The Last of Us (Variation) The depth and creativity of Gustavo Santaolalla’s The Last of Us soundtrack never ceases to amaze me, even years later. Two of my favorite themes are: the title theme, and The Choice. Inspired by Gustavo Santaolalla’s recent E3 performance, where […]

Brokeback Mountain 2 The Brokeback Mountain score is initially what introduced me to Gustavo Santaolalla’s music in 2005 — for which he won the first of his back-to-back Academy Awards. The minimalist approach and solitary delivery of a lone acoustic guitar was unlike anything we […]

Opening If you’ve been a reading my blog for any length of time, it’s not hard to figure out that I’m a Gustavo Santaolalla superfan. It all started with the Brokeback Mountain score: acoustic guitar, empty space, minimalism. I had never heard anything like it.  […]

Simon and Blue Rob Simonsen’s music (aptly named) is perfect for this style of movie. With ‘Simon and Blue’ he seemingly uses every cliche chord progression, texture, and melody from the 80’s. I love every minute of it. This song is so expertly crafted — […]

Chichina I performed Chichina this blog about 7 years ago, however my audio quality was dated and not up to my current standard. I’ve been on a quest to redo the songs that inspire me to play guitar, and Gustavo Santaolalla’s Chichina is one of […]

Johann Johannsson This is my tribute to the late, Johann Johannsson (The Theory of Everything, Sicario). He was one of — if not the greatest living composer. His music was all at once: aching, melancholy, and extraordinary progressive. Johann’s passing is a major loss for […]

Visions of Gideon Visions of Gideon is a song by the New York based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. His songs from the film, Call Me By Your Name are atmospheric and layered. The soundtrack also features avant-garde classical works and music by composer, Ryuichi […]

The Deer Written by Carter Burwell, The Deer, is the sentimental theme from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This theme is also known from the score as, My Dear Anne, and Can’t give up Hope. All three themes have a delicate guitar line as well […]

Dans Les Yeux De Bruno I’ve always loved this short guitar riff from Gustavo Santaolalla. It from a french film entitled, Les Yeux De Sa Mère. I’ve been working on a complex and long piece for this blog — so it was a good opportunity […]

Mindhunter We just binged watched the first season of Mindhunter and it was great. If you liked (HBO’s) True Detective, you’ll like Mindhunter. Mindhunter follows two FBI agents in the late 70’s as they attempt to create a profiling scheme for serial killers, by interviewing […]

Lady Bird The Lady Bird soundtrack is from multi-instrumentalist composer Jon Brion. Brion’s niche is in creating “unsentimental” scores that fit hand in glove with indie drama/comedies. The music bounces along — like a Beatles song without vocals — never interfering with the scene. Contrast […]

Amores Perros Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Amores Perros (2001) is an ambitious story of lives that collide in a Mexico City car crash. Inventively structured as overlapping and intersecting narratives. Gustavo Santaolalla initially said no to this project, because he was too busy producing […]