nema: a 1960s mali orchestra, a love song and a word with no english translation

nema is a word in bambara that doesn't translate directly into english. it means something like freshness, the feeling after rain, the warmth of having someone you love next to you. mariama says love and nema work together but they're not the same thing. english doesn't quite have it. in this episode mariama explains what nema means and why it became a love song. then we go inside the making of it. the song was inspired by a track called tasi doni by super biton de segou, one of the great malian orchestras of the 1960s and 1970s. erich has had the privilege of meeting some of the members on visits back to segou. the vibe of that track, not any specific element, became the seed of nema. you'll hear the initial guitar loop, a lead guitar part that got so hot it ended up becoming the horn lines, and the full demo before the album version. this is the gold transmission. we go behind the curtain so you can hear how the music actually gets made.want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store