Gustavo Santaolalla
- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
Argentine musician and leader of the now defunct bands "Arco Iris" and
"Soluna", Gustavo Santaolalla was one of the references of his
country's national music by the end of the 1960s and beginning of the
1970s. During the 70s he relocated to the United States, where he
formed the band Wet Picnic, with Aníbal Kerpel, Aaurie Buhne and Robert
Brill, with which he developed an intense activity in the city of Los
Angeles. In 1982 he returned to Argentina to record a solo work - with
a new sound- very influenced by the American pop trends of the time,
called "Santaolalla", in which participated Argentine bassist Alfredo
Toth (GIT band) and keyboardist Alejandro Lerner. In the music
production area, his work was emphasized in "De Ushuaia a La Quiaca"
("From Ushuaia to La Quiaca") -another Argentine mythical musician León
Gieco's project- following his same national folk line. Back in Los
Angeles, produced records for "Café Tacuba" and "Maldita vecindad"
among others, returning once more to Argentina in the middle of the '90
with a second solo work, "GAS" (his name's initials). His works in
group production from the USA have turned Santaolalla into a prominent
figure in that area, what gave him, besides, the chance to participate
in big musical projects for cinema movies with successful results
("Amores perros", "21 Grams", "Diarios de motocicleta" -"The Motorcycle
Diaries"), crowned with the Oscar award in March, 2006, by the music of
the controversial film "Brokeback Mountain" and in 2007 for his friend
Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel". This makes him the third
composer to win in the Best Original Score two years in a row.
