San Cristóforo

About

San Cristóforo (Sauna de Lava Eléctrico) is a live album by Spinetta y los Socios del Desierto. It was recorded live on August 20, 21, and 22, 1998, at the Sala Pablo Picasso in the Paseo La Plaza in Buenos Aire. Released on CD and DVD, it contains reinterpretations of songs by other bands Luis Alberto Spinetta collaborated with, such as "Ana no duerme" and "Rutas argentinas" by Almendra, and "Me gusta ese tajo" and "Como el viento voy a ver" by Pescado Rabioso; a cover of Los Ratones Paranoicos' "Sucia estrella"; songs from the band's debut album, including "Bosnia" and "El rebaño del pastor" (the latter composed during his time with Pescado Rabioso); and five previously unreleased singles—"Estás acá," "Piluso y Coquito," "San Cristóforo," "Viento del lugar," and "Tu corazón por mí." The DVD includes a music video directed by Bruno Musso. The album does not include the song "Las ola," which was also part of the setlist performed at La Plaza. "San Cristóforo" is the Italian equivalent of "Saint Christopher" (Spinetta, who was educated at a Catholic school, frequently drew on his Italian cultural heritage). He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is considered the patron saint of traveler. His name means "Christ-bearer," because legend attributes to him the role of a giant who carried Christ on his shoulders as a young child across a dangerous river where people were dying. Title and Cover The title San Cristóforo is metaphorically related to the image of the desert that Spinetta chose to characterize the 1990s and the experience of having to cross it. Spinetta repeatedly explained publicly that for him, music had the power to help people navigate life with dignity (with light), but at the same time, he was very critical of the tendency to idolize artist. Concert Spinetta conceived Los Socios del Desierto as a live band. It was the consequence of an ideological and musical stance that used direct and visceral language to confront the "desert." This is the album in which Spinetta's rock and heavy side is most fully displayed. The band's own producers promoted the concerts at La Plaza, describing them as a wild and deafening spectacle. Spinetta insisted that he was looking for a volume and sound that approached heavy metal, defining the series of concerts at La Plaza as "a stainless steel gathering" and joking about Daniel Wirtz's "volumetric" capacity, saying that he had previously been "president of SOMISA," the largest metalworking factory in Argentina. For Spinetta, San Cristóforo represented taking to its ultimate consequences the physical and testimonial identity with which Los Socios del Desierto had been born. On the album, Spinetta makes extensive use of distortion, for which he always had a particular fondne, allowing him to experiment with new sound. He aspired to develop a new kind of hard rock based on synthesized sounds with heavy distortion, and while he never quite achieved a definitive form, it was with Los Socios and especially with San Cristóforo that he made the most progress in that direction. .

via Last.fm

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