Gustavo Santaolalla has been a force in Latin American music since the 1960s. He is one of a small group of musicians who created the hugely popular “Argentine Rock” movement, which included very creative bands that played progressive rock, jazz fusion, and other genres, sometimes combined with Latin American melodies and rhythms.
Santaolalla’s professional music career started in 1967 at the age of 16, when he founded the seminal group Arco Iris, making history as the pioneer in the fusion of rock and Latin American folk. Santaolalla’s work as bandleader (Arco Iris, Soluna, Wet Picnic); solo artist (Santaolalla, GAS, Ronroco); and record producer (Cafe Tacuba, Kronos Quartet) showcases his expertise in a wide variety of other musical styles.
For a few years, Santaolla lived between Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. Eventually, he settled in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
He has since become the most important name in Latin Alternative music in North America, having won Grammy awardss for his work with Cafe Tacuba and Juanes and has also produced critical and commercial successes for million-selling Mexican group Molotov, as well as Julieta Venegas, Maldita Vecindad, Caifanes, Leon Gieco, Los Prisioneros and Divididos, amongst others.
After the launching of his label Surco, he also played a major role in producing music for his label’s roster of artists, including Bersuit, Erica Garcia, Arbol and La Vela Puerca. Gustavo later entered the world of film music by scoring the music and producing the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated and Cannes Film Festival-winning film Amores Perros, and again teamed up with Amores Perros director Alejandro Gonzalez Izarritu to work on his film, 21 Grams. Since then, he has composed numerous scores for film, TV and video games.
Santaolalla is the producer of Carnabailito, by Gaby Kerpel, the third Nonesuch project with which he has been involved. Proving once again his versatility, Santaolalla co-produced Kronos Quartet’s Nuevo, which pays homage to the rich musical styles of Mexico.
Gustavo Santaolalla’s musical style fuses rock, soul, African rhythms, and Latin American folk.
Discography
Santaolalla (1982)
Gas (1995)
Ronroco (Nonesuch, 1998)
21 Grams, soundtrack (Varese Sarabande, 2003)
The Motorcycle Diaries: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deutsche Grammophon, 2004)
Café de los Maestros (Universal, 2005)
Brokeback Mountain, soundtrack (Verve Forecast, 2005)
North country (Sony Music, 2005)
Babel (Concord Records, 2006)
I Come With The Rain (2009)
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom (2009)
Nanga Parbat (2010)
Biutiful (Relativity Music, 2010)
Dhobi Ghaat (2010)
On the Road (2012)
The Last of Us (Sony Masterworks, 2013)
August: Osage County (2013)
The Book of Life (Sony Masterworks, 2014)
Wild Tales (Quartet Records, 2014)
Camino (Sony Masterworks, 2014)
Making a Murderer (2015)
Borrowed Time (2015)
Before the Flood (2016)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
