Souvenir From Santos y Zurdo

Souvenir From Costa Rica

     Just one glance at the cover artwork for the new Santos & Zurdo CD, “Souvenir”, should be enough for anyone to understand that this is not an album of typical or traditional Costa Rican music. The front jacket depicts the body of a multicolored iguana adorned with an implanted quetzal’s head, a pimento-stuffed olive in its beak in a bizarre mesh of images. The music on the CD reveals why this duo is one of the Central American “it” acts of their generation. The CD presents ten of the musicians’ original selections of what the band has proclaimed to be “contemporary electronic world music (of) sitar grooves over electronic beats with sounds of the Costa Rican atmosphere”. Granted, that’s a mouthful, but the entirely instrumental music on this CD truly is hard to nail down with words. I definitely hear the Middle Eastern influence; hard to miss, with a sitar (played by Santos) as the main instrument. The programming (done by Zurdo) gives it a lounge-sound and the keyboards and guitar work, also by Santos, seem to fill the music out and give it a unique ambience that is neither Middle-Eastern nor Lounge music. I am also very impressed that the tabla, a drum from India, is used as the main percussion instrument on the album. 

     Santos and Zurdo have been busy lately. They recently completed their role as programmers on the new Editus CD, “Electronica 360”. Anytime a triple Grammy Award winning band asks for your help, you know you are doing something right. Santos & Zurdo also recently appeared on the new Monteverde Music Festival compilation CD, which is an excellent representation of the new generation of diverse Costa Rican musicians who are now coming into their own.

     The duo have recently taken a liking to Playa Tamarindo; they have been playing together for six years and it is easy to sense their familiarity with each other when they are performing live. Papaya Music has recently taken on a secondary role as distributors for local, independently produced albums. They were quick to recognize the talent (and marketability) of Santos & Zurdos’ premier disc and to add it to their stable, allowing more exposure for this young, up and coming act.

     If I have a knock on the “Souvenir” CD it would be in the packaging and aforementioned artwork. I am pretty sure I understand and appreciate the idea of the collage, but I also think the execution was amateurish and sadly lacking. I am surprised, in fact, that Papaya did not have them revamp the entire package. That being said, the studio work itself is very professional, recorded and well mixed at Synthbio Studios in San Jose. Along with Amigosintimos, Amarillo Cian y Magenta, and Bernal Villegas, Santos & Zurdo present an impressive new league of Costa Rican musicians.

     The Santos & Zurdo CD, “Souvenir”, and all Papaya Music CDs are available at Jaime Peligro Book Stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers. All comments concerning this article are welcome.