El Recuerdo El Recuerdo (The Memory) by Gustavo Santaolalla, is from the soundtrack of Narcos: Mexico. The whole thing is a treasure trove of gorgeous, minimalist pieces by Santaolalla. The ‘Mexico’ show was excellent too. Within the 1st episode, you’ll be quickly reminded that Narcos […]

Maya and the Three Maya and the Three (Maya y los tres) is a Mexican animated miniseries on Netflix. The show is about a precocious and lively princess on a mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity from the wrath of vengeful gods. […]

Abby and Owen This motif is an unreleased track from The Last Of Us Part II by Gustavo Santaolalla. It’s relatively easy to play and works as a perfectly as an etude (a composition built on a technical motive — but played for its artistic […]

Brokeback Mountain Suite About 10 years ago, Gustavo Santaolalla performed the Brokeback Mountain Suite for the Latin program, Encuentro en el Estudio. To date, it’s his best performance of the Brokeback Mountain score (and I’ve watched them all). The guitar tone is gorgeous. You’ll notice […]

All Gone (Seasons) The Last of Us Volume 2, is the supplemental soundtrack for ‘The Last of Us: Left Behind’ – downloadable expansion content that would be later bundled into ‘The Last of Us Remastered’. The music features compositions from the game, composed and produced […]

Calmamente Calmamente is from the soundtrack of Qhapaq Ñan — Gustavo Santaolalla’s docuseries about the pre-Columbian ‘Inca road system’, which winds for 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) through the Andean region. It’s a serene song that exemplifies Santaolalla’s minimalist ability to extract the maximum from a few […]

The Journey The Journey (El Viaje) was originally written for Louis Vuitton’s Journey campaign in 2008. The video has some really class cinematography to go with Gustavo Santaolalla’s world music. This piece eventually found it’s way onto Santaolalla’s Camino album in 2014. I think it’s […]

Wait and Then by Gustavo Santaolalla As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I believe Gustavo Santaolalla’s 2014 album, Camino, is a collection of music that was intended for various film projects. I’ve scored a few short films, and I’ll write and record 20 pieces […]

Cordon de Plata Cordon de Plata is a beautiful piece of music from Gustavo Santaolalla’s album, Camino. I believe that record is a collection of instrumentals that didn’t find a home in Santaolalla’s various film projects over the years. Almost certainly this piece was intended […]

Iguazu This is an arrangement of Gustavo Santaolalla’s most famous composition, Iguazu. In the late 90’s, as both a musician and producer, Santaolalla was already an icon in Latin alternative music. His instrumental piece, Iguazu, was used to great effect in the 1999 Russell Crowe […]

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. You might also like to play… Gustavo Santaolalla: Brokeback Mountain 1 | fingerstyle guitar […]

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 […]