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. Think of that as a tiny Andean guitar. I would say ukulele — but they’re a […]

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 actually played on a Ronroco — a tiny, 5 string Andean guitar — that Gustavo Santaolalla employs on many of his songs. Both […]

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 […]

Impermanence Gustavo Santaolalla’s most underrated score is from the 2013 film August: Osage County – a 2013 American comedy-drama film that tells the story of a dysfunctional family that reunites into the familial house when their patriarch suddenly disappears. While the movie had mixed reviews, […]

Rein This song is from the film, Biutiful, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Babel, Birdman). Biutiful stars Javier Bardem who plays Uxbal: a conflicted criminal in Barcelona’s underground. Learning that he is ill and has just a few months to live, Uxbal races […]