Pajaros I have wanted to play Gustavo Santaolalla’s Pajaros for years, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t figure it out adequately until now. Pajaros (birds) is a one off song from the soundtrack of My Blueberry Nights. If you’ve never heard of that movie, it’s […]

[Updated 6/19/2020] This piece was revealed a few years ago for a potential Last of Us Part II menu screen. We now know it’s titled, Beyond Desolation. At the time of this writing, I’m pouring over the brand new Last of Us Part II score […]

21 Grams is a 2003 American drama film directed by director Alejandro González Iñárritu, also the director of: The Revenant, Babel, Birdman. 21 Grams is groundbreaking, in that the storytelling is non-linear. You’re presented with three people, with three seemingly unrelated stories — until they’re […]

As a purely Santaolalla performance, I’m actually a bigger fan of Thin Ice — also from the Before the Flood soundtrack. The title theme of from Before the Flood is clearly a Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross inception. It has those chord progressions that can only be […]

Before the Flood is a documentary film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Fisher Stevens. The soundtrack is a collaboration between Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Gustavo Santaolalla, and Mogwai. As a huge fan of Gustavo Santaolalla’s avant-garde instrumentation, I’m in my glory with this week’s […]

There’s a reason why Gustavo Santaolalla is at the musical helm of the most compelling film scores of the past 16 years. He has remained very discerning about who he works with — and what he works on. I’ve read dozens of interviews with Gustavo Santaolalla […]

Snow Snow (Brokeback Mountain) is emblematic of Gustavo Santaolalla’s minimalist, and egoless songwriting. There’s an unusual dissonant chord position at the end of each cycle. It catches you off guard. While Santaolalla is probably following his ear when writing music, he has a proclivity for […]

In a previous post I had mentioned that I had yet to watch Alejandro Inarritu’s, 21 Grams. I did, but made it a 1/4 of the way through. It’s well done and well acted, but I just can’t take prolonged sorrow in movies these days. […]

21 Grams is a 2003 drama directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant).  This was the second collaboration between Santaolalla and Iñárritu. The first was Amores Perros, and the 3rd was Babel for which Gustavo Santaolalla won his second Academy award. This is the only movie […]

Babel is a movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). The movie connects seemingly unrelated people around the globe, and may challenge your biases, or preconceived notions.  Gustavo Santaolalla won two back to back Academy Awards for Best Score. Brokeback Mountain in 2005, […]

My gosh, if anything else, the Netflix series Making a Murderer highlights the unscientific (and uncertain) design of our American justice system. I’m not judging, as it might be the best we can do. Beyond a traffic ticket, most of us will never be caught up […]

I’m usually mimicking the actual guitar, ronroco, or instrumentation of my favorite composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. For the Making a Murderer opening theme, I had the opportunity to use Santaolalla’s tragic music to create my own guitar arrangement. My wife and I are almost through with the […]