The poet Pablo Neruda has been my companion ever since my childhood days, as for so many others in Chile. His ode to love - 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair – was mandatory literature for youths and reading his poetry cycle Canto General proved fundamental to many a person’s political awakening. Neruda’s historical importance as a Chilean has, among other things, been determined by his participation in Chilean political life, his exile during the presidency of González Videla, his standing in the pre-elections as a candidate for the Chilean communist party in 1970, alongside Allende, and his death shortly after the 1973 coup. There is no element on this planet that has not been sung by Neruda in his poetry: from a simple onion to the most monumental human endeavors. Neruda is omnipresent in our culture. At the same time, his enormous stature was an obstacle to get closer to his work, just as grand monuments can become invisible because you walk past them every day. My wish to rediscover Neruda from his poetry was the most important reason to compose these Canciones Salvajes.