RODRIGO Y GABRIELA ANNOUNCE NEW STUDIO ALBUM

‘AREA 52′ RECORDED IN HAVANA WITH CUBAN ORCHESTRA

Mexican acoustic rock duo Rodrigo y Gabriela will release their new album on  23 January 2012. Entitled ‘Area 52′, the album is their first recorded collaboration with another group of musicians; a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra composed of some of Havana’s finest young players, collectively known as the C.U.B.A.

The album has been produced by Peter Asher, known for his work with James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, 10,000 Maniacs and Diana Ross; as well as being A&R at Apple Records. The album was co-produced by Rodrigo. It has been mixed by Rafa Sardina, 25 times nominated (and 11 times winner) at the Latin Grammys. On ‘Area 52′ Rodrigo y Gabriela revisit nine of their compositions and reinterpret them in a new and dramatic fashion, this is Rodrigo y Gabriela as they have never been heard before.

The new arrangements were done by Switzerland based composer / arranger / pianist Alex Wilson, best know for his work with Courtney Pine and Ernest Ranglin. Recording took place during the summer at Abdala Studios in Havana and later at Rod & Gab’s studio in Ixtapa, Mexico. Guests on the album include Anoushka Shankar on sitar, rock drummer John Tempesta (The Cult, White Zombie, Testament) on two tracks, jazz bass player Carles Benavent (Miles Davis, Chick Corea) on two tracks and Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran.

The album is called ‘Area 52′. Rodrigo explains: “we felt like Mulder and Scully approaching this; it was just a crazy idea, to see if a big Cuban band could play our music, a step in the dark”. He adds: “we knew it was out there, everyone has heard of Area 51, but we wanted to take it a little further.”

Rodrigo y Gabriela have sold in excess of 1.2 million albums, and earlier this year collaborated with Hans Zimmer on ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’. They have sold-out world tours that span London to Los Angeles, Paris to Tokyo and Dublin to Sydney. In recent years they have worked with Robert Trujillo from Metallica, Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, Al Di Meola, L Shankar, Alex Skolnick from Testament and Strunz & Farah.

‘Area 52′ will be released on Rubyworks on January 23rd 2012.

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA ANNOUNCE LIVE UK TOUR DATES FOR FEBRUARY 2012

Rodrigo y Gabriela and C.U.B.A. will be live in the UK and Ireland at the following venues:

Sunday 19th February - The Olympia, Dublin
Tuesday 21st February - The O2 Academy, Glasgow
Wednesday 22nd February - HMV Ritz, Manchester
Friday 24th February - The O2 Academy Brixton, London

Rodrigo y Gabriela will be touring the UK and Ireland with the C.U.B.A. in February - the dates are the first time Rod & Gab will have toured with a full band, and the shows will offer a unique opportunity to experience this already amazing live act as never before.

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