Spoiler alert: the debut of Aucell Cantaire is a unique record. I suppose you’ve heard it plenty of times, but in this case it’s not just chatter: listening to a couple of seconds of “Pastor” (the opening track) is enough to realize that you are in front of something different, nothing you would expect when you hear the words “songwriter”, “Mediterranean” or “Folk”. Because Aucell Cantaire is all those things, but in a different order and in a new way, as if no one before had been those three things at once. At least, not like him.

To begin with, the new artistic self of Toni Verd has to be registered in a tradition, that of the explorers aroused to turn the premature dogma of the “Nova Cançó” upside down. We are talking about people like Pau Riba and Pep Laguarda, whose records still sound inspiring today, touched by a magical and visionary craziness. On the other side, there is the personal storyline. “Aucell Cantaire” is not only a record. It is also the story of Toni Verd’s personal and spiritual rebirth, his transformation from a leading role in some of the most ignitable moments of the 90’s rock in Mallorca as head of Los Crudos to man, father, poet and a completely different type of musician, author, and singer.

Throughout this process, Verd has developed the special ability to intertwine the personal with the universal, turn his intimate doubts into our certainty and his weaknesses into a common force. Recorded in Studios Favela with Pep Toni Ferrer and Michael Mesquida (Oliva Trencada, Zulu Zulu, Miquel Serra) and with the multi-instrumentalist Kiko Barrenengoa next to him, Aucell Cantaire has managed to create a record with an ultra earthly sound, simple but full of details, that draw all the attention to the songs that talk about a universal desire: to make peace with oneself and with the world. Aucell Cantaire is Mediterranean Gospel. Or something of the sort.