1 November 2026 – Alex Southey Premieres Goya-Inspired Experimental EP and Turns Famous Black Paintings Into Unsettling Musical Landscapes

Canadian independent musician Alex Southey has introduced Noise for the Black Paintings of Quinta del Sordo: Part I through an exclusive premiere with The Spill Magazine, launching an ambitious three-part experimental project inspired by Francisco Goya's disturbing late-period paintings. The collection represents an intriguing departure from conventional singer-songwriter material, placing greater emphasis on instrumental composition, field recordings and atmospheric guitar experimentation. Each composition responds to a different work from Goya's celebrated Black Paintings, a series created during the final years of the Spanish artist's life.

Rather than attempting to reproduce the paintings literally through sound, Southey approaches them as starting points for musical environments, allowing the emotional character of individual images to influence the arrangements. Most of the EP is instrumental, although "El Aquelarre / Witches' Sabbath" introduces a more conventional vocal element. Southey cites guitarists and composers including Nels Cline, David Gilmour, Josh Homme, Feist and Nick Cave's film-score work as important creative references.

The project also offers an opportunity to explore techniques outside the stylistic boundaries of his previous recordings. Its combination of atmospheric passages, improvised guitar ideas and environmental recordings demonstrates how independent musicians can develop conceptual projects without requiring elaborate commercial infrastructure. Two further instalments are planned, although their precise release dates have not been confirmed.

Goya's Black Paintings are hardly the obvious inspiration for cheerful Sunday-afternoon entertainment, but they provide fascinating material for a musician interested in exploring darker artistic territory. Apparently the best way to escape the limitations of ordinary songwriting is sometimes to spend a considerable amount of time contemplating deeply unsettling nineteenth-century paintings. Explore more boundary-pushing guitar sounds in our experimental music section and browse previous coverage in our indie news archive.