Gustavo Santaolalla: Ronroco

If you have watched movies or television or played video games sometime during the last 30 years, you have likely heard the music of Gustavo Santaolalla. In 1996, the longtime Argentinian rock musician released Ronroco, a collection of a dozen exquisite instrumentals for the 10-stringed South American instrument of the same name. Nonesuch soon reissued it, prompting the director Michael Mann to ask if he might use “Iguazu”—a beautiful four-minute tumble of notes and riverine melodies, inspired by a series of waterfalls back home—for The Insider. It was the beginning of a new life and career for Santaolalla, the launching pad to two Academy Awards, two Grammys, and many more accolades. He composed the score for Brokeback Mountain before even seeing the film, lent music to Into the Wild and Fast Food Nation, and became a kind of composer-in-residence for The Last of Us series. During Argentina’s military junta, Santaolalla was arrested multiple times simply for being a long-haired guitarist; he is now one of the world’s foremost film composers and an international emissary of Argentinian culture.

But back to Ronroco, the album that catalyzed it all: Though Santaolalla adds flourishes of Andean pipes and whistles, its folk instrument namesake is the star of most tracks, its brightness and elasticity framing pieces that move between sorrow and wonder, joy and contemplation. “Atacama” recalls the continuous piano music of Lubomyr Melnyk, its ceaseless tumbles of never-ending notes suggesting the rush of some glacier-fed river. “Zenda” suggests the delicate art of Bonsai maintenance, each note delivered with care and intention. And “Jardin” is a chiming psalm, its high notes and steady rhythm illustrating the instrument’s historic ties to the lute. Santaolalla’s score work has often stretched to include the guitar, drums, and orchestras; here, he returns to the ronroco.