Lakeshore Records releases El Cid: Themes and Inspirations—Original Soundtrack featuring original music by Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe and BAFTA winner Gustavo Santaolalla, digitally today, November 4. The score is richly orchestrated with instruments of the medieval period that are anchored with Santaolalla’s masterful guitar work that provide an epic backdrop to the Amazon Original series. El Cid Season Two is available exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world. This album is the second of two albums and a labor of love for Santaolalla as he expresses his interest in period music and is able to connect with the Spanish part of his heritage. The first was released digitally via Lakeshore Records on August 6 and also featured Alfonso G. Aguilar.
El Cid tells the story of Rodrigo “Ruy” Diaz de Vivar [AKA “El Cid”], a national hero of Spain, but also one of the most mysterious and complex characters in the country’s history. The series explores Ruy’s younger years when he becomes a faithful vassal, knight and hero for the crown. The story takes place in the eleventh century, one of the most fascinating periods in Spanish history, where Christians, Arabs and Jews lived together in the Iberian Peninsula, facing wars and forging alliances. El Cid is a story of love, intrigue, betrayal and the struggle between those with power and authority.
Says Santaolalla: " On this album, I want to share the themes, interludes and textures that I originally created for the series. Some pieces were used as you’ll hear them here. Others became part of the score that Alfonso put together. And there are some that you will only hear in this collection, which continues my quest to connect with music that is part of my identity. This is a very personal album.”
ABOUT GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA
The renowned and talented musician, composer and producer Gustavo Santaolalla has developed an extensive and successful career. Born on August 19, 1951 and a native of El Palomar, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santaolalla began taking guitar lessons at age five. In his youth he was part of the massively recognized band, Arco Iris. Since its inception, the identity issue has been one of the main axes of Santaolalla’s artistic vision. During those years Argentina was victim of a violent coup and a bloody military dictatorship.
In 1978 Santaolalla decides to settle in Los Angeles. He forms the group Wet Picnic with Aníbal Kerpel, a musician and engineer with who he continues working to this day. The theme "Cocktailed Sky" was one of the first short musicals to be transmitted by the test signal of the emerging MTV. In 1984, with the newly established Argentine democracy, he returns there to perform "De Ushuaia a la Quiaca" a project that brings him together to his soul mate with who he travels all across the country.
Santaolalla's work with artists like Café Tacvba, Maldita Vecindad, Julieta Venegas, Divididos, Los Prisioneros, etc. establishes him as one of the fundamental pillars of the history of the movement known as Rock en Español.
Years later, together with Aníbal Kerpel and Adrian Sosa (musician and producer), he creates his own record label called Surco, and manages to establish the careers of artists such as Molotov, Juanes, Bersuit, La Vela Puerca, El Peyote Asesino, Arbol, Bajofondo, etc. Between 2000 and 2017 Santaolalla is awarded 16 Latin Grammys and 2 Grammys for his work as a producer, songwriter and artist.
He founds and integrates, Bajofondo, together with Juan Campodonico (musician and producer), and participates in widely recognized festivals around the world such as Coachella, Glastonbury, Roskilde and prestigious venues such as the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen among many others.
In 2005 he produces a series of albums, book and film entitled "Café de los Maestros," in which he brings together the greatest exponents of the golden age of tango of the 1940's and 1950's.
At the same time throughout his career, he launches several solo albums. "Santaolalla" (1981), "GAS" (1995), "Ronroco" (1994), "Camino" (2014), "Qhapaq nan" (2015) and “Raconto” (2017). The beginnings of Santaolalla as a music composer for films occur in the year 2000. He forges a lasting friendship and an artistic partnership with director, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, for who he composes the original score for his films “Amores Perros”, ”21 Grams”, “Babel” and “Biutiful”. Later, films such as “The Motorcycle Diaries” by Walter Salles open a path of immense recognition in the film industry, and in 2007, Santaolalla becomes the third composer in history to win two Oscar awards consecutively, for the Ang Lee film “Brokeback Mountain" in 2006, and Iñarritu for "Babel" in 2007.
Meanwhile, Gustavo creates a publishing company called RETINA, through which he publishes collection books of several prominent photographers like Gaby Messina, Gustavo di Mario, Diego Levy, Nora Lezano, Alejandra Palacios, etc. The books "Sangre" and "Potrero" were also given international awards in the book fair in Madrid, Spain.
In 2013, and for the first time in his career, Santaolalla created the music for a video game. The Last of Us, with more than 200 awards, including game of the year, becomes one of the most successful video games in history. Santaolalla was again invited by Neil Druckmann to work on the follow-up video game and the much-anticipated The Last of Us II, released in June 2020.
In 2013 the album "Presente" was released, leading Bajofondo to an extensive world tour of the band.
In 2014, Santaolalla makes the music for the successful and award-winning film “The Book of Life.” Not only composing incidental music, but also writing original songs with the iconic Paul Williams.
2015 finds Santaolalla getting the Platino Award for his work in the acclaimed Damian Szifron’s film “Relatos Salvajes”.
Also that same year he produced and hosted “Qhapq ñan, desandando el camino” a four-part TV documentary released in Argentina. His work in North American television in this period includes his original music for shows such as the popular “Jane the Virgin” and the controversial “Making of a Murderer.” Starting in 2018, Santaolalla began working on the musical score for Narcos: Mexico Season 1, Season 2 and is currently working on Season 3.
In 2019, Santaolalla produced the music for the Los Tigres del Norte Netflix Original documentary & live album, Los Tigres del Norte at Folsom Prison, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash’s live album at Folsom and includes a Spanish version of “Folsom Prison Blues”. It was followed by the release of Café Tacvba’s second MTV Unplugged celebrating the 30th anniversary of the band.
Recently, Santaolalla was invited by Eric Clapton to perform at the Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside artists such as Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Peter Frampton, Vince Gill, John Mayer and Clapton, himself.
Having wrapped up the score for Miguel Sapochnick’s upcoming feature film, BIOS starring Tom Hanks in the first half of 2020, Santaolalla is currently working on the animation series Maya and the Three (Netflix), the Spanish television mini-series El Cid (Amazon Prime Video), and Freak Power: The Ballot of the Bomb, a documentary inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s run for sheriff of Pitkin County.
Rompan todo: La historia del rock en América Latina, a Netflix series documenting the history of rock and roll music in Latin America against the political and cultural backdrop of the region, directed by Picky Talarico and executively produced by Nico Entel (Sins of my Father) and Santaolalla was released mid-December 2020.
For more information, contact: www.lakeshorerecords.com
Jeremy [Six Strings]
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