Warm Visions

So right now I’m taking four Spanish classes to finish my minor and boy howdy is it difficult. It feels good to be immersed in the language, but the amount of reading in the language and having to wrap my brain around comprehension is tough. I hope by the end of the semester I’ll have mastered it, or something close to that, and I’m able to complete my minor.

One of my classes centers around the theme of human rights in Latin America, prompting discussion through a song and film of the week. This week’s film was Amores Perros, which in Spanish translates to “Love’s A Bitch.” This film was quite the bitch, if you’ll forgive my language, due to its length (150 minutes), three dense, loosely interwoven storylines, and the fact that it made me feel all sorts of emotions – mostly about dead dogs. I love the dogs. I enjoyed the film, though. Very well done. Cannot sell it short on that – it’s just that I was not emotionally prepared for that kind of epic.

It definitely ended itself on a brilliant note, however. The last song that plays as one of the main characters walks into the sunset and the credits roll is this one, “Tema Amores Perros + Atacama.” The first 30 seconds of the track features the film’s main theme, as stated in the song and the remaining three minutes features some downright hypnotic layers of guitar picking, along with some other pleasant stringed instruments. There’s also some straining winds floating through the background, adding color and depth to the track. I was entranced from the beginning and replayed that part over and over again. It’s very reminiscent of the Laraaji + Brian Eno collab “Ambient 3” which has Laraaji and his magical dulcimer weave a dream-like soundscape for the brain to waft through, like some sort of mist.

This song was made by highly acclaimed Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who won Academy Awards for Best Original Score for films Brokeback Mountain and Babel. Most recently and notably, he composed the soundtrack to hit videogame The Last Of Us. I love the inclusion of the layers of delicate guitars – definitely an admirable characteristic of his music.

Check this one out for sure if you’re looking for a safety net to stop your brain from falling into despair.