The compositions on Pep Llopis’ Crónica Civil were written to score the eponymous dance-theater performance staged by Valencia’s Ananda Dansa company in 1986. Written and performed in collaboration with Vicent Alonso (the two had previously worked together on another Ananda score in 1984), the record puts Llopis’s heady synthesizer, percussion, and piano arrangements in dialogue with the warmth of Alonso’s mandolin, lute, and guitar.

This happy friction of folk, classical, and digital instruments constructs the eclectic sound architecture of Crónica, whose story takes place during the Spanish Civil War. While the pair sonically harken to Spanish history throughout, their compositions also stretch far beyond the bounds of the story’s time and place. “Desnudos,” for one, calls to mind Philip Glass’ Dance Nos. 1-5, and Llopis has cited Glass' work as a big inspiration during this era. Most of the time though this music opens a twilight zone all its own, like on “Botellas,” a tender poem for piano and strings, “El Meu Promés,” which features a vocal appearance from Ananda company member Irene Mira, and expressionistic closer “Sueño Irene.”

This is music awash in symbolic imagery and psychic echoes. As playwright Rodolf Sirera wrote after seeing an early performance of Crónica, "Text has been substituted by music—the images that the music suggests and the way in which the music suggests images."