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Federico Aubele

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Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tags: latin, dub, trip hop

Website: http://www.federicoaubele.com

Bio: “I’m just tired of being a foreigner,” says Federico Aubele who has been living away from his native Argentina (in Berlin & Barcelona) and touring ... (more) the world for 5 years, “I need to go back home to Buenos Aires.” Despite some of the remaining effects from Argentina’s economic and political crisis in 2001, Aubele loves Buenos Aires. “It’s like going out with a crazy, but incredibly beautiful, charming and seductive woman. She might drive you insane at times, but when you take a step back and look at her, you’re reminded how much you love her and why.”

At the tender age of eleven, a friend convinced Federico Aubele to be a couple of Beatles and start playing guitar-- “You’ll be George, I’ll be John,” he said. His friend eventually became interested in literature, but for Aubele it was too late--he was infected by the music bug. From there he delved into music in all its forms and became an avid vinyl junkie. A few months here as a Kinks fan, a couple of weeks there as a Ramones fan, many more months listening to Mozart—followed by Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Vinicius and Tom Jobim all became an important part of his record collection. In time he discovered the avant garde Argentinian tango composer and bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla.

“Piazzolla was the first Argentinian artist that I connected with,” says Aubele, “prior to him, I listened mainly to foreign artists. Piazzolla sounded like Argentina and, more specifically, Buenos Aires. It’s like Sinatra and New York, Piazzolla and Buenos Aires, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the city.”

After playing guitar, composing and arranging for several pop bands, and DJ-ing a wide range of music styles in scores of clubs and lounges in Buenos Aires, Aubele began working on a solo project. Based on sampled beats and sounds taken from his many records, he laid down plenty of tracks, which were usually lead by a hypnotic guitar line.

“At the beginning I didn’t have any other instruments besides my guitars,” Aubele explains. “So I would just take everything from my records, transform it, manipulate it, and then add the guitar. The guitar is, and always was, my main instrument. We understand each other very well. It is hard for me to imagine myself doing a track without it. I’ve tried, but I always end up adding the guitar. I like an organic sound, so I just play and record everything myself--from the bass, the shakers and the keys, to synth sounds, etc. Today, I still don’t have a MIDI interface, I just don’t see what I could use it for.”

The addition of vocals—intially as samples, then live female singers (friends from Buenos Aires)--led to the composition of proper songwritten material brought together with his arsenal of existing instrumental tracks.

Then Aubele did what any aspiring muscian would do.

“I had the Thievery Corporation single of ‘Focus On Sight’ so I got the website info from the back of the sleeve, logged onto the ESL Music website and emailed them asking where to send demos.” The first of these demos got the immediate attention ESL Music label heads Rob Garza and Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation.

“I got a very detailed email from Eric, with a couple suggestions and he asked that I send him some more music,” says Aubele. The subsequent demo’s were equally impressive and Aubele signed to ESL Music and Thievery Corporation agreed to produce his debut album. The resulting body of work, Gran Hotel Buenos Aires is a sound collage of latin guitar, tango flair and dub-influenced tracks with Spanish lyrics sung beautifully by chanteuses Gabi and Sumaia.

Aubele’s longings for Buenos Aires and South America as a whole, set the tone for his latest album, “Panamericana,” released by ESL Music in September 2007. “I wanted to make an album influenced by the idea of The Americas,” says Aubele. He notes that although each country has its own, sometimes brutal, history, The Americas possess a unique concoction of people: indigenous populations, former slaves, and constant waves of immigrants from every part of the world. “I find the cultural clashes, mixes and blends that have occurred over time exciting, fresh, and very young when you compare it with Europe or Asia.”

The Pan-American Highway, Via PanAmericana in Spanish, is a network of roads that stretches from Fairbanks, Alaska to Cape Horn, Argentina, nearly the length of both North & South America. “I think that being a foreigner in Europe made me start looking at the Americas a lot more closely, distance can do that,” muses Aubele, “when I thought about it, all of my musical influences originate from American countries, be it dub/reggae from Jamaica, Mexican bolero, Argentine tango, or old school US hip-hop. So the idea and the actuality of a road that links these disparate places and cultures together became a very strong influence on the album. Since the Panamericana was officially commissioned in Buenos Aires,” he continues, “it became the perfect metaphor.”

On the 13 tracked “Panamericana,” one hears guitars, the bandoneon, and horns that play out Latin rhythms. There are tango influences, a touch of bolero, reggae/dub bass lines, hip-hop beats, and electronic sounds. Vocals, all in Spanish, float in a smooth and sensual way over congas, drums and heavy bass beats. Aubele, who wrote all songs and lyrics—with the exception of “Lluvia,” lyrics written by Gonzal Garces—sings solos and duets on 6 of the tracks. A variety of South American artists are featured throughout “Panamericana,” such as singer/songwriter Amparo Sanchez of Amparanoia, the Columbian singer Vernie Varela, and Natalia Clavier, one of Aubele’s live show singers. Among other groups who collaborated on “Panamericana” are Calexico (trumpets and wah guitars), and the legendary Argentinean Latin ska band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs (horn section). Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation produced the album from the ESL Music Consulate in Washington, DC.

“Panamericana is more of a songwriter’s album,” says Aubele, when comparing it to his first release “Gran Hotel Buenos Aires” (ESL Music, 2004). “Although aspects of the sound are similar, the songwriting on ‘Panamericana’ is more solid, and immediate.” Through it all, “Panamericana” is about memories and a longing for more familiar confines. Aubele says, “Life takes a different shape when you are living abroad. Your relationship becomes your country, your memories weigh on you in different and unpredictable ways, you long for moments that are frozen in time and can’t be recaptured, it’s all very strange. Then when your relationship ends you realize, ‘What am I doing here?’ I just want to go back home.” (less)