Espiral – The story of Dunne
Germán Bou Viguer (Valencia, España, 9th July 1957) is one of the producers of the original “Sonido de Valencia” and a legend of the electronic dance music in Spain. We ask him about his career and how he did “Espiral — Dunne” (1991), a track composed for the anniversary of the club Discoteca Espiral (L’Eliana, Valencia).
Discoteca Espiral contacted me for the maxi because the “Sonido Valencia” was getting big and they thought do an exclusive EP would give the club more reputation, and so it was. I guess they choose me because I had already released a lot of popular songs by then, like The Grial Saint (Boa Club), Dance Robot (B.M.Q), Profondo (Boa Club) or The Future of Music (Scene). I was in contact with Toni Arquijo (one of the owners of Discoteca Espiral) and for some inspiration he brought me a tape with the song “My Way”, which was used a lot for the opening and closing of the club. That was the only reference I had and, if you know the song, nothing to do with Dunne.
Bou grew up surrounded by electronic devices and musical background, and as a teenager he enrolled in the psychedelic and symphonic rock band ́La Sonatina Beni ́. In 1990 he decided to focus his career in music and founded in Valencia the ́Rager Estudios ́, a recording studio and advertising services company. In his spare time, he decided to experiment and produce compositions for the club.
From the beginning, my approach was to create an anthem that people could whistle and easily memorize. My background and style were very different, my arrangements and melodies were coming from psychedelic rock and pop I translated these to dance music and funk. My main instrument has always been the guitar, although I have played lots of different ones, that’s the reason behind my approach to electronic music. I was used to composing music for advertising and that helped to achieve a more solid work and commercially focused. The song had to feel that sense of advertising, the same feeling that an advert spot but with more minutes. Pretty much like a long version of a jingle.
Between 1991 and 1995, he worked with Chimo Bayo and produced “Así Me Gusta a Mí” (1991), Gold record award and the highest selling record in Spain, with more than one million copies sold worldwide. Bou composed and produced other EP’s for Chimo Bayo like “Animales Nocturnos (Reacción en Cadena), Movidón, Espacio Exterior, Vamos al Espacio Exterior and then, in 1996 released his last work “Lovely Melodies”.
You could say that this song is like Boa Club (the alias I used for more melodic songs at that time). All my dance songs have this arrangements with melodies and drums. They weren’t based in other electronic tracks at that time, only my own music influences (psycodelic, Beatles, Tangerine Dream, progressive o symphonic rock, Genesis, Yes, Jehtro Tull, …) The snares and charles, from the EMU Proteus module, and the kick launched from the AKAI S950 sampler, and the principal synth line from the ENSONIQ VFX are the same from the track “Asi me gusta a mi” (Chimo Bayo). In fact, the track Espiral — Dunne was composed between March and April from 1991, and “Asi me gusta a mi” between April and May from the same year.
Germán also worked for movies such as Jamón, Jamón by Pedro Almodóvar, Yo soy la Juani by Bigas Luna and numerous TV commercials.
