(drawing by Eduardo Mateo, as seen in the "Amigo Lindo del Alma" documentary, 2019)

DOWNLOAD: https://zachphillips.co.uk/laotramitad.zip     (computer only)

LA OTRA MITAD:
100 canciones uruguayas     compilada por zach phillips
1. la otra mitad
A01 estela magnone & eduardo mateo "siestas de mar de fondo" [198?]
A02 sylvia meyer "de las partituras" [1988]
A03 los campos "mi nombre esta en tu cuerpo" [1976]
A04 abel carlevaro "microestudio 17" [1998]
A05 jorge galemire "la costurera" [1983]
A06 eduardo franco "ser como nunca fui" [inédito 198?]
A07 mariana ingold & fernando cabrera "acuarela oriental" [1986]
A08 leo maslíah & liese lange "la otra mitad" [1990]
A09 urbano moraes "como y donde volverás" [1992]
A10 eduardo darnauchans "como los desconsolados" [1991]
A11 hugo fattoruso "hombre del planeta tierra" [1986]
A12 estela magnone & jaime roos "tras tus ojos" [1985]
A13 gastón 'dino' ciarlo "no no" [1979]
A14 ethel morales "canción para una mentira" [1971]
A15 guerrilla urbana "razzia" [1987]
A16 luis trochon "la cola no" [1978]
A17 buraco incivilizado "la lluvia en colón" [1984]
A18 podos "malos tratos" [1972]
A19 ruben rada "el levante" [1985]
A20 susana bosch "kin tin tan" [eduardo mateo, 2005]
A21 vera sienra "uno más" [1972]












 2. tierra de nadie
B01 alfredo zitarrosa & marga y betty "ensayo de adagio en mi país" [inédito]
B02 mauricio ubal "el olor del cafe" [1989]
B03 travesía "los domingos" [1983]
B04 contracanto & jorge galemire "el tambor" [1985]
B05 jaime roos & laura canoura "si piensas en mí" [1984]
B06 eduardo mateo & mariana ingold "canción para renacer" [en vivo 1988]
B07 jorge bonaldi "era el aguacil" [1985]
B08 salitre "dinorah fingers" [1989]
B09 jorginho gularte "darshan" [1989]
B10 esteban klísich & mariana ingold "un campo blanco" [1985]
B11 los shakers "espero que les guste 042" [1966]
B12 cecilia prato "la cementadora" [leo maslíah 1981]
B13 moro satragni "mirada azul" [1983]
B14 asamblea ordinaria "boleadoras y territorios" [1999]
B15 lagrima rios "canario ciego" [1986]
B16 adn "cajas cromáticas" [1988]
B17 eduardo mateo "la zamba vieja" [198?]
B18 estela magnone "carbón y sal (en vivo en la barraca)" [1989]
B19 anibal sampayo "la sajuriana" [1972]
B20 ana solari "tierra de nadie" [1987]
B21 marga y betty "despertar pobre" [1969]
B22 pippo spera "mejor me voy" [1976]












 3. penas de sal
C01 fernando cabrera "hay pájaros" [1989]
C02 eduardo mateo & mariana ingold "la libélula" [inédito 198?]
C03 leo antúnez "adriana rojo" [1972]
C04 institución teatral el galpón "canción de la libertad" [1968]
C05 buraco incivilizado "quisiera despertar" [1984]
C06 zero "persecución" [1987]
C07 gabriela posada "muchacha bajo la lluvia" [1991]
C08 leo maslíah "grupo de amigos en un cafe" [1989]
C09 dogliotti, jasa, garcia vigil & galletti "devaluación" [1983]
C10 hugo fattoruso "brisas" [1997]
C11 mara lua "cuando vivas conmigo" [1978]
C12 mariana ingold & laura canoura "carnada" [1988]
C13 eduardo mateo, ruben rada & urbano moraes "'pizza' para la mañana" [1987]
C14 jesús figueroa "madre" [1973]
C15 roberta lee con el kinto "penas de sal" [1968]
C16 los que iban cantando "ky chororo" [anibal sampayo, 1981]
C17 jorginho gularte y bando sur "influencia" [1987]
C18 los mockers "tell me something new" [1966]
C19 el cuarteto de nos "leyenda" [1984]
C20 mariana ingold & leo maslíah "rumores" [1988]
C21 aldo y daniel "porque lo hiciste" [1970]
C22 otraistoria "stereo tipo" [1986]
C23 moonlights "standard" [1976]
C24 extra "parabajos" [1982]
C25 martín buscaglia & antolín "fernanda como un diamante" [2015]
C26 chichito cabral "don pascual" [1982]
C27 carlos 'pájaro' canzani "hasta perderme en el zapato" [1974]


4. un exceso de luz
D01 pippo spera "made in uruguay" [1983]
D02 travesía "biromes y servilletas" [leo maslíah, en vivo 1984]
D03 héctor tosar "humorística" [1961]
D04 darnauchans y cabrera "por ejemplo" [2008]
D05 opa "never can say goodbye" [1975]
D06 eduardo mateo & jorge trasante "y hoy te vi" [1976]
D07 maria de fatima "três pontas" [1981]
D08 carmela barbé "pretty and victorious" [1991]
D09 the killers "forever" [1972]
D10 mariana garcía vigil "sola en el agua" [1980]
D11 grupo del centro "y si hubiera que mudarse" [inédito 1981]
D12 fernando cabrera "desbordando barrios" [en vivo 1984]
D13 el sindykato "la fuga de la carboneria" [1969]
D14 amalia de la vega "como un nudo en la pata" [1979]
D15 julio julian "diálogo al borde de la sombra" [1980]
D16 nico arnicho "la piolita" [1992]
D17 los invasores "solo" [inédito 1987]
D18 leo maslíah & mariana ingold "santo varon" [1984]
D19 acido sulfúrico "profecía 3" [1969]
D20 laura canoura "esa tristeza" [eduardo mateo, 1985]
D21 gustavo pena, el principe "tu día" [1980]
D22 jorge galemire & eduardo mateo "tus abrazos" [1983]
D23 hugo jasa "peregrino" [1991]
D24 ensamble acústico "un exceso de luz" [1989]
D25 jorge bonaldi "que el viento rompio la nube" [1985]
D26 juan jose de mello & nancy bacelo "balcones de isabel" [1981]
D27 los campos "mi reino bajo el sol" [1970]
D28 alberto wolf y los terapeutas "candombe del no se quien soy" [1990]
D29 canciones para no dormir la siesta "principe azul" [1979]
D30 eduardo mateo "sueño otoñal" [198?]

some words about the compilation

Mariana Ingold: "Me acuerdo tener que ir a la Policía para pedir permiso por las letras. Nos turnábamos porque nadie quería ir."

I'm not a music historian, critic or record collector, just a musician who, in 2017, heard Eduardo Mateo's "Cuerpo y Alma" thanks to my friend Ryan Power. The more music from Uruguay I heard, and the more I learned about the country's history and how that music has figured into that history, the more I wanted to hear and know. My Spanish is nascent but it would reasonable to say that I currently speak almost none. What is this bloated playlist, then? Just a fan compilation aimed at exposing more people to some Uruguayan music I love. It's hardly a comprehensive review, and zero claims are made as to the relative cultural or musical importance of anyone included here or why I picked what out of whose catalog. For example, where is Daniel Viglietti? I am not trying to portray anything here but my own desire.

I did try for some balance (obviously-a-cultural-focal-point vs little-known-and barely-findable; songwriterly fluff vs heartfelt poetry; women vs men; home- vs studio-recorded; more traditional vs more contemporary; explicitly-political vs apparently-not; etc.) but only within the asymptotes of poles that interest me particularly. I'm also not entirely ignorant of the import of various songs and people compiled here to explicit cultural resistance against the US-backed, Bordaberry-installed military dictatorship that gutted Uruguay from 1973 to 1985, the painful presence of which is at least implicit in much of the music that followed. As Mariana Ingold attests in the quote I grabbed from an interview, during the dictatorship songwriters needed to clear their lyrics with police censors, and examples abound of how this unwelcome and terrifying creative challenge led to secret poetic subterfuges, tilts toward the disjunct, and coded embeddings that became part of the development of the nueva canción of the Rioplatense. This complicating factor seems to me to be as important as any of the smorgasbord of admixed influences usually counted as ingredients in the Uruguayan music of the 20th century's second slice: candombe, tango, murga, bossa nova, bebop, modal jazz, the Beatles, Cuban classical guitar (i.e. Leo Brouwer who particularly fascinated Mateo & Carlevaro alike), modernist literature, etc... It's also possible that the evasive, elliptical playfulness of someone like Mateo (haunted and elevated by his razones locas) fused harmoniously with the dictates of the political situation, leading to a more broadly adoptable spirit of hyperspecific opacity and directed ambiguity than an "outsider" figure would usually instigate. I obviously don't know. But I feel the language, I feel the little studios, and I feel the tide of impossibility on which all of this music was borne.

Why did I sometimes enumerate collaborators, sometimes not? Why not indicate, for example, that Podos was Jorge Bonaldi's old band, and why did I mention some writing attributions but miss most? Well, this has taken so much time that I kind of gave up on connecting every dot. I did take pleasure in noticing the interconnections of some of my favorite writers and players, like Mariana Ingold, Leo Maslíah, Estela Magnone, Mateo, the Fattorusos, etc. who pop up everywhere here, so I decided to pepper that in where I could and at least mention guest singers or arrangers where possible. I'm obviously missing a lot... There are also songs included that may raise alarms as being insufficiently Uruguayan, for example Maria de Fatima's Milton cover (her album "Bahia Com 'H' was recorded in Uruguay with usual suspects: the Fattoruso brothers, Hugo being her husband, as well as Pippo Spera, Chango Castro & Jorge Graf among others) or Moro-Satragni (Beto Satragni of Raíces is Uruguayan, Oscar Moro not; the hyper-Argentinian milieu and sound aside, I wanted Beto in here). But whatever, you know? I'm invested enough in this music to be a little defensive here, a little self-conscious there about it.

Special thanks to my friend Alexis Graman, who helped me understand a great deal about many of these songs; to Chris Morris, who sent me a few things I lacked and generally oriented me; and above all to Intercambio Uruguay, an amazing resource bringing together both official releases and arcana gratefully squirreled away from the dictatorship and from the general entropy that artworks both culturally marginal and popular traditionally enjoy. Anyway, thanks for listening. If you like a particular song, chances are very good that the entire album it's on is outrageously incredible. My final collection of runners-up for selection was over 15 hours long. This music, to me, seems inexhaustible, and I hope to learn to play many more of these songs in 2022.

-- Zach Phillips, Brooklyn, New York, January 3 2022
zphillips at gmail dot com                  

where can I buy this music? / other resources

Most of the albums these songs are culled from are unavailable for purchase anywhere. I've tried to go through and see if I can find anything available, especially to buy directly from the artist. I don't have Spotify personally and it's hardly equitable but you may be able to find many things there, too.

-- Mariana Ingold's bandcamp is a huge resource
-- Mariana's website -- check out her recent work with Kit Walker!
-- Gustavo Pena "el Principe" Casanova's website maintained by his daughter, the musician Eli-u Pena, is also an amazing resource where you can download the majority of his music for free, including Buraco Incivilizado
-- Hugo Fattoruso's "Homework" on Bandcamp
-- Hugo Fattoruso y Barrio Opa's Bandcamp
-- Hugo Fattoruso Trio's Bandcamp
-- the wonderful Little Butterfly Records in Montevideo carries some titles
-- Bizarro Records, too
-- Estela Magnone's bandcamp
-- Leo Maslíah's website
-- Mariana Ingold's Cara a Cara compilation via Left Ear Records
-- titles by Pippo Spera, Opa, Dino, Montevideo Blues, El Kinto, LimoNada, Hojas & Mateo may be available from Lion Productions
-- the "Espiritu Inquieto" documentary about Gustavo Pena is highly recommended
-- the "Amigo Linda del Alma" documentary about Eduardo Mateo is also highly recommended
-- "Estados de ánimo" by Hugo Jasa reissue via VampiSoul who are also about to reissue Travesia's "Ni Un Minuto Mas de Dolor"
-- Sylvia Meyer's Vimeo
-- Estela Magnone's "Siestas de Mar de Fondo" via Spotify
-- A Guitar Lesson with Abel Carlevaro
-- Beto Satragni's amazing inéditos "Bello Horizonte" which I found after compiling this
-- Vera Sienra's website
-- Jaime Roos's website
-- Esteban Klísich's website
-- Alberto Wolf's most recent band, Mandrake y los Druidas at Bandcamp
-- Ana Solari's website
-- Antolín's Bandcamp
-- Nico Arnicho's website
-- Laura Canoura's website
-- Chris Morris's compilation "Jazz Argentino y Uruguayo: De Los 80 al Presente" via the Pájaros Pintados Soundcloud