True tales of Spanish pop | Culture | EUROtoday

It’s a good suggestion to rejoice: in latest instances there have been an abundance of books about nationwide pop. With some shortcomings: little is revealed about its industrial dimension, aside from some self-aggrandizing autobiography. So it’s pressing to spotlight the The craft of recording data (Efe Eme), by César Prieto Álvarez. Subtitled Conversations with Joan Surribasplaces the deal with an undervalued determine: the sound technician.

Silent craftsman, additionally referred to as sound engineer, articulates the dialogue between producers and creators in high-tension conditions. When Surribas began, there have been no programs or academies: those that sat behind the recording desk got here out of pure serendipity. Born within the Vallés area, his first energetic method to music occurred throughout his navy service, when he was requested to play the drum in an aviation band. It is true that geography benefited him: he lived close to Andorra, the place he went to acquire unreleased albums in Spain, and subsequent to the Costa Brava, which meant—do not be upset, monsignor—being contaminated by the brand new methods of life unfold by tourism.

There have been no social networks then: he realized from an commercial in The Vanguard that the file firm La Voz de su Amo (later, EMI) was recruiting personnel for its Barcelona studio. By osmosis, in that place he acquired a high-level schooling: he recorded Cliff Richard in Spanish; visited the corporate’s London studio, on Abbey Road, the place he noticed the Beatles; He linked with knowledgeable foreigners dwelling in Spain, equivalent to Tony Ronald or Alain Milhaud.

Regarding artists, the job pressured him to alternate between an illiterate particular person, like the good Rafael Farina, and a spoiled diva, just like the soprano Victoria de los Ángeles. Many, many teams handed by his arms, from Los Mustang to the rumba brothers Amaya. For the trade, these have been years of economic growth (unimaginable portions of data have been bought in the present day) and technological progress, with the transition from two-track recordings to, say, 16-track recordings. The exterior types have been very managed: pictures present file gamers in rigorous fits and ties, whereas artists have been allowed to put on extra casual clothes.

In the seventies, Surribas had a stint in Madrid on the Audiofilm studio. His was such an intense tempo of labor that, he claims, on November 20, 1975, he didn’t even discover out that Francisco Franco had died. Then got here the journeys to Cuba, based mostly on the instinct that Joan Manuel Serrat’s songs would sound scrumptious in Caribbean voices. He shares sharp opinions about Serrat but additionally about cursed individuals like Gato Pérez. He lived years of luxurious, when a Peret rumba (his anthem Gypsy sorceress) might eat 450 hours of examine. He watched in marvel as highly effective file labels disappeared and reappeared underneath new names: Horus, previously Belter, or PDI, inheritor to Edigsa.

Prudent, Surribas prevented skilled conflicts. He confesses that he was not obsessive about getting cash… and ended up being deceived by supposed buddies. That is, he was a candidate to finish up on the road. César Prieto explains that if he acquired a pension it was due to his years as a technician at TV3. Like many veterans, he doesn’t hold copies of the albums he recorded. He made historical past with out realizing it.