Omar Rodríguez-López - The Clouds Hill Tapes, Pt. I (2020)

“Omar Rodríguez-López Group is a long term friend of our studio. Our series "…Live at Clouds Hill" started in 2011 with an improvised “Krautrock” performance of extraordinaire: Faust & Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Jean-Hervé Perón fell backwards with a running chainsaw and slit Rodriguez-Lopez' jeans and only with luck not his leg open.”

Ultra-prolific composer, guitarist, and producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in 1975. He spent his formative years in South Carolina and El Paso, Texas, setting up camp in the latter and forming the hardcore band Startled Calf at the age of 15. He joined post-hardcore outfit At the Drive-In in 1993, a gig that lasted until the band broke up at the peak of its popularity in 2001. Rodriguez-Lopez formed the Mars Volta the following year, as well as an instrumental side project called the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet. He composed the soundtrack to Jorge Hernandez Aldana's El Búfalo de la Noche in 2005 and has released four solo albums – 2004's Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack, Vol. 1, the eponymous Omar Rodriguez in 2006, and Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo and The Apocalypse Inside of an Orange, both in 2007. Rodriguez-Lopez would continue his double releases in 2008 with Calibration and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Jeremy Michael Ward, a collaborative effort that was recorded prior to the formation of Mars Volta. Old Money, Megaritual, Despair, and Xenophanes (which was sung completely in Spanish by Rodriguez-Lopez and his duet partner, the Mexican singer/songwriter Ximena Sariñana) all followed in 2009. The guitarist and composer continued his brisk release pace in 2010 with Solar Gambling, Cizaña de los Amores and Tychozorente, and the following year saw even more new material come to light. In 2012, after the death of his mother, Rodriguez-Lopez decided to put the brakes on his busy solo career and begin collaborating again. He founded experimental art- rockers Bosnian Rainbows with ex-Mars Volta member Deantoni Parks, Le Butcherettes vocalist Teri Gender Bender, and keyboardist Nicci Kasper, and released an eponymous album with the group in 2013. He also started the more rock-oriented Antemasque alongside longtime collaborator Cedric Bixler-Zavala and a rotating cast of players that included Flea, Travis Barker, Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez, and Dave Elitch. Antemasque issued their eponymous debut album in 2014. Omar Rodríguez-López Group is a long term friend of our studio. Our series "…Live at Clouds Hill" started in 2011 with an improvised “Krautrock” performance of extraordinaire: Faust & Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Jean-Hervé Perón fell backwards with a running chainsaw and slit Rodriguez-Lopez' jeans and only with luck not his leg open. Since that night he played other showcases with Bosnian Rainbows and the Omar Rodríguez-López Group and recorded with At the Drive-In.

The Clouds Hill Tapes Part I, II & III are 20 new songs produced by Johann Scheerer and performed by Omar Rodríguez López and a range of guest musicians. They are going to be released as a 3 x 12" vinyl box set on July, 24th. It comes with 10 monochrome photographic prints takes during the recording session at Clouds Hill Studio in 2019.