Ronroco

Gustavo Santaolalla, Argentinian folk rocker turned Hollywood composer, released his album, "Ronroco," as a return to acoustic folk roots. What results is an album of great simplicity and beauty, mood and melody. One of the most prevalent features of this album is the sheer number of different acoustic instruments used over the album's 12 tracks. Many of these instruments are acoustic stringed instruments of South America, each with its own sound and texture. While these acoustic instruments dominate the album's sound, additional instruments appear at crucial times to add touches of musical coloring that differentiate the feel of the tracks. One example of this can be found in the track, "De Ushuaia a la Quiaca," which prominently features a tense, but simple melody with bright harmonies and a string section that comes in on the third time through the melody and cadences with a soft, distant sounding flute.

A couple of the songs on the album, including the opening track, "Way Up," make use of studio overdubbing techniques to create a dreamlike layered effect. "Way Up" features a very, very spacious melody played very loosely by several rapidly picked guitar instruments and creates a rain-like effect.

The album suffers from a too close similarity between many of the tracks in terms of tone and structure. Most feature a repeating melody of one or perhaps two sections. Most of the tracks repeat this melody without adding enough layering or change to make most of the tracks stick out above the others. "Jardin" is probably the album's best track because of its descending melodies and textural distinctiveness.