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 […]

[Updated: 6/19/2020. Special thank to Sakis Karpas and Unboxholics for including this performance in their incredible short film, Anna: a Last of Us Story. Ever since the release, I’ve received dozen of warm messages from UH fans. Unboxholics has cultivated something special. They are the […]

Seguir Camino is Gustavo Santaolalla’s follow up to his 1998 album, Ronroco. By 1998, Santaolalla was a legendary Latin American musician and music producer. However, Iguazu (from Ronroco) kicked off his second act as film score composer, when Michael Mann used it to great effect […]

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.  […]

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 […]

Zambita Zambita is pretty tune by Gustavo Santaolalla from The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. Although it’s played on a lightly distorted electric guitar, Zambita also sounds great on any acoustic guitar. Like much of Gustavo Santaolalla’s film score work, Zambita is a fun, dynamic, and doable […]

La Muerte De La Poderosa I revisit The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack often. The whole thing is a masterpiece. I love everything Gustavo Santaolalla does, but for me, the big two are: The Motorcycle Diaries and Brokeback Mountain. Gustavo Santaolalla’s work on The Motorcycle Diaries embodies […]

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 […]

La lettre de Ben I love this guitar theme from Gustavo Santaolalla. His music for the French crime thriller, Tout nous sépare (All That Divides Us), recently won ‘best score’ at the La Baule Film Festival. Gustavo Santaolalla’s creativity on a single guitar is off […]

Brokeback Mountain 1 Gustavo Santaolalla’s Brokeback Mountain 1 is my favorite piece of music ever. It informs, literally, all of my guitar playing. It’s the sole reason for this blog, and serves as a grounding principle for my musicality: minimalism. When in doubt, play less. […]

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 […]

Things We Lost in the Fire This is the second musical theme from, Things We Lost in the Fire: a (2007) drama starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. The story follows (Berry) a recent widow and her husband’s drug addicted best friend (Del Toro). […]