Gustavo Santaolalla’s professional music career started at the early age of 16, when he wrote, recorded and produced his first single, at a time when the concept of “The Producer” for alternative music was unheard of in Argentina. The experience gave him the necessary tools to embark on his first ambitious project: Arco Iris, the band he founded in 1967 and made history as the pioneer in the fusion of rock and Latin American folk.

With Arco Iris Santaolalla released four LP’s (which included the Argentine rock anthem “Mañana Campestre”) and became the leader of one of the top bands in the early wave of Argentine alternative music, reaching its peak with the ambitious Sudamérica o El Regreso de la Aurora rock opera, a double album presented with a series of concerts at the Monumental soccer stadium and at the Opera Theater in 1972. In fact it was the first rock group to play at the famous River Plate stadium, which decades later would become a sort of Mecca for the local rock movement.

The conceptual spirit of the band continued with Inti Raymi (1973) and Agitor Lucens V (1974), which was presented live at the Gran Rex Theater in Buenos Aires and the Paris Theatre de la Ville in 1975. It was a critically acclaimed visual extravaganza that included a full-fledged modern dance choreographed by noted Argentine ballet legend Oscar Araiz. Arco Iris’ early fusion concept would later be taken to new levels of excellence with the Santaolalla-produced Café Tacuba, the Mexican wonder boys who together with Santaolalla have just won a Latin GRAMMY.

Besides making and producing his own music, Santaolalla was always interested in trying to work and develop other artists. The first one to enter the studio with him was also to become his first big discovery, Leon Gieco, (an Argentine-style Woody Guthrie-meets-Bob Dylan singer-songwriter) who’s today one of the most beloved legends of Argentine music and literally a folk hero in his own right.

By 1975 Santaolalla felt he had outgrown Arco Iris and needed a new challenge. His new band, Soluna, recorded only one album and did a few concerts in Argentina and Uruguay, but it’s still remembered today as an essential record in Argentine fusion folk-rock, especially because of its unprecedented attention to four-voice harmonies. (Santaolalla and Soluna made the first recording of an original song by one of its members, Alejandro Lerner, today one of the most important singer/songwriters in Latin America).

In 1978 Santaolalla frustrated with the political and social situation in the military ruled Argentina, decides to leave the country and move to the USA. Los Angeles was his port of entry to this new life that knew of no past, no previous achievements---this was a new beginning from zero.

At this point, the punk fever and the more refined New Wave inspired Santaolalla to start a new band: Wet Picnic the group he formed with who was going to become his partner to this day, Anibal Kerpel. With Wet Picnic, Santaolalla and Kerpel released one album (Balls Up, Unicorn Records) and played countless gigs in the best L.A. rock clubs. The band even won a First Prize in the Hollywood Erotic Video and Film Festival, for the clip of the Santaolalla-penned “She Believes” “starred” by Santaolalla himself, and the video was chosen as one of the best 100 clips of all time by Rolling Stone.

Fueled by his music’s newfound edge, Santaolalla surprised everyone back home with Santaolalla (1981) his first solo album. Even though the album had reggae and ska (a first for Argentine rock up to that point), Afro-Uruguayan candombe and a couple of his trademark moving ballads, Santaolalla marked a radical departure from the ethnic mixture heralded by Arco Iris. The record was-and is-a rock and roll album that’s unanimously accepted, both by the rock press and musicians alike, as one of the most influential records in the history of Argentine rock even though the Falkland War aborted the planned national tour.

But there was another tour of mammoth proportions: “De Ushuahia a La Quiaca” (From Ushuahia to La Quiaca), in which Santaolalla and León Gieco traveled from Argentina's southernmost point to the country’s northernmost point, recording and filming local folk musicians in their original habitat. The tour which came out as three records and four TV programs documented one of Santaolalla’s obsessions: The concept of “alternative” music as something that goes beyond rock and deep into the rawest forms of roots music. De Ushuahia a La Quiaca, (now available on CDs) was an Argentine version of Buena Vista Social Club and its historic significance increases as time goes by.

There would be two more solo projects in Santaolalla: The powerful GAS (BMG-Ariola, 1995), another essential rock Argentino album, and the instrumental Ronroco (Nonesuch, 1998), a charango-based gem where Santaolalla shows his mastery of the Andean string instrument. The album reached the top ten in the US world music charts, and one of the songs was used in the key scene of the acclaimed Michael Mann movie The Insider, starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. But the main turning point in Santaolalla’s career would begin in the mid- to late-‘80s, when he was delighted to observe the flourishing of the new Mexican rock. He was particularly attracted by the fresh, irreverent sound of Maldita Vecindad (picture the cast of Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados carrying electric guitars). Santaolalla recorded two albums with the band: Maldita Vecindad Y Los Hijos Del Quinto Patio (1989) and the groundbreaking El Circo (1992), considered by experts as one of the essential albums in the history of rock en español.. Thus beginning the second part of the career he started with León Gieco in the early ‘70s: Santaolalla The Producer.

As a talent scout and studio alchemist, Santaolalla had the same impact he had back home as a musician. Only this time his voice was heard on an international level. He and fellow Argentine partner, Aníbal Kerpel, are responsible for uniting the traditionally separated world of Mexican and Argentine rock movements. If rock en español is now a Pan-American global movement, the credit is due to the Santaolalla/Kerpel magic which has turned into Gold and/or Platinum all the albums they put their hands on: Los Prisioneros’ Corazones, Divididos’ La Era de la Boludez, Molotov’s Dónde Jugarán Las Niñas? (nominated for a GRAMMY), Bersuit Vergarabat’s Libertinaje and Hijos del Culo, Julieta Venegas’ Aquí and Bueninvento, Puya’s Fundamental, and all of Café Tacuba’s albums, among others.

Precisely it was with Café Tacuba that the Santaolalla-Kerpel team would achieve the greatest acclaim. Café Tacuba (1993), Re (1995), Avalancha de Éxitos (1997, nominated for a GRAMMY), and Revés/Yosoy (1999, winner as Best Rock Album in the first GRAMMY Latino Awards) shaped Tacuba’s reputation as one of the most original rock bands not only in rock en español, but in the international world of alternative music. For Revés/Yosoy Santaolalla invited the Kronos Quartet, who are now working on a separate project with him.

Parallel to his work as a producer, Santaolalla was able to fulfill one of his dreams: film scoring. He was an advisor for the critically acclaimed Star Maps soundtrack which included songs by Julieta Venegas, Puya (both Santaolalla’s discoveries) and others. He’s also the man behind the original score for Amores Perros, the most-acclaimed Mexican film since Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (according to the New York Times). The movie (which won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival and one at the Edinburg Film Festival) also includes a separate CD of original songs composed by several top alternative Latin bands, also produced by Santaolalla. The Platinum-selling CDs were as acclaimed as the movie itself.

From the start, Santaolalla always felt the need to draw a map of Latin American music. His vision was fulfilled in 1997 when he finally launched Surco his own record label.The joint-venture with Universal was a natural progression of his and Kerpel’s work as the premier producer/engineer team in Latin rock. The first signing could not have been more successful. Molotov’s Dónde Jugarán Las Niñas? (Surco/Universal, 1998) sold almost two million copies worldwide, and the label’s roster is really a sonic map of the continent.

For Santaolalla, the post-GRAMMY Latino era has already begun at full speed. Fíjate Bien, the solo debut of Colombian rocker Juanes (ex leader of Ekhymosis) and Bersuit Vergarabat’s Hijos del Culo are poised to be among the strongest albums in 2000. These two albums, as well as the third outing by GRAMMY Latino-nominated Erica García, Argentina’s top female rocker, are sure to keep the Santaolalla magic out there for some time to come.

*Courtesy of Surco Records

		AUDIO CLIPS
		TITLE (label)	ARTIST
		La Bolsa	Bersuit Vergarabat
		Positiva	Erica Garcia