Morning Morning is the central theme from August: Osage County — a highly underrated soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla. Much like Brokeback Mountain, the film’s score has Santaolalla exploring uniquely American themes. Known for his minimalism, Santaolalla uses a subtle, often sparse approach that acts as […]

Soft Descent | Inextinguishable Flames While Inextinguishable Flames is the prototypical riff from The Last of Us Part II — Soft Descent is more reminiscent of Gustavo Santaolalla’s work on The Motorcycle Diaries. The latter is quite possibly his greatest soundtrack. With this piece, the […]

Only Solitude I adore this piece of music from Gustavo Santaolalla’s Monsterland soundtrack. So creative, so beautiful. While it’s actually played on a violin, I reimagined it as a solo guitar piece in Santaolalla’s signature, minimalist style. You might also like to play… The Haunting […]

It Can’t Last It Can’t Last is a dynamic little song from The Last of Us Part II soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla. This piece is played on a Ronroco — which is a tiny, 5 string Andean guitar. [Actually 10 strings, as two strings create […]

Allowed to be Happy This is definitely my favorite piece from The Last of Us Part II soundtrack. The chorus section has a slight pop sensibility to it. I love how Santaolalla creates long passages. Each song feels like a journey. This piece was also […]

Grieving Grieving is some very creative (yet minimalist) guitar work by Gustavo Santaolalla, from The Last of Us Part II soundtrack. It fits well with the ‘All Gone’ themes from both game soundtracks. I expanded well beyond the original motif to create, Grieving (a variation). […]

Reclaimed Memories Reclaimed Memories is pretty little guitar piece from The Last of Us Part II soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla. The signature of this score is Santaolalla’s use of a 6 string guitar banjo. It was very easy to transfer this song to guitar — […]

Longing This arrangement combines both Longing and Longing (Redemptions) from The Last of Us Part II soundtrack. The latter of which is played on a Ronroco (a tiny, 5 string Andean guitar) that Gustavo Santaolalla employs throughout his soundtracks. Both pieces comprise his trademark minimalism; […]

Unbroken It took me all of two seconds to realize that Unbroken occupies the same space (and delivers the same poignancy) as The Choice from the first game. A great piece of music from maestro, Gustavo Santaolalla. This song was also used to great effect […]

The Choice Although I haven’t played The Last of Us game, I think the HBO series is amazing. The Choice has long been one of my favorite pieces of music by composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. He truly has a knack for the “major lift” which is […]

Joaillerie By 1998, Gustavo Santaolalla was already an iconic musician and producer in the Latin alternative rock scene. His album, Ronroco, launched his reinvention as a film composer. The song, Iguazu, was used to great effect in, The Insider. Following 1998’s Ronroco, Camino is a […]

On the Nature of Daylight The post-classical genre is a (popular but controversial) genre of contemporary music that combines classical and electronic music. Usually, the music is slower and emotive. The top composers of this genre have found a home for their music in modern […]