Raimon

In his youth he worked for several years as a radio broadcaster in his hometown, absorbing the music of artists as diverse as Juliette Gréco, The Platters, and Juanito Valderrama.

His first EP appeared quickly on Catalan record label Edigsa in 1963; it included the songs Al vent, Som, La pedra, and A colps, and became a great sales success.

Initially reticent, Raimon eventually accepted "per voluntat de servei al país i a la llengua" (as an act of service to the country and the language).

Raimon, without a guitar, sang, together with Salomé, who gave a feminine interpretation of the love song Se'n va anar by Josep Maria Andreu and Lleó Borrell.

From that moment, Catalan song, considered up to then a minority phenomenon of little consequence, began to receive the attention of the censors and of the institutions of the Franquistas, with the host of prohibitions that accompanied them.

That same year, his first LP saw light, a live album containing versions of the majority of his previously released songs and two new tunes, Si em mor and Cantarem la vida.

In 1965, Raimon sang for the first time in Barcelona without Els Setze Jutges or other singers: his first solo recital took place in the Aliança del Poble Nou.

In 1965, his historic open-air performance at the Institut Químic de Sarrià took place, the first true massive act of Catalan song; he also made his first appearances in Paris and Germany.

In France he released an album recorded live on June 7 at the Olympia, which won the Francis Carco award the following year for best foreign song, granted by the Académie du Disque Français.

After another single, which included his first setting of Ausias March, Veles e vents, he released the disc Per destruir aquell qui l'ha desert in 1970, arranged by Lleó Borrell and with cover art by Antoni Tàpies.

Side A was dedicated to settings of 15th century Catalan poets: the poem Desert d'amics (the original name, Presoner, was forbidden by the censors), by Jordi de Sant Jordi; a fragment of the Llibre dels bons amonestaments, of Anselm Turmeda, titled Elogi dels diners, and four poems of Ausiàs March: Veles e vents, Així com cell, Quins tan segurs consells and Si com lo taur.

Raimon's originals were T'he conegut sempre igual, a song about secrecy written as a result of his fortuitous encounter with the persecuted Gregori López i Raimundo; Molt lluny, a nostalgic revisitation of adolescence; Morir en aquesta vida, a rejection of suicide which contains a literal citation of Mayakovsky; Amb tots els petits vicis, about being in one's thirties; and the sober love song Com un puny.

In 1975, while Franco ailed, Raimon sang at the Palau dels Esports de Barcelona, where he debuted one of his classics, Jo vinc d'un silenci.

Before touring Japan for the first time in 1977 he released the album Lliurament del cant, which combined settings of Joan Timoneda (Bella, de vós so enamorós, Qui té anguila per la cua), Espriu (Potser arran de l'alba), and some of his own texts: Qui pregunta ja respon, Un lleu tel d'humitat, Tristesa el nom, Com una mà, Que tothom, A Joan Miró (not exactly a new song, but hitherto not released in Spain), and a studio version of Jo vinc d'un silenci.

The following album (Presències i oblit, 1987) marked a brief experimentation with electronic music and with instruments like a drum kit and a synthesizer (with arrangements made by the percussionist Ezequiel Guillén Saki).

On this disc are songs of a markedly intimate character: Del blanc i el blau, La mar respira calma (written in the style of Espriu), Primer parlaré de tu, etc.

At the presentation of the album at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Raimon performed for the first time almost entirely without using the guitar, gesturing to great effect during the concert.

Raimon then took exactly a decade to record an album of new songs, but this was not a time of inactivity; he formed a stable group of accompanying musicians on the guitar, double bass, cello and accordion - and performed together with them as well as solo, under conditions he found artistically preferable.

On Saint George's day 1993, a large concert took place in the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, before some eighteen thousand spectators, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Al vent.

Raimon sang many songs, but also on stage were many artists who had shared experiences with him over many years: the Uruguayan Daniel Vigiletti, the Basque Mikel Laboa, the Portuguese Luis Cilia, the American folk singer Pete Seeger, and others.