To create VILLANCICOS Y DANZAS CRIOLLAS: De la Iberia antigua al Nuevo Mundo (1550-1750) director Jordi Saval and the ensemble Hespèrion XXI worked together with a lot of other artists. It starts from the Renaissance and baroque music of the Iberic peninsula. The music of Spain at that time was of itself already a special mix of cultural influences: it takes the West-European music as its base, and adds to that some specific Arabic and Jewish characteristics. It is very special because of the absence of a distinction line between the popular and the “intellectual” and courteous musical production, unique in Europe at that time. On top of this very special and lively mix, musicians liked adding the exotic flavour of the relaxed South-American music of the newly discovered colonies. This disc offers examples not only of the music from Spain and Portugal and that of the new world, nut also of the cross-fertilization between the two musical worlds. The songs and dances are placed together not as an encyclopaedic survey of what existed, but rather as a magnificent concert program. The texts for example are set both in castellan and in pre-Columbian languages, such as in Nahuatl, language of the Aztec empire. The subtle musical interpretation of the old music and the wonderful instrumental performance (technically perfect) create a disc with both an exceptional spirituality and a dance like vitality. This disc thus has the power to affect you and to give you a new splendid energetic touch.