Gustavo Santaolalla

Gustavo Santaolalla
Gustavo Santaolalla, March 9, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla
Also known as	Moviola
Born	(1951-08-19) 19 August 1951 (age 65) El Palomar, Argentina
Genres	Latin rock, Electrotango, Film Scores
Occupation(s)	Musician, film composer, producer
Instruments	Guitar, charango, ronroco, singing, piano, bass
Years active	1967–present
Associated acts	Bajofondo

Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine musician, film composer and producer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in two consecutive years, for Brokeback Mountain in 2005, and Babel in 2006. Most recently, he composed the theme music for the Netflix series Making a Murderer.

Santaolalla was born in El Palomar, Argentina, and grew up during the military junta and period later known as the Dirty War. His professional music career began in 1967, when he co-founded the group Arco Iris, an Argentine band that pioneered the fusion of rock and Latin American folk as part of 'rock nacional'. The band adopted the lifestyle of a yogic commune guided by former model Danais Winnycka (known as Dana) and her partner, musician Ara Tokatlian. The band had a few hits, such as Mañanas Campestres ("Country Mornings"), and made inroads into different forms of expression (notably a ballet piece for Oscar Aráiz), but Santaolalla felt constricted by the strict requirements of Dana's teachings, which prohibited meat, alcohol and drugs. He left the group in 1975.

A year later, he assembled Soluna, in which he played alongside teenage pianist and singer Alejandro Lerner and his then-girlfriend Monica Campins. Together they recorded just one album (Energía Natural, 1977). Santaolalla left for Los Angeles, where he adopted a rock and roll sound and made the rounds with his band Wet Picnic, together with ex-Crucis member Anibal Kerpel.

He briefly returned to Argentina in 1981, to produce Leon Gieco's Pensar en Nada and record his first solo album.