El cristal

The recording of El cristal emerged from a difficult personal moment for Mon Laferte. In 2015, while living in Mexico, the artist was going through a dark period that seeped into the album. Instead of seeking a professional studio, she crafted the material at home with minimal resources: equipment powered by a borrowed extension cord in the building’s parking lot, where passing cars sometimes cut the power. The result wasn’t a polished sound, but something raw that breathes between the cracks of adversity.

Before this album, Mon Laferte had already explored independent projects like Desechable and Tornasol. But in Mon Laferte, vol. 1 —released in August 2015— she sought to reclaim the folk music she listened to with her grandmother, blending it with her raspy voice. El cristal lasts just three minutes and two seconds, yet in that time it encapsulates a melancholy that needs no embellishments: just the guitar and those lyrics that sound like a half-whispered confession.