Citadelic festival 2026 

31 MEI - 14H30

With Undress And Fly, Josep-Maria Balanyà constructs a musical universe of uncompromising intensity. His performance is an abstract exploration of human emotions made sound: an infinite dialogue between love and hate, between tenderness and nakedness. When listening, a paradoxical sensation arises: that of being simultaneously caressed and skinned. The work unfolds as an uninterrupted dramaturgy of fifty minutes. Without pauses, each movement organically connects with the next; each motif grows from the previous one, generating a continuous and dynamic form, which transcends the conventional limits of the piece.

Balanyà’s improvisations integrate influences from New Music and jazz, where references such as Aribert Reimann or Cecil Taylor rub shoulders with Stravinsky, Prokofiev or even Bach. This web of inspirations constitutes the foundation of his own language: raw and radical, but also lyrical, playful and of great structural precision.

For years, Balanyà has been investigating the sonic possibilities of the piano, including works for prepared piano documented in albums such as Elements of Development or Un peu à gauche SVP among others. In recent times, he has resumed with greater intensity his “concerts on the keys” (JMB). At this stage, the use of the sostenuto pedal, as well as subtle reverberation and delay effects, decisively expands the timbral spectrum of the instrument. The result may evoke electronic textures, but it is the fruit of rigorously analog work.

Undress And Fly is not a concert in the conventional sense. It is a sonic experience on the edge — intense, committed and, at the same time, deeply vulnerable.

ANDERE CONCERTEN OP 30 MEI

met de geweldige steun van De Vlaamse Gemeenschap en de Stad Gent