuse to explore formal condensation in music. Each piece is a sound study, employing a variety of compositional techniques— pandiatonicism, quartal harmony, twelve-tone rows, Japanese pentatonics, among others— like different brushes to paint delicate and profound sonic landscapes, always open to the listener’s imagination. The brevity of each musical haiku allows its resonance to linger in time, like a bead on a long necklace.

The second piece, Miniaturas, Op. 1, is the first work in Roman’s piano catalogue. Composed in 1997, it consists of eleven short pieces inspired by the world of Erik Satie, particularly Sports et Divertissements. Each one represents an object, phenomenon, or character—such as a deep crevice (Sima), the dawn (Amanecer), a traditional Madrid dance (Chotis), a flying insect (Mariposa), or a fairy tale gnome. The collection begins with a Prelude which is later developed with a Variation of the same; in total, eleven short pieces in a cycle as if it were a small theatre of the everyday. Although it was conceived in an accessible language, each piece contains a clear and poetic intention, which reveals the creative personality of its author.

Catalogo de Elfos y Hadas, Op. 36b (Catalogue of Elves and Fairies) transports us into an enchanted realm. This piano suite, arranged for piano in 2015 from a work originally written for harp in 2008, is a tribute to the fairy tales and legendary creatures found in the folklore of many countries. Divided into two notebooks—Elves and Fairies—each miniature portrays a specific character rooted in traditions from Germany, France, England, Spain, Greece, Colombia, and more. The pieces are modeled on musical forms associated with their respective origins: Celtic gigues, Spanish folias, Colombian bullerengues, Andalusian zambras, lullabies… In this sense, the suite functions like a Baroque dance collection, but reimagined with a contemporary language full of humor, lyricism, and theatricality. Though inspired by fantasy, the work is not only or children—it is also for adults who still cherish the power of imagination.

The album concludes with Iberia, doce perlas de la aeronautica espaiola, Op. 39e (Iberia: Twelve Pearls of Spanish Aeronautics), a work for piano four hands that is both a tribute to and a loving parody of Isaac Albéniz’s Iberia. Composed in 2009 to mark the centenary of Albéniz’s death, each miniature corresponds to one of the orlglnal pieces from Iberia, reimagined through a humorous lens and connected to Spanish aviation. For instance, Evocacion becomes Check-in, El Puerto becomes The Air-port, Corpus Christi in Seville becomes The Airbus in Seville, and so on. These transformations are crafted with irony, affection, and a “Satienian” sense of wit. All the thematic material is derived from Albéniz’s originals, yet presented in a distilled, playful form. This version for piano four hands was commissioned by Abel Sanchez-Aguilera and Maria Lukina, and is dedicated to both.

El miércoles 11 de junio, a las 19:00h, en la Sala Manuel de Falla de SGAE (Madrid), el compositor Alejandro Román y yo presentamos nuestro nuevo proyecto discográfico Mikrokosmos, compuesto por dos álbumes de música para piano: Phos (grabado junto a María Lukina, piano) y Skotos, recién publicados por el sello Novus Promusica. Los dos CDs son un recorrido por miniaturas, piezas breves, haikus y células musicales de concepción oriental, impresionista y audiovisual, donde la imagen y las referencias extramusicales son fundamentales. Composiciones, algunas de apenas unos segundos, que condensan una poética de lo visual, lo emocional y la memoria íntima.

Nos acompañaron en la mesa María del Ser (Radio Clásica) y Mahuel Ruiz del Corral (Novus Promusica). Al final del acto interpreté una selección de piezas del disco, incluyendo el estreno de OidaRadio 2, obra dedicada a Radio Clásica en su 60º Aniversario.

Además, presentamos dos álbumes más grabados por Alejandro Román, con música de origen cinematográfico: Tierra Baja y Sketches, op. 81 (publicados por Mousiké).

I was thrilled to take part in the XXVI COMA’24 festival (Madrid International Contemporary Music Festival) with a solo recital that comprised five world premieres composed by Santiago Lanchares, Alejandro Martínez Arias, Jacobo Durán-Loriga, Luis Navarro and Pedro Gómez. The concert took place on Saturday, 2 November at Teatros del Canal (Madrid).

I am so incredibly honoured to have my album “Sorabji: Toccata terza” reviewed in Melómano magazine, where it has been awarded the highest distinction “Melómano de oro”. Thank you so much for your attention to this recording and to Sorabji’s music!

I am thrilled to announce that my recording of Sorabji’s Toccata terza – the first recording of this work – has been released by the Piano Classics label in April 2024. This represents the final step and culmination of a project that spanned several years since the discovery of the manuscript in 2019. After preparing a critical edition of the work, I gave the world premiere in 2022.

Composed in 1955, the manuscript of Toccata terza had been missing for almost six decades and it was considered to be a lost work until it was suddenly discovered in a private collection.

Toccata terza, written in ten movements and lasting just over two hours, is one of the most ambitious piano works of the 1950s. It expands the vocabulary of Sorabji’s two earlier toccatas by means of a more audacious harmonic language and an unusual, asymmetric formal plan in which a gigantic passacaglia dominates the first half, a fugue of modest proportions is placed in the middle, and the last five movements form an extended epilogue. As usual in Sorabji, the music combines diverse elements in a large coherent whole: languorous lyricism, fiery virtuosity and complex polyphony.

Going even further than its predecessor, Toccata seconda (1934), which I recorded in 2020, Toccata terza amplifies the concept of the baroque toccata and fugue to an entirely new dimension.

Many, many thanks and congratulations to the wonderful team at Estudio Uno for their splendid job in recording and postproduction!