The famous Argentine music producer Gustavo Santaolalla will land in Chile. A fundamental name in Latin American music, he will perform twice in Chile. Two times, two different activities: the first, a masterclass on Saturday, August 22, at 7:00 p.m., at the CA 660 Theater of Fundación CorpArtes; and the second, the following day, Sunday, August 23, a concert at the Municipal Theater of Santiago.
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It will be the opportunity to hear him perform pieces from his famous album Ronroco (1996), based on the Bolivian instrument of the same name derived from the charango, which has become inseparable from the musician’s career. In fact, it sounds precisely in the soundtrack of the series The Last of Us, which he composed.
But Santaolalla owes his status to having been behind historic albums of Latin American music; here we review six of those fundamental titles.
Recorded in the final moments of the first stage of the San Miguel band, shortly before Claudio Narea left the band, strictly speaking, it was recorded only by Jorge González, in Los Angeles, California (for many, it is his first solo work). With a marked synth-pop sound, Santaolalla contributed a polished production that contrasted with the rawer sound of previous albums. He incorporated details like the charango in Tren al Sur and enhanced the dramatic tone of songs like Estrechez de corazón and Corazones rojos. The album became the best-selling in the group’s history and marked a sentimental and sophisticated turn during Chile’s democratic transition.
Three years later, Santaolalla worked again with González, this time on his solo debut. Recorded in Los Angeles and released in 1993, the album was produced by Santaolalla along with Aníbal Kerpel and deepened the electronic and pop orientation that had already appeared in Corazones. Mi casa en el árbol, Fe o Esta es para hacerte feliz showed a González willing to explore an identity different from that of Los Prisioneros. Although it did not meet EMI’s commercial expectations, it consolidated González as a composer of intimate and well-produced songs, and demonstrated the continuity of the creative bond between them.
With Ricardo Mollo, Diego Arnedo, and Federico Gil Solá, Santaolalla captured the power of “the rock steamroller” called Divididos, the project born from the ashes of Sumo after the death of the charismatic Luca Prodan. The album fuses hard rock, funk, reggae, and Argentine folklore (including the version of El arriero by Atahualpa Yupanqui). Songs like ¿Qué ves? and Salir a comprar became anthems. Recorded in the United States, the album sold hundreds of thousands of copies, filled the Obras stadium a dozen times, and held a prominent place in the lists of the best Argentine rock albums. Santaolalla contributed charango and percussion, reinforcing the local identity within a powerful sound.
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If someone wants to see Café Tacvba, knows little about them, and wants to listen to an album to get a feel for their songs, this is the record. The Mexican band’s second full-length is considered one of the greatest achievements of Latin American rock. Santaolalla, who had already produced their debut, helped channel the band’s eclecticism: from the hit Ingrata, the moving Esa noche, to the experimentalism of El aparato or the joyful El ciclón. The result was a work that celebrated Mexican and continental cultural diversity, catapulted Café Tacvba to mass appeal, and showed that rock in Spanish (and very Chilango) could be sophisticated, irreverent, and deeply local at the same time.
Who didn’t sing “gimme gimme, gimme dame todo el power,” or the chorus of Puto? The Mexican band’s debut, released by Santaolalla’s Surco label, combined rap, rock, and social criticism with street language and corrosive humor. Songs like Gimme tha Power or Puto generated controversy and empathy in equal parts. The production by Santaolalla and Kerpel achieved an aggressive but clear sound, which allowed the group to sell millions of copies and become a Latin American phenomenon. It was proof that rock in Spanish could also be direct, political, and massive.
The Mexican solo debut, after her time with Tijuana No!, revealed a composer of intimate and original songs. Santaolalla enhanced her use of accordion and piano in an acoustic-folk-rock sound that included De mis pasos and Cómo sé. The album positioned her as one of the most interesting voices in Mexican rock and laid the foundations for a career that would later achieve massive success, always with an intact personal sensitivity.
If someone wants to listen to chaos made music, this is the album. After seeing the band live and hesitating, Santaolalla agreed to produce their fourth album. The result mixed hard rock, cumbia, murga, ska, and milonga in songs like Yo tomo, Se viene, Murguita del sur and Sr. Cobranza. Recorded between Buenos Aires and Los Angeles, the album turned Bersuit into a popular phenomenon, anticipated the social climate before the 2001 crisis, and demonstrated the producer’s ability to organize creative disorder without crushing the group’s identity.
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