With just two weeks until Christmas Day we take a trip to Catalonia with a guitar arrangement of El cant dels ocells ('The Song of the Birds'). Performed here by Swedish guitarist Mattis Schulstad, El cant features on the newly released album 'The Guitar Player'.

Likely to have been first written at some point in the 17th century (though its exact origins are unknown), El cant decribes the joy felt by the natural world at the birth of Jesus with each verse featuring a menagerie of birds from eagles to sparrows and wrens to nightingales. Renowned Catalan cellist and conductor Pablo Casals brought the song to the international stage when he recorded his famous instrumental version in the early 20th century.

'The Guitar Player' is available now and can be heard below via Apple Music.