Gustavo Santaolalla Albums (8)
'Things We Lost in the Fire'
Release Date 10/30/2007
Tracks 30
Label Lakeshore
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What The Critics Say
Gustavo Santaolalla and Johan Soderqvist's score for director Susanne Bier's film Things We Lost in the Fire is an appropriate accompaniment to the low-key drama. The Danish Bier, an adherent of the European "Dogma" brand of filmmaking -- naturalistic acting, natural lighting, handheld camera, etc. -- brought much of this approach to an American "Hollywood" film with big movie stars (Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny) in telling her story about a recently widowed woman and her platonic but nevertheless involved relationship with a drug addict who was a friend of her husband. Santaolalla and Sodverqvist provide a large number of short cues (30 in 37 minutes on the soundtrack album) dominated by delicately played acoustic guitars, with occasional orchestral or electronic backgrounds. It's a quiet, careful, somber style in keeping with the subject and style of the film. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
What is most notable about the soundtrack to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is the original score by Argentinian music wizard Gustavo Santaolalla (producer of the grand Café Tacuba recordings and a songwriter in his own right, as evidenced by his two albums, Gas and Ronroco). His interludes and cues evoke the very landscape that Lee portrays in his film, but there are also some fine vocal performances by a star-studded cast of singers. Willie Nelson's read of "He Was a Friend of Mine," complete with squeezebox and layered acoustic guitars, is gorgeous. Emmylou Harris' performance of Santaolalla and Bernie Taupin's "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" is simple, spare, and poignant. The shuffling honky tonk ballad that Santaolalla wrote for Mary McBride, with its crying pedal steel, hits close to the bone and evokes Patsy Cline. Likewise, the hard-driving country of "I Will Never Let You Go," written for Jackie Greene, is tough and tender. Santaolalla's cues, like the best of Ry Cooder's film scores, touch the film's scenery, move its narrative, and pricelessly frame it in time. Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright team for a throwaway country-swing version of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," but Thompson does a fine job on the Santaolalla and Taupin tune "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye," which is as heartbroken a ballad as one is likely to hear. This is an utterly wonderful soundtrack that could have done without Linda Ronstadt's version of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand," or even Wainwright's "The Maker Makes," but this is a small complaint. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'The Motorcycle Diaries'
Release Date 9/14/2004
Tracks 23
Label DeUtsche Grammophon
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What The Critics Say
In January 1952, a 23-year-old Argentine medical student and his friend, a biochemist, set out on a motorcycle from Buenos Aires to explore South America, making their way west, north, and finally east through the continent until they eventually reached the Venezuelan coast. It was a journey of discovery for the two, the kind of adventure Jack Kerouac was having at about the same time in a car crossing the U.S. and that he immortalized in the novel On the Road. The medical student and his friend also wrote about their trip, one in a diary at the time and the other in a memoir later. None of this might have attracted much attention if the medical student hadn't been Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, aka Ché Guevara, who went on to become a famous revolutionary and whose image, in beard and beret, continues to be a symbol for activists on the far left. Walter Salles' film The Motorcycle Diaries recreates the journey, which opened Guevara's eyes to the struggles of the poor in South America, and Gustavo Santaolalla's score is also a musical journey through the same territory. Santaolalla, an Argentine rock musician who previously scored 21 Grams, is only nominally concerned with authenticity in his musical cues, most of them played by his five-piece band. He gets a folkish flavor in much of his music, but he also falls back on the electric guitar, sometimes played with a rock slant, not exactly what you'd expect to hear in the South American countryside in 1952. He also throws in a few tunes by others, notably a mambo by Pérez Prado and the pretty "Al Otro Lado del Río" by Jorge Drexler, which closes the soundtrack album. An orchestral score would have been inappropriate for a film of this kind, and this one instead evokes the native music of the countries through which Guevara passed without being slavishly traditional. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Diarios de Motocicleta (Motorcycle Diaries)'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 19
Label Universal
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What The Critics Say
The soundtrack to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's weighty, emotionally wrenching drama 21 Grams features compositions by Gustavo Santaolalla and a few funk, soul, and hip-hop songs. Given that the film revolves around the conceit that the human body loses 21 grams upon death -- arguably the weight of the soul -- it wouldn't be surprising if the film's music was unbearably pretentious. Track titles such as "Can We Mix the Unmixable? (Remix)" and "Can Dry Leaves Help Us?" suggest that the score is indeed overly studied, but fortunately, this is not the case. Santaolalla's atmospheric style is reminiscent of Cliff Martinez, the frequent musical collaborator of Steven Soderbergh. However, Santaolalla's sound is more organic, drawing from droning guitars and subtle electronics. The warm, spacious sound of "Do We Lose 21 Grams?" and "Did This Really Happen" has more in common with post-rock than with most typical score music, while the brief but haunting loops of "Can Things Be Better?" and "Should I Let Her Know?" nod to the folky electronica of artists like Four Tet. The soundtrack's more song-oriented cuts, like War's "Low Rider," Ozomatli's "Cut Chemist Suite," and Ann Sexton's "You're Losing Me," provide a jolting contrast to Santaolalla's atmospheric score, perhaps reflecting the film's often jarring juxtapositions of life and death. The only track on 21 Grams that succumbs to pretension is "Shake, Rattle & Roll," a lengthy, spoken-word version of the R&B classic performed by Benicio Del Toro. At first, the song is gritty and creepy, but eventually it devolves into self-parody. Still, the overall quality of the album -- particularly on "When Our Wings Are Cut, Can We Still Fly" by the Kronos Quartet -- more than makes up for its occasional awkward moments, which do little do detract from the score's quiet power. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Ronroco'
Release Date 8/6/1996
Tracks 12
Label Soluna/Island Independent
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What The Critics Say
On Ronroco, Gustavo Santaolalla creates a song cycle of original songs in the vein of traditional Argentinian music. Santaolalla infuses Argentinian music with jazz and prog-rock influences, creating a unique hybrid layered with harmonic overtones and complex polyrhythms. He augments his guitar with indigenous instruments, and often trades melodic lines with vibraphonist Anibal Kerpel, resulting in a hypnotic record that sounds like nothing else in worldbeat. ~ Leo Stanley, All Music Guide
