DEPEDRO – NUBES DE PAPEL
Nubes De Papel (Paper Clouds), the second album from Spanish guitarist-singer-songwriter Jairo Zavala, is, at its heart, a series of reveries from the road. States Zavala, who has adopted the moniker of Depedro for his solo performances, "I had been touring for two years straight. I was in different cities, different hotels, different countries, yet every night I would have really, really good dreams." Dreams were a constant in the peripatetic life of this solo artist and always-in-demand sideman for such acts as Calexico and Andrew Bird, and from his dreams came these quietly intense, emotive, yearning songs. His music, balancing the traditional and the experimental, is rooted in sounds from Spain, Mexico and Latin America, yet it suggests a place all its own. The seductive landscape of Depedro is easy to enter but not on any map.
In keeping with the borderless nature of his songs, Zavala purposefully chose the name Depedro because it was both evocative and vague: "Kind of Mediterranean, kind of Spanish." His 2009 self-titled debut helped to inaugurate National Geographic's expansion into record-making, an effort that has steered clear of travelogue-style world music in favor of material that's more sophisticated and adventurous, international but not anthropological. On a personal level, Depedro was a turning point for Zavala, the culmination of years of writing and stockpiling his own songs while devoting himself to more collaborative efforts. The Madrid native had fronted Spanish rock band Vacazul and the more blues-oriented 3000 Hombres; Zavala had also written for and played with Spanish surf band Los Coronas and, most notably, Spanish singer Amparo Sanchez's brash, genre-juggling band Amparanoia. Working with Sanchez brought him to the attention of the influential, Arizona-based alt-country band Calexico, who, in 2004, offered Zavala a guitar slot for a Spanish tour and, not long after, a permanent place in its touring lineup. The band subsequently gave Zavala the use of its Tucson studio to complete Depedro, with founding member Joey Burns producing and his fellow band members sitting in.
Burns is once again behind the boards for Nubes De Papel, but, says Zavala, making his sophomore album turned out to be a very different experience -- less rushed, more carefully considered. It was literally a journey, from Madrid to Tucson, with stops at hotels and homes along the way, as inspiration struck. As Zavala recalls, "With the first record I didn't know what was going to happen. I had a collection of songs that needed to be expressed at some point, to be on an album. I had the guys from Calexico help me make it and it was completely improvised. The second record followed a different path. I drew from the experiences I'd had in the last few years, like having the chance to play with wonderful artists like Andrew Bird and, of course, Calexico. I'd also played several world music festivals, where I met artists like the Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa. It was a great environment to draw inspiration from. In New York City I discovered interesting bands like Forro in the Dark [now his Nat Geo label-mates]. This album is more like a trip, a road album, and the other was more like choosing the songs I had to make a collection."
Nubes De Papel has a more intimate feel than Zavala's previous disc, with the focus on his expressive voice and virtuosic guitar playing. The arrangements are often artfully stripped down, subtly blending acoustic and electronic instrumentation – though some tracks, like "Tramuntana" swell dramatically with soulful, south-of-the-border horns and strings. All of them are infused with bittersweet emotion, perhaps most dramatically on the aching "Diciembre" and the English-language "Empty Fields," co-written with Burns. Explains Zavala: "Easy doesn't have to be simple. I tried not to overdo the arrangements or effects. I like the sound of a lot of jazz records from the forties, fifties and sixties. I like the warmth of them and I wanted to add the flavor of that. In that era, the music had to be real. They only had two tracks or four tracks to record on and tried to spread the emotion of the songs with minimal elements. That's a big challenge for me. I try to do that always. You need space to hear the truth of the songs."
He paid particular attention to his mostly Spanish-language lyrics, which balance emotional candor with a kind of magical realism, especially on the title track. Zavala admits, "I'm so proud of the songs on this album. I spent a lot of time writing and rewriting the songs, again and again. I like to spend time choosing the right words to help the music come out. I don't want to change the world or talk about big things; I'm talking about common things that happen to all of us every day and to the people that we love. I put a lot of love in the lyrics. With the previous album, I had the music for a long time, but the lyrics came out quickly. This time I thought about them more."
If one were to make comparisons or look for antecedents beyond Calexico, Zavala's mash-up of Spanish and Latin American elements with a kind of stark indie rock recalls the adventurous Latin Playboys-side of Los Lobos. His vocal delivery suggests at times the endearing rasp of M. Ward; at others, the alternately sensual and playful approach of Brazilian icon Caetano Veloso, particularly on Zavala's brilliant transformation of the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On."(Zavala had previously tackled the percolating funk of Brazilian soul man Jorge Ben Jor on Depedro.). It was a surprising, telling and smart choice that came about, Zavala explains, because "I always play Velvet Underground records at home. My older son Mario started to sing along to 'What Goes On' and he gave me the idea -- why not do a cover of that song, but make it feel like the old soundtracks of the sixties, like West Side Story. You can imagine these guys putting the song in that film. That's the result. People are always asking me, is this your song? Everyone knows the lyrics but they don't expect where I take the song musically. It's like my homage to the Velvet Undergound, a gift of thanks to those guys for inspiring me."
It is now Zavala himself who is doing the inspiring with Nubes De Papel, This constant traveler, who has traversed continents musically and geographically, offers us a beguiling new world to discover. Muchas Gracias.
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Lo que separa el debut de Depedro de 'Nubes de Papel' no es sólo los arreglos, el tempo más calmado de las canciones, la finísima coherencia interna: los separan dos años de viajes por el mundo con alguno de los mejores músicos de nuestro tiempo, conocer países, conocer gente, tocar cada día del mundo y volver. Volver al calor del hogar y volver a viajar. Dos años de locura en los cuales Jairo Zavala ha ido componiendo las piezas de cada canción como un puzzle, a caballo entre Tucson, Arizona, en los estudios Wavelab, y Madrid, en Pukalpa su propio estudio, ensamblando las piezas con mimo para hacer de su segundo disco como Depedro una obra coherente y rica en matices que gana con las escuchas.
Las canciones fueron compuestas durante las idas y venidas de sus giras con Calexico, donde toca la guitarra desde hace 4 años y las presentaciones de su debut, que lo han llevado a tocar por todo el mundo. Exprimiendo al máximo cada parón para añadir los arreglos del disco a medida que pulía las canciones recién escritas. Tal vez sea esa la clave para que "Nubes de Papel" sea el gran disco que es: las cuerdas, trompetas, acordeones, pianos, coros,… a pesar de ser un disco mucho más arreglado, suena fresco, suena vivo, suena clásico. Y como pasa con los clásicos, está todo tan al servicio de la canción que parece tocado delante de uno, como un susurro amigo saliendo del reproductor.
En el disco participan pesos pesados de la música a uno y otro lado del Atlántico: Joey Burns, John Convertino y Jacob Valenzuela en la parte estadounidense del disco y en la parte española, los miembros de Vetusta Morla, que participan en dos temas del album. Un lujo al alcance de muy pocos que vuelve a editar en España PIAS Spain y para el resto del mundo el sello Nat Geo Music.
El resultado es un disco que abre el abanico de influencias de Jairo Zavala y lo lleva a sitios inesperados. En el disco pueden escucharse ecos de las bandas sonoras de John Barry, aires fronterizos, guitarras africanas, una pizca de música brasileña, otra de los Beatles del "Let it be", Vainica Doble, M Ward y hasta una versión del "What goes on" de the Velvet Underground en clave gospel. Todo esto sin estridencias, con las palabras justas, cocinado con cariño: Jairo Zavala en estado puro.
"El mundo de Depedro es una de esas raras y hermosas mezclas de géneros, melodías preciosas y canciones conmovedoras… la música de Zavala es clásica, atemporal e intuitiva" (Joey Burns, Calexico)
"una de las delicias inesperadas del año" (Fred Mills, Billboard Magazine)
"Un cóctel de ritmos africanos y latinos con los que se desmarca de sus otras peripecias musicales" (Miguel Ángel Sánchez Garate, Mondo Sonoro)
"Musica sin complejos que no duda en beber de cualquier influencia posible. Una de las propuestas más interesantes del panorama nacional" (Eduardo Izquierdo, Ritmos del Mundo)
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