Ronroco

Submitted by nonesuch on
genre
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

The Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain composer employs the guitar-like ronroco and other South American stringed instruments on this wordless solo disc. While it's evocative of his Argentine homeland, Santaolalla told NPR, "You can find influences of Eastern European music, some Japanese music ... It's just what come out when I grab an instrument."

Description

With Ronroco, Gustavo Santaolalla, an Oscar winner for his score to Brokeback Mountain in 2005, fuses conventional styles with a progressive sensibility, in an album of original tunes inspired by traditional Argentinean music and influenced by music of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The record takes its name from the ronroco, a stringed instrument similar to the charango, although slightly larger and lower in pitch. The charango, a small South American guitar similar to the ukulele, has ten strings arranged in pairs and a body that was originally fashioned from an armadillo shell. “I’ve been playing this instrument since I was a kid, collecting songs and thoughts about this record for a long time,” says Santaolalla. “The idea was to make a non-traditional album, a sonic landscape.”

Ronroco features Santaolalla on charango, ronroco, Andean pipes, whistles and guitar, in collaboration with long-time partner Aníbal Kerpel on vibraphone and melodica. The result is unlike anything Santaolalla has recorded in the past: an intimate musical journey and a unique work of love that has been years in the making. Ronroco is a project for which Santaolalla holds special affection: “This album materialized a different, less well-known side of me,” says Santaolalla. “The challenge was to keep it simple without giving up some rough edges, staying within the boundaries of the subtlety and delicacy that this music needs.”

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Gustavo Santaolalla
Associate Producer Anibal Kerpel
Recorded by Anibal Kerpel at la Casa, Los Angeles, CA
Mixed by Anibal Kerpel and Gustavo Santaolalla
Digital Processing by Doug Schwartz at Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by Steve Hall at Future Disk, Hollywood, CA
Jaime Torres appears courtesy of Polygram Discos S.A. Argentina

Design by 27.12 design ltd, New York City
Cover Photograph by Victoria Goldman, courtesy of The Robin Rice Gallery, New York City

All compositions written by Gustavo Santaolalla and published by SURCO MUSIC (ASCAP)                                               

Nonesuch Selection Number

79461

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
101
ns_album_id
283
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Gustavo Santaolalla
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Gustavo Santaolalla, charango, ronroco, maulincho, pipes, tin whistle, harmonica, guitar, guitarron
Anibal Kerpel, vibraphone,  melodica
Jaime Torres, charango (10)

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597946123BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597946161
Label
LP+MP3 (due 1/26)
Price
25.00
UPC
075597900934
  • 79461

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • Grammy and Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla—who this week received the Latin Grammy Trustees Award—releases his acclaimed 1998 album Ronroco on vinyl for the first time in a newly remastered edition from Nonesuch on January 26, 2024. The singer, composer, and producer’s classic album—which takes its name from a South American stringed instrument—comprises twelve original tunes inspired by traditional Argentinean music and influenced by music of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe. “Ronroco conjures bucolic images and feelings for me,” filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu writes in the new liner note. “There’s always a note that surprises, breaks the pattern of the rainstorm, turning into silence, a gentle drizzle, or escalating into a tempest.”

  • About This Album

    With Ronroco, Gustavo Santaolalla, an Oscar winner for his score to Brokeback Mountain in 2005, fuses conventional styles with a progressive sensibility, in an album of original tunes inspired by traditional Argentinean music and influenced by music of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The record takes its name from the ronroco, a stringed instrument similar to the charango, although slightly larger and lower in pitch. The charango, a small South American guitar similar to the ukulele, has ten strings arranged in pairs and a body that was originally fashioned from an armadillo shell. “I’ve been playing this instrument since I was a kid, collecting songs and thoughts about this record for a long time,” says Santaolalla. “The idea was to make a non-traditional album, a sonic landscape.”

    Ronroco features Santaolalla on charango, ronroco, Andean pipes, whistles and guitar, in collaboration with long-time partner Aníbal Kerpel on vibraphone and melodica. The result is unlike anything Santaolalla has recorded in the past: an intimate musical journey and a unique work of love that has been years in the making. Ronroco is a project for which Santaolalla holds special affection: “This album materialized a different, less well-known side of me,” says Santaolalla. “The challenge was to keep it simple without giving up some rough edges, staying within the boundaries of the subtlety and delicacy that this music needs.”

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Gustavo Santaolalla, charango, ronroco, maulincho, pipes, tin whistle, harmonica, guitar, guitarron
    Anibal Kerpel, vibraphone,  melodica
    Jaime Torres, charango (10)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Gustavo Santaolalla
    Associate Producer Anibal Kerpel
    Recorded by Anibal Kerpel at la Casa, Los Angeles, CA
    Mixed by Anibal Kerpel and Gustavo Santaolalla
    Digital Processing by Doug Schwartz at Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, CA
    Mastered by Steve Hall at Future Disk, Hollywood, CA
    Jaime Torres appears courtesy of Polygram Discos S.A. Argentina

    Design by 27.12 design ltd, New York City
    Cover Photograph by Victoria Goldman, courtesy of The Robin Rice Gallery, New York City

    All compositions written by Gustavo Santaolalla and published by SURCO MUSIC (ASCAP)