Ilumencarnados seres

manoel barenbein

manoel barenbein

Biographies

Manoel Barenbein was born in Ponta Grossa, state of Paraná, in 1942.  He started as assistant producer at RGE record label, where he later worked as record producer. At RGE, Barenbein produced great names such as Toquinho and Chico Buarque. In 1967, he joined Philips (later PolyGram, and today Universal). As soon as he got there, he produced the LPs with the songs selected for TV Record’s 3rd Festival of Brazilian Popular Music that year.

“pois temos o sorriso engarrafado
já vem pronto e tabelado
é somente requentar e usar
porque é made made made
made in brazil
Tom Zé

It wasn’t very long before he got involved with artists from Bahia, and started producing most albums from Tropicalism, starting with the collective album Tropicália or Panis et Circensis. Afterwards, he produced Jair Rodrigues, Ronnie Von, Erasmo Carlos and Rita Lee. The persuasive Barenbein convinced a reluctant Chico Buarque to sing and record his own songs for the first time. He was also artistic director for singer Elis Regina.

In 1971, Barenbein left for Italy to be assistant producer. Two years later, he returned to Philips and, later, to RGE, where he produced commercial romantic songs sung in English by Brazilian singers: Harmony Cats, David Robinson (Dudu França), Tony Stevens (Jessé) and Mark Davis (Fábio Jr.). The producer distanced himself from the record industry in the 1980’s. He tried to be an independent music producer, and in the end founded a video production company. Today Manoel Barenbein works in the sound department of TV Record’s soap operas.