Manuel Blancafort grew up in a Catalonian family which owned a pianola rolls factory, a prime source of the composer’s musical education. He believed strongly in the importance of nationalism in music and was keen to follow in the footsteps of Albéniz, Granados and Falla, but always with a Catalan bias. The short works recorded here, described by the composer himself as ‘very intimate pieces showing my love for simplicity and for the characteristics of our native melodies’, are from Blancafort’s early career, a period of introspection, nostalgia and an ‘incomprehensible sadness’. However, while Intimate Songs I is one of Blancafort’s most heartrending works, Country Games and Dances exhibits a playful more extrovert side.