"It was unforgivable that this album wasn't on the market."

Barcelona"It was a fantastic spring in Paris," recalls Maria del Mar Bonet about April 27, 1975. On her 28th birthday, the Mallorcan singer performed at the Olympia. "It's a somewhat cumbersome theater, not as welcoming as the Palau de la Música, but you still feel the weight of history, of all the musicians who have passed through," she explains at a luncheon with the press at the Moka restaurant on Barcelona's Rambla. On the table is a vinyl copy of the brand-new, in both form and substance, reissue of the album. At the Olympia recorded on April 27th fifty years ago. There is also a copy of the vinyl that Ariola released in 1975. They look similar, but they are not the same because María del Mar Bonet wanted to make "a new vision of the album."

For the 2025 edition (also available on CD) made with the record label Discmedi/Azul, Bonet has considered the repertoire and the design and has participated in the new mix made from the original vinyl and the open-reel tapes that she keeps with the complete recording of the recital. "I like to keep the tapes because they are part of my life," she explains. This has allowed her to incorporate the interpretation of What do these people want?, the song that Franco's censorship prohibited and that Bonet decided not to include in 1975. Other new releases are I wouldn't want anything else now and Song for a good death, which had been left off the original album. Instead, it leaves out songs like Romanzo (with lyrics by Miquel Martí i Pol) and I don't know how I'll end up"They're complementary albums," says Bonet before explaining a very curious change: "I've released the lines in French, which were so dramatically awful. The nerves and being in front of a French audience made the lines horrendous. It's better that they're not there," he says.

Its sound and image have also been improved. "The recording had some volume issues that we corrected," admits Bonet. "María del Mar acted as artistic producer in the studio, where we separated the tracks and remixed them," explains Miquel Àngel Sancho, director of Blau, who believes that "it was unforgivable that this album was out of the market." In fact, it couldn't even be heard on Spotify.

The same care has been taken with Toni Catany's photographs, which were obscured in the original release. They now stand out more, and the collage inside features different ones. "For us, the Olympia was a turning point," recalls Bonet, and the celebration was attended by a large group of friends and family. "My mother, Toni Catany, Vicent Andrés Estellés, Biel Mesquida, and America Sánchez (who designed the album) came. I remember it with great affection; it was a fantastic celebration," he says. Also present were Ovidi Montllor and Toti Soler, who were part of the same concert lineup. "Bruno Coquatrix, director of the Olympia, chose us to close the cycle." Songs in freedom. We were playing at noon, and Ovidio and Toti gave a wonderful recital. I absolutely recommend the album they recorded," he says.

The new release of Maria del Mar Bonet's album coincides with a tour that begins this Friday at L'Auditori de Barcelona with sold-out tickets, within the Barnasants, and that on Saturday will be at the Auditori de Girona, as part of the Mar 8 de Mar Festival, a new group of musicians with whom she is already working on new songs, three of which she will premiere on this tour: The bell tree, Blue water and Song of Nonsense.