Gustavo Santaolalla - Ronroco

Gustavo Santaolalla is a talented multi-instrumentalist from Argentina who has been extremely involved in bringing new sounds to an age-old culture. Playing a variety of stringed instruments including the guitar, the guitarron, the charango, and the ronroco, Santaolalla bridges the gap between traditional musics and forward-thinking compositions. He reveals an unusually progressive vision filled with cascades of chiming sounds and the understated influences of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe, as well as Latin America. Accompanied by his associate Anibal Kerpel on vibraphone and melodia, Santaolalla has made an instrumental album of intense passion and evocative songwriting. Gustavo's rapid picking and constant strumming of strings provide a solid foundation for his melodic innovations as clusters of notes rise majestically and then quietly fall away. --Mitch Myers Amazon.com

Interesting instruments, disappointing music

I had been drawn to this artist after hearing music of his backing a LVMH commercial played frequently on CNBC.
Very beautiful, dense, atmospheric and melodic.
This CD uses many guitar-like instruments that are unfamilar to my ears, which is interesting. However, I was expecting something very musical like the LVMH piece, but found more noodling than melody.

Still, worth hearing for the instrumentation. March 28, 2008

Santaolalla's Cinematic Sense Informs a Beautifully Evocative Musical Journey to South America

I was not aware of what a ronroco was until I heard Argentinean composer Gustavo Santaolalla play one quite masterfully on the soundtrack of 2004's The Motorcycle Diaries. Among the film's many noteworthy qualities is the singularly resonant sound of the ronroco, a mandolin-like instrument, used to fill in the aural background for the adventurous road trip of the two young medical students out to experience the world outside Buenos Aires. Six years prior to the film in 1998, Santaolalla released this mesmerizing recording highlighting the versatility of his instrument in an evocative twelve-song cycle. Depending on the atmosphere he is trying to achieve with each composition, he plays a combination of eight different instruments, including guitar, pipes, tin whistle, and charango, a smaller cousin to the ronroco. Keyboard accompaniment is provided expertly by Anibal Kerpel, who plays both vibraphone and melodica, on several of the tracks.

As a whole, the album works seamlessly as a mood piece. Nonetheless, a few tracks are worth highlighting. The opening track, "Way Up", showcases the quiet fury of Santaolalla's uninterrupted strumming, while "Gaucho" , with its gentle beat, sounds like a street dance between two weary tango dancers. "Atacama" evokes mirages on a vast desert with the intricate fretwork seeming to escalate to a crescendo but never quite does. "Zena" and "Lela" are quietly seductive tracks. A certain geographical sensibility is evident on "Pampa", which springs to mind the image of a lonely cowboy sitting astride a loping horse over the grassy pampas, and "Iguazu", which sounds exactly like the torrential waterfall of its namesake. "Iguazu" was used again in the Mexican border deportation scene in Babel. The most familiar track is "De Ushuaia la Quiaca", which he also used again to great cinematic effect in The Motorcycle Diaries. "La Vuelta" is an appropriate closer as it is defined purely by Santaolalla's bravura playing. March 7, 2008

magical south american guitar

This heavenly music is subtle and powerful at the same time. It makes you feel light and and slightly melancholic. It evokes the high land of South America.
This musician composed this type of music also for the movie 'motorcycle diaries'. The music has firm roots in the South-American Indian folkmusic. January 10, 2007

Excellent work

I would recommend this CD even if you have gotten the Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. It contains the tracks that make this work complete, wholesome.
March 20, 2006

Spread the word.

Like several reviewers, I first heard of Gustavo Santaolalla via Michael Mann's film 'The Outsider' which made expressive use of the track `Iguazu'. This album (from which 'Iguazu' is taken) is an work of stunning beauty. All the tracks are slow, haunting guitar-driven mood pieces composed almost totally in minor keys. I was expecting `Iguazu' to be the highlight but there are many tracks that are equally exquisite. I recommend this album unreservedly to anyone with an ear for a beautiful melody and a romantic soul - believe me, you will not stop playing this. Quite outstanding. March 10, 2006

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