El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez was a short-lived Puerto Rican/US experimental/psychedelic/prog/math-rock "supergroup" formed in 2006 by members of The Mars Volta and Hella bands. Initially, the project started as a collaboration between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Hella's drummer Zach Hill, subsequently expanded to a full-fledged band joined by two Mars Volta bandmates, bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña (opens in a new tab) and lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and Hill's collaborator in Hella, Jonathan Hischke, on synth bass. The band recorded most of the album's material in the summer of 2006, while Rodriguez-Lopez also worked on his Old Money and Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo solo albums and completed The Mars Volta's third studio album, Amputechture; two years later, in the summer of 2008, Omar tracked and overdubbed Cedric Bixler's vocals.
The group's debut album, Cryptomnesia CD/LP, came out on Rodriguez Lopez Productions on 5 May 2009. At the time, Omar was already performing and recording with Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group; thus, Cryptomnesia was credited to "El Grupo Nuevo" (or "New Group") to avoid confusion with his later project, even though it technically predated both ORLG and Omar's Quintet (opens in a new tab). Rodriguez-Lopez claimed the New Group already had two more albums and recorded more songs with Zach Hill in October 2010. (This material remained unreleased.)
El Grupo Nuevo De Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez — guitar & keyboards
— bass guitar
Cedric Bixler-Zavala — vocals
Jonathan Hischke — synth bass
Zach Hill — drums