Santos&Zurdo

Santos&Zurdo es un proyecto de fusión electrónica con influencia de la música de India, el funk, house, drum and bass y otros. Activo desde el 2003.

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Santos Gassiebayle was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1978. He picked up the Sitar at age 16, and studied with a Sitar Ensamble for 3 years, before moving to Costa Rica’s pacific coast, in 1998. After a few years studying guitar and working in different parts of the country, he started the Amounsulu World Music Ensamble, which was formed casually by a group of friends who were interested in african rhythms and traditional instruments from different parts of the world.

The success of Amounsulu was instant, and quickly took them all around Costa Rica and gave them the chance of travelling to Mexico and Europe. It was at this time, around april of 2003, that Zurdo approached Amounsulu with the intent of collaborating electronics to the organic sounds of the Ensamble.

Fernán Castro, known as Zurdo (means “lefty”) was born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1977. At age 18 he left the country and worked a year on a kibbutz in Israel. That experience led him to combine backpacking and studying International Relations over the next few years, all the time developing his self taught music style mainly through busking in Israel and Europe. In 2000 he started the band Parque en el Espacio (www.myspace.com/parqueinspace) and began to study electronic music based on secuencer and sampler production.

At the time Santos and Zurdo met, they were both young musicians from an up and coming generation taking the local scene by storm. Zurdo’s original intent to collaborate beats and beeps to Amounsulu didn’t come through, but the idea of a side project focusing on the Sitar and Drum’n’Bass was quickly embraced by both, and as a duo began working on what became their first album, “Souvenir”, which came out with the local Label DDM, the strongest costarrican label at the time. This catapulted them out of the underground, as they won ACAM’s 2006 Album of the Year award for best electronic production. Gaining a reputation of intense live performing, the duo was able to generate a network of small venues all around the country, playing in San Jose for the local crowd and going outside to play for travellers, tourists and “recent locals”.

The experience of constant live performing shaped the development of the duo, as they incorporated the electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, and other rhythms and styles, to keep up with what they felt the crowd appreciated. This is how their music became so diverse and increasingly danceable, keeping at the core a mystical feel of soulfelt music and interpretation.

Currently the duo works on preproduction of their second album, which will compile the development of these two musicians, augmented by big collaborations from the country’s top musicians, many of which are in constant contact with Santos&Zurdo, as guest performers or alternating in festivals and venues.