Sea - The Songs Of Pablo Grinjot
Indio Saravanja
Dear Friends,
I first heard the work of my dear friend Pablo Grinjot a decade and a half ago now and was totally blown away. He was exactly my age, living in a corner of Buenos Aires moments away from where I was born. A classic folk/rock singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist who had paid the same dues as I had and grown up in a household which influenced him almost identically, but thanks to his young life as a concert pianist and violinist, Pablo was able to perform his songs on guitar and piano like myself but with the addition of a full string orchestra he could write his own arrangements for. I had already written many songs for that same dream I didn’t know how to realize, so it was truly incredible to see someone actually doing it, and to later achieve it myself through his indispensable help on my orchestral albums Hotel Kiss Me and You.
My first contact with his music felt like the first time my mother made me read Neruda, perhaps because of the deliberately spartan lexicon and lyrical style they seemed to share. As an instant fan, I could arrive at the same secret beach refuge hidden from the world to bask in a beautiful sunrise or sunset horizon in many of the same tender ways that other Pablo could steer me to with such mastery.
While his humble yet majestic songs sing repeatedly of the most elementary things - the sun, sea, sand, sky, or eyes and hands of his beloved, and his separations from and reunions with her - there is a melancholic joy running through them all like a beautiful train ride you can trust the landscape and conductor on. Grace is found in the deepest valleys of sorrow or shades of dark in ways never oppressive but profound and kind, providing direct reconciliatory contact with the most non-negotiable primary colours of life and love and what is left with you always is a feeling of innocence and renewed faith in the game. When the train ride is over, you’re standing on a beach somewhere with an open heart, tears in your eyes, a smile on your lips and a new crayon in your hands. Nothing more is ever needed and everything is in its right place.
The Pablo songs on my SEA album were originally in Spanish, and apart from approving my English translations and changes, he had absolutely nothing to do with the arranging, recording, or producing of it, and he didn’t choose the songs. There is no such thing as true translation, and with that in mind, a translator needs to be given breathing space, and time, and I had plenty. While the hardest part of the journey was trying to remain true to the essence of each song while still making rhythmic and poetic sense in a different and less naturally poetic (non-romantic) language, the easiest part of it all is to now tell you what an honour it has been to reimagine, rebirth, and share his world with you as one friend would quietly share a secret gift with another, knowing all along that Pablo trusted me enough to allow for a good long strenuous swim in the warm deep sea of his exquisite melody and vision. I thank him now, and you good friend as well for listening.
Indio Saravanja
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0:00/3:26
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HEART 3:520:00/3:52
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MONTEVIDEO 2:490:00/2:49
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WHEN YOU'RE NOT HERE 3:530:00/3:53
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I HAVE TO GET UP 4:070:00/4:07
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THANK YOU 2:390:00/2:39
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LOVE 2:550:00/2:55
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TRAIN ARRIVING 2:510:00/2:51
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TRAIN SONG 3:460:00/3:46
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SEA 2:550:00/2:55
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SEA REPRISE 1:180:00/1:18
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FAREWELL 2:020:00/2:02
