— The prolific discography of Spanish composer and producer Pep Llopis is a curious, though by no means uncommon, anomaly: both widely respected and scarcely experienced, with many albums still available only via their original vinyl pressings in Spain until now
— Throughout 2026, Freedom to Spend will usher this music out from the wings by reissuing five of Llopis’ albums from the '80s and early ’90s, making these elevated sounds available in digital format for the first time
— Due to the age of the pressings, some jackets may have slight signs of wear from storage. All vinyl is in pristine condition. LP pricing has been determined according to scarcity of inventory

The 1984 soundtrack for dance-theater performance Destiada marked Pep Llopis’ debut score for avant-garde Valencian company Ananda Dansa, and initiated a creative partnership that would continue throughout the ensuing decades. 

The dance is structured as a lyrical fable about the struggle between life and death as seen through the crimson-tinted lens of the Spanish bullfighting tradition. Llopis and Vicent Alonso, a fellow Spanish composer, instrumentalist, and longtime collaborator, were inspired to entangle the broad Mediterranean soul of the story with a digitally ripened perspective native to the 1980s, translating traditional musical forms from countries like Greece, Italy, and North Africa into their contemporary context, and offering “a different musical approach to the world of bullfighting—as a fact, as a dream, and as a ritual.”

In the process, a new electro-acoustic grammar emerged built on a foundation of repetition, polyrhythm, and the pair's maximalist instrumental palette. Sitar, Moroccan bongos, bouzouki, reed flutes, triangles, whistles, cymbals, tambourines, coconuts, and an ARP Odyssey synthesizer are just some of the 30-odd instruments that spell out the polyglot language of Destiada, performed by Llopis and Alonso with the support of musician Vicente Cortina. 

An album that is meant to be understood as a totalizing whole rather than a collection of parts, Destiada is an elaborate universe of melody and timbre that’s as uncannily and elegantly composed as any dream.

Label: Pertegas – EGPLPF-8
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Spain
Released: 1989

LP

Side A (33 RPM)
A1. Danza De Las Vacas
A2. Nana En Rondo
A3. Despertar
A4. En La Ciudad
A5. Tarantel·las
A6. Los Niños

Side B (33 RPM)
B1. Tauro I, II
B2. Gymnastika
B3. Choral
B4. Senal
B5. Toñito
B6. Caminante
B7. Frente A Frente
B8. Un Respiro
B9. Algo Que Duele
B10. Ya Esta Claro
B11. La Verdad/La Hora