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 […]

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). […]