Digging for Gold with Jaime Zenamon
Many music-lovers enjoy the art of ‘digging’. To many, that is the noble art of burying one’s head in a crate full of dusty old records and not emerging until you’ve acquired sufficient neck strain, or you finally unearth that record that you’ve been unknowingly searching for. It’s not just a physical thing of course, you can do it online, or however you like. It is, in essence, finding new music. Maybe you get some help from an algorithm, a hunch, an intuition, a tip from a friend or with just the name of a bass player to lead you, or the artwork. It might be sheer random pot-luck that delivers the nugget of gold into your hand, it might be a very purposeful and dedicated trip to an out of town record store. Either way, there is a particularly powerful feeling of personal jubilance that accompanies the discovery of an apparently little-known musical gem. As with all things: the heavier the perspiration the greater the feeling of satisfaction that succeeds it. But it doesn’t really matter how you find that gem of yours. What matters is that you found it and that you love it. Often, one’s perception of how obscure the record is, can directly affect the level of joy that one experiences when first hearing it. Think of this as the sense of satisfaction that comes with going deeper into something. Think of this as the opposite effect to that of falling out of love with a band when they reach commercial success; they’re not “yours” anymore. But a hard-earned musical discovery, seemingly plucked out of obscurity by your own hand, feels very much your own. It isn’t yours, of course, but we’re talking about feelings here. Sometimes you love that discovery so much that you want to know everything about it. And that’s what this article is about: a nerd wanting to dig deeper than just the relatively obscure music itself. Allow me to indulge by telling you a little about one such discovery, along with a few words from the person behind it.
Jaime Mirtenbaum Zenamon is a classical guitarist and composer, born in Bolivia in 1953. He studied guitar and composition in Israel, Spain and Portugal before moving to Berlin in 1980. Already an accomplished guitar professor having founded the Guitar Chair of the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná, Brazil, he taught at a variety of accomplished musical institutes across Germany until 1992, where he began to lead workshops and classes all around the world, along with a stint as a teacher at the Red Bull Music Academy. Outside of his academic life, he is a highly revered composer mostly known for his work as a classical guitarist. He is also behind acclaimed works within the realms of orchestra, ballet, opera and film-score. A supremely accomplished musical life! Amongst this lifetime of work and dedication to his art sit some particular pieces recorded whilst in Berlin during the 1980s and early 1990s, all standing out as unique when compared to the main body of his work. But also, kind of the same. First! You need to get yourself over to Bandcamp for some very required listening (and maybe purchasing):
We start with a source of great personal jubilance for this very writer, whilst craning his neck low into the depths of a record store’s bowels in Barcelona one day. Recorded in Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream’s studio and released in 1984, was the self-titled album, ’Zenamon’.
Within the first seconds of the first track, we are immediately greeted by a style of hypnotic guitar playing for which Zenamon had already become known - only this time, there are electronic percussions accompanying, along with a smattering of synthesisers.
“As a classical Guitarist and teacher of composition at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, I was fascinated to put together classical instruments and mix them with electronic."
The proto-Balearic flavours only get more potent from here on.
“We we were not thinking of a definite name for this type of sound experience, some colleagues called it New Age, others new sound, others meditation or music to heal the body and soul. I remember that on a tour in Spain there was a meeting of those who believed in "rebirthing" and she asked me if I was part of this group because our music was used a lot in this type of philosophy and I ironically say no, I am part of the “recycling" [laughs]. In other words, it was just that, taking sounds of everything and transforming them into concrete and random sounds looking for a very personal direction."
As with a lot of new, synth-based experimental music that was being created at the time - it largely slipped under the radar, despite being on major label Polydor.
"Many conservative people do not like it, because they think there is a lot of drugs involved! I have tonnes of material that was never used - pity! Unfortunately, most of these ideas were not quite understood by some of the musicians, they thought I was crazy. All these new sounds confused lots of record companies and musicians, all too much "new” at the time. “
Notions of “new” and “newness” are abundant in the composer’s work. This desire to explore and to create new sounds, is perhaps the most defining feature of Zenamon’s work.
"We used all the best and at the time “new” electronic instruments. I was always fascinated by new experiments and sounds, because if we want to imitate an orchestra it is better to use an orchestra, right? And so on, so we tried some “painting” we used some incredible [early synthesisers] like the Synclavier and Moog, Roland stuff, some programming pieces ticking one note after one. It was loooots of work, but always had a lot of enthusiasm anyway. We all tried to exchange some ideas, we had a great time, and we created what today kids call “techno”, and we created new age music.”
These early explorations into electronic instruments create a somehow haunting yet comforting feel to each track on the album, owing to the combination of ethereal, sometimes brooding synthesisers and transcendental guitar strumming. The album builds in a dainty way, before dropping you off at the final two tracks - which caused a very large personal jubilance in my pants upon first hearing them. Set aside 25 minutes to indulge in the track ‘Nandu’ now, if you can - it really ticks the let’s-go-on-a-trippy-journey Moon Roq boxes in a very strong way. The final track is a sort of alternate version of ‘Nandu’, in 12-inch form.
"Nandu was a great friend who I used to play live with, he played the santoor and tablas, I liked very much his name. My producer Peter Wirths was one of the greatest men, and friend, without him probably my story would be different. So….we did a piece called Nandu…… and as a single version we destroyed Nandu and did a kind of disco version called “Oh Nandu, what we have done!”
The whole album builds to this final crescendo, with the album’s most energetic percussion finally crashing into some emphatic guitar strumming and some eternally ascending synths. The great DJ Harvey played this track in a Beats In Space mix in 2009 causing the original pressing’s asking price to push higher than its already undesirable going rate. But guess what? This album got reissued in 2015! Wahey! You can grab it here, in juicy full bitrate glory.
“First you can laugh, but I don’t know who is DJ Harvey, if you know him, send him a big hug and lots of warm thanks."
In 1988 came another exploratory album ‘Promenade’. At Moon Roq we try to stay away from too heavily categorising music within genre but the nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, the graceful piano steps and the bongos are just undeniably Balearic.
"Balearic is so great, I really like it! If we had knowingly tried this at the time, today I would probably be a millionaire. But that does not matter, money is and was not the problem."
It’s heartening to see that Jaime has perhaps missed the fact that he has in actually contributed directly to some very Balearic sounds himself, perhaps completely unintentionally. But, Balearic it may be, the regular moments of synth exploration also keep the album rooted in a distinctly Krautrock feel. Zenamon’s classical training show through much more on this record, with his roots in Latin American classical guitar playing, the overall feeling of the album, to your writer at least, is one of folk, or, folky…ness. This is a formula born of the unique musical life that Zenamon led, combining the musical techniques and artistry learned in his home country and in his time in Germany. Hopefully you’re a very slow reader, and you can now set aside another 22 minutes for the spellbinding journey through percussion and mellow, intertwined synth and guitar melodies that is the track 'Promenade Of The Times Through The Countries’.
"In reality, without experience there is no commotion, you have to risk and jump into the unknown to be able to drown or start to learn about yourself and the others who will accompany you on this avenue of music or better ... jungle! I became a composer the moment I stopped comparing myself with other idols and musicians in human history, because; if you compared me to Bach etc. etc. it was better to sell Pizza! But I think and I am sure that every creative human being in a good sense has a shining star at his side, of course, as long as things are done with the greatest love, enthusiasm and knowledge possible! "
“Many students asked me how it was possible to be rich and famous with music, and I answered; rich you can even be working, but ... with music you have to have respect, otherwise it will not respect you (and of course there are many exceptions, sometimes or most and a matter of luck more than knowledge). Sometimes you have composers who were never recognised in their entire lives and are now idolised. Finally, without questions of error and success, I will continue to work, especially in this direction."
So there you have it. What started as a random discovery in a record store lead to some online chats with a really interesting guy and a first look at some really sweet photographs. There is so much richness in the stories that lay behind the music and there can be great pleasure to be found in unearthing them. Why not dig a little deeper the next time you find something you like the sound of?
Photographs kindly provided by Jaime Zenamon. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this article or any other with us - don't hesitate to get in touch.