Enrique Bunbury

Enrique Bunbury in concert in 2012.

Enrique Ortiz de Landázuri Izarduy (Zaragoza, August 11, 1967), better known as Enrique Bunbury or simply Bunbury, is a Spanish singer, songwriter and musician. He was recognized for having been Leader of Heroes of Silence.

He began his musical activity during the early years of the 80s as part of Apocalipsis, Rebel Waltz, Proceso Entrópico, Zumo de Vidrio and Niños del Brasil, although his consecration came as the Leader of Héroes del Silencio, a musical group highly successful and considered by many to be one of the best Spanish rock bands. After the group broke up in 1996, he began his solo career the following year, establishing himself as an important figure in the Spanish and Latin American musical scene.

The singer's solo career, unlike Héroes del Silencio, has been very different in terms of musical sound, maintaining the essence of rock, coming to experience various rhythms from electronic music and Arabic music in the early days, through music from cabaret, rancheras, blues, flamenco and tangos, even salsa, milongas, boleros and cumbias in one of his latest works where he pays homage to Latin America.

On the list of "The 250 Best Ibero-American Rock Albums" from the US magazine Al Borde are ranked 81st.er their album Flamingos , in the 154th place Pequeño and in the 228th place Radical sonora, in addition to his four studio albums with Héroes del Silencio: Trails of Betrayal (#5), Avalanche (#35), The Spirit of Wine (#117) and The sea does not stop (no. 119).

Enrique Bunbury has also appeared on the list of number 119 of Rolling Stone magazine published in September 2009, as the only singer with two albums among the top ten most influential albums of the last 50 years in Spain. The two Outstanding albums were Senderos de treason (1990) in second position and Flamingos (2002) in ninth position.

In 2004 he was considered one of the most influential Spaniards by the newspaper El Mundo.

The artistic surname Bunbury comes from a character in The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, as he himself has confirmed in various interviews and in his biography The rest is silence, written by Pep Blay.

Bunbury has collaborated on several documentaries, including 72 horas... Y Valencia fue la ciudad, which narrates how a phenomenon that placed the city of Valencia at the social and musical vanguard of these decades, it degenerated into the bakalao route. The film by director Oscar Montón, and producer Juan Carlos García, collects unpublished images recorded in these discos to "pay homage to the Valencian night" and put an end to the cliché of "marginality that has been assigned to it". He has also explained in various works his past with Héroes del Silencio and the relationship with the members of the band. In 2020, Fernando del Val, accused Bunbury in his book The Bunbury Method of having copied verses from other authors in his lyrics without properly mentioning them, which sparked a controversy.

On February 28, 2022, the musician announced his departure from the stage due to health problems, clarifying that the shows scheduled for the course of the year in Spain and the United States would be the last.

After giving a couple of concerts in New York and Atlanta, on May 14, 2022, Enrique announced the cancellation of the remaining concerts of "The Last Tour" due to the bad state of his throat, ending his musical career on stage after 35 years.

His health problems only affect live performances, so he will continue with his compositional work. In 2023 he has already announced the release of the twelfth studio LP of his career.

Early Years

Enrique Bunbury was born in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, into a bourgeois family, the brother of Rafael, Jorge and Ana. Since he was little he had a taste for music, putting together a homemade battery with what he had at hand. At the age of 8, he saw the movie The Neighborhood Against Me (King Creole) on television where Elvis Presley appeared, and from there he was struck by the "King", becoming one of his idols until today. Thanks to his uncle and his brother Rafa, Enrique was fortunate to listen to the most recognized artists.

He was a normal boy with good behavior at school and excellent grades, but from adolescence, Enrique's life took a turn, having rebellious attitudes, almost vandalism towards others, he was nicknamed "against&# 3. 4; Because he always disagreed with everyone, with a rebellious attitude, he had to face a false accusation of drug trafficking by a priest from his school. After that, he was kicked out of various institutions for two years in a row.After that time, he worked as a DJ at a place called "El bandido". He managed to buy his first record, which was Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

The artist spent his early years among books: he read Friedrich Nietzsche with his theory of the Superman and Franz Kafka (Letter to the father); also others like Rafael Alberti and Antonio Buero Vallejo for their symbolism. William Blake, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Emilio Salgari and Rudyard Kipling were also some of his most widely read authors.

Musical career

Beginnings

His musical career formally began at the age of thirteen, when he bought his first electric guitar with eight thousand pesetas that he had saved, he began to play it in 1980 in a school group called Apocalipsis. 1981 and 1983 he played drums, was the singer of a band called Rebel Waltz, and played bass in Proceso Entrópico, a name that occurred to them seeing the appearance of one Friday a fakir eating crystals in the program "Un, dos, tres" by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador.

Heroes of Silence

After leaving Proceso Entrópico, Bunbury became the lead singer of a group called Zumo de Vidrio that became the seed of Héroes del Silencio. In that formation were Enrique and Juan Valdivia who, together with Pedro Andreu, ended up forming Héroes del Silencio in 1984. In 1986, for a few months, both Enrique and Pedro Andreu were also part of Niños del Brasil.

With the support of "Cachi" (DJ from Radio Zaragoza), and the journalist Matías Uribe (music columnist for the Heraldo de Aragón), Héroes del Silencio began to make themselves known. the Huesca Pop Rock contest, behind a more experienced group Proscritos that followed in the wake of others with more diffusion such as La Frontera. A concert offered in 1987 in the En Bruto room -in which they managed to sell out seats and leave hundreds of followers outside- put the quartet in the spotlight. Gustavo Montesano -ex Olé Olé- noticed them and paved the way for them to sign their first contract with the multinational record company EMI.

Then "Heroes del Silencio" was published in 1987, a maxisingle, a very common formula at that time in the Spanish recording industry with new bands. More than 30,000 copies of this album were sold at the time, and later it would also be published on CD.

Less than a year later they released their first LP, "El Mar No Cesa", also produced by Montesano and which immediately went platinum. Mar adentro or Flor venomosa became reference songs for young people in the late 80s and early 90s. However, the group was dissatisfied with the production of this first album, too pop for a band that live was pure adrenaline, as an anecdote remains the surprise they got when they discovered that at night while the group was absent the producer put arrangements based on synthesizer trumpets on the album trying to give the album a commercial focus. The efforts of Enrique, Juan, Joaquín and Pedro prevented such a decision.

In Calatayud (Zaragoza) they were seen by former Roxy Music member Phil Manzanera who had been in Spain for some time and had just produced records for national groups. Phil became interested in Héroes after seeing them live and decided to bet on them, shortly after Phil would produce Senderos de Traición (1990). Hits such as Between two lands or Maldito duende. But we must not forget that the company at that time was already betting heavily on them. The video clips broadcast on television helped spread the record, showing the aesthetics of the group at that time. They lip-synced on shows like "Un, dos, tres" with Jordi Estadella, but they refused to play in others such as Telecinco's Vip Noche presented by Emilio Aragón.

Their first international steps were a modest bet made little by little based on touring countries like Belgium, Switzerland (where there were a large number of Spanish emigrants), and especially Germany, where they would become a cult group, being there as famous as in Spain.

A concert against racism in Germany, where Héroes del Silencio showed their personality and character on stage, made them take a huge leap in their career. Its members became known internationally by singing their songs in Spanish. In Germany and Italy they achieved gold records. They toured Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Scandinavia. Proof of this is that space began to be dedicated to them on European and South American channels. In Germany they gave huge concerts in important venues such as Rock am Ring in front of more than 80,000 people along with artists like Robert Plant among others. After "Trails of betrayal" and his long tour around the world, the band members took a break of more than a year in which Bunbury would travel to places like India, which would influence him for the composition of subsequent works.

With the international release of El Espíritu del Vino (1993), Héroes del Silencio embarked on a tour that took them to more than 20 countries. The album was also produced by Phil Manzanera. The sample of its impact in the foreign market is the inner booklet of the album, in which the lyrics of the songs already came in two languages, Spanish and English. The group wanted to make their songs known by singing in their native language and at the same time be recognized by the non-Spanish-speaking public.

Prince Felipe would receive Héroes in audience and declare himself an admirer and follower of their music. After that meeting, Enrique sparked controversy by telling the press that he was against the monarchical institution. I would also say that the photo in which the group appears with the Prince would only be placed in the bathroom of his house.

Avalancha (1995) was the last studio album by Héroes del Silencio. For this occasion they had Bob Ezrin (producer of Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel or Alice Cooper) and Andrew Jackson, recording at Soundcastle studios in Los Angeles. The group experienced a change in their sound, with harder guitars and more direct texts at times.

Then they went on another world tour that went through the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala and numerous American and European countries. After the publication of Parasiempre (1996), a live double CD, they announced their separation and a break due to 10 years of uninterrupted career.

During the 1996 tour (which included concerts from March to September) Bunbury, for whom the tour was becoming an ordeal, decided to record demos in different American studios with the intention of making those months more bearable. On the Spanish leg of the tour, the band brought the Colombian group Aterciopelados as opening act, for whom Bunbury would later record backing vocals on the album La pipa de la paz (1997).

Radical Sonora

Bunbury recorded in Los Angeles, San Juan de Puerto Rico and Guatemala City, months later he settled in Morocco with that material and there he composed new songs that shaped what he already had in mind. With the support of Phil Manzanera went to London to conceive Radical Sonora (1997), his debut solo album. Manzanera was the producer and Enrique acted as co-producer for a record that ultimately did not fully convince the singer as to the sound he had. Bunbury has stated that he wanted more Mediterranean nuances to be perceived than can be perceived in the edited recording.In any case, this first solo album by Enrique totally separated him from the sound of Héroes. His bet was closer to electronics, Arabic music and the most psychedelic techno-rock, according to groups like NIN, Depeche Mode or Massive Attack. At the level of structures, lyrics and ways of singing, he was not so far from his previous production.

The bet was risky and the result was mixed: the critics received it positively and the public mostly turned their backs on it. At the presentation of the album and the tour at the Príncipe Felipe Pavilion in Zaragoza, Enrique was criticized, and someone even threw a piece of cobblestone at him, which was not supposed to be found anywhere in the pavilion itself. Enrique, outraged, went so far as to say that the concert had been spoiled. At that concert, part of the crowd was heard cheering "Heroes, Heroes", showing that part of the audience of his previous group was not willing to accept Bunbury's change in sonority. The Radical Sonora tour > it became a nightmare for Bunbury, who suffered a deep crisis when the tour of Spain ended, even going so far as to consider giving up music. He felt misunderstood: "I need an audience that makes me grow as a musician, not that makes me play Entre dos tierras and above all my life as I did with Héroes".^{[citation required]}

In March 1998, by order of the national government of the Dominican Republic, a show planned for that country was suspended, according to them, for incitement to drug use, because the phrase appears on the back cover of the album: " Instructions for use: Roll yourself a good joint of hashish. Listen at a very high volume, in very dark conditions and preferably when you are very alone".

She was covered in several magazines, such as Popular 1. That cover was the last one the magazine gave to a Spanish artist.

After this album and all the criticism he had to endure, he considered giving up music, he took refuge in his parents' summer house, where he composed several songs. He then decided, after a period of time, to risk again with his next album, Pequeño (1999), an album with airs of cabaret and Mediterranean sounds, which he initially considered as his last album: "I proposed make the record that came out for me, and it came out Small. I didn't care if people didn't understand. I wanted to do it and if I had to retire, then I would retire. That's how I thought about it".

Small

The response to Small started to be different than the one received with Sonic Radical. Although the record company's support for the record was rather relative, the record was permeating among the public. Songs like "Infinite" or "The wind in favor" gradually returned Bunbury to the forefront of musical news. The name of the album is due to the fact that the singer himself called it simpler and more modest, simpler than Radical Sonora, and it shows who he really is, looking back.

The album was recorded in Ronda (Málaga), at the "El Cortijo" during the spring of 1999 and was produced by Bunbury himself, for which he created what was his band for the next six years, made up of the members of the & # 34; Radical Sonora & # 34; except for the guitarist Alan Boguslavsky, plus other musicians, mainly from Zaragoza, incorporating a section of winds, violin, and percussion. It also had several collaborations, including that of Eva Amaral. The album contained twelve songs, and convinced critics and audiences alike; the presentation tour lasted two years, making a total of almost one hundred performances.

The musicians Delsarte Morán, Rafael Domínguez; Luis Miguel Romero; Ana Belen Estate; Javier Garcia Vega; Javier Inigo; Antonio Rios; Ramón Gacías, and Copi Corellano, the latter two also have an important collaboration in the composition of some of the songs on the album. This band was known as the "Huracán Ambulante" and recorded with Bunbury the rest of his solo discography until 2005, (except Antonio Ríos).

Thus Bunbury reconciled with the public and opened the spectrum to people of different ages. Pequeño went platinum when it reached 100,000 copies sold in Spain, the same thing happened with his previous work Radical Sonora and with it he had more notoriety in countries like Mexico and Argentina, where he already a recognized artist was beginning to take shape.

CD-singles containing various songs, unpublished, remixes, sound tests, demos, were released in what was finally called "Singles box". In total there were five albums that contained more than thirty songs, among which the "sides B" from Small as "Luna" or "I am going to lose my head for your love". The unpublished songs were fifteen in total, distributed throughout the five discs.

While still on tour Enrique released a live album on CD and DVD recorded in April 2000 at the Hard Rock Café in Mexico City entitled Pequeño cabaret ambulante. With it he intended to reflect the spirit of "the tour that I have enjoyed the most in my life."

After the period of Pequeño ended, Bunbury moved to Tarragona to compose his third studio album. Twenty years after the publication of this work, it is considered the definitive takeoff of the solo artist's career after leaving Héroes del silencio, when he published Radical Sonora, receiving an irregular reception.

Flamingos

Enrique took almost nine months to make his next complex album, Flamingos (2002), in which there are songs with more than one hundred and fifty sound tracks. The pre-production of the album took place in Molinos (Teruel) from June to September 2001, and in it all the songs of the final cut were recorded plus a series of songs that up to now have not officially seen the light of day, although they have. are available on the bootleg CD Flamingos vs Bizarros (2003). Some of the tracks that were made were used in the final production, although many had to be recorded again. The recording and final mixes of the album were produced at the Music Lan studios, in Avinyonet de Puigventós (Girona) between November 2001 and February. 2002. Bunbury had his band of eight musicians and the collaboration of numerous friends such as Jaime Urrutia, Quimi Portet, Shuarma (Elephants), Carlos Ann, Kepa Junkera, Adrià Puntí, Pedro Andreu, among others. They all left their mark on a dense album, marked by the breakup of a Bunbury who poses dressed as a boxer for the cover. Songs like "Counting On You" or "Don't trust it" They respond to that image of a fighter still wanting to fight. It has been considered that the album as a whole is a metaphor for their sentimental separation.

With this album, Bunbury became an icon in the world of music in his solo career: Flamingos was a gold record upon its release, achieving success in Mexico and Argentina, and quickly Tickets for the first concerts in Spain were sold out and in several Mexican capitals long queues formed for Bunbury to sign autographs. The record tour lasted a year and a half, with more than 150 concerts and more than 300,000 records sold between Spain and America.

This album definitely opened new directions in his musical career. Bunbury was touring with his band during 2002 and 2003 on important stages in Mexico (Auditorio Nacional), Argentina (Estadio Obras) or New York (Central Park). The culmination of this musical stage was the DVD that was published in September 2003, titled "A Date in Flamingos" and which included two concerts in Spain, the one in Zaragoza during the Pilar festivities in Plaza del Pilar itself, and the other of those that closed the 2002 tour at the Palacio de los Congresos, in Madrid. An interview with the members of Huracán Ambulante was presented as extra content on the DVD.

At the end of the tour and before starting work on his next studio album, Bunbury met with Carlos Ann, Shuarma and Morti to record the album Bushido, an album that was recorded in less than two weeks in a farmhouse in Tarragona It finally came out in early 2004. The musicians decided to shut themselves in to let their creativity flow in their different styles, there are 15 songs sung by the four Spaniards, where songs such as "La felicidad", "Magenta", "I'll wait for you" and compositions from Zaragoza such as "Sex Food" and "Deteriorated" (the latter covered by Raphael).

The Journey to Nowhere

What was the fourth studio album of Bunbury's solo career was developed throughout 2003. A large part of the compositions took shape during the trip that Bunbury himself made throughout all of Latin America that year, and others were composed in his hometown and other places in Spain. The pre-production of the album was carried out in Cuarte de Huerva (Zaragoza) during the autumn of 2003, and Bunbury presented almost a hundred songs of which he finally chose nineteen, plus a version ("Voces de tango") by the group from Zaragoza &# 34;More Beers" led by the late Mauricio Aznar.

In 2004, El viaje a nada parte was released, a double album with multiple influences from different places, with rhythms, music and lyrics in which we can find everything from tangos to corridos, passing through blues. Bunbury himself has confessed that it is one of his most representative albums. The album was again accompanied by a long tour, in which he once again toured both Latin parts of the Atlantic in its entirety. Again it received the gold record, this time in the Aztec country with 50,000 copies sold.

The title of the album, namesake of a play and film by actor and director Fernando Fernán Gómez, to whom the album is dedicated, reveals the musician's admiration for wandering artists, who presented their work throughout towns and cities only with their instruments and their talent. To materialize it, the "Freak show" tour was carried out, a series of concerts where the band only needed a plot of land to install the various tents of the show, which traveled through different cities in Spain emulating those wandering artists that Fernán Gómez embodied in his work.

Freak Show

This mini-tour (five cities and six concerts) took place at the end of 2004. It could be said that it was a "spin-off" of The Journey to Nowhere, materializing the idea that Bunbury previously had in mind, a traveling tour in its purest expression. For this he had the circus caravan of the Circo Raluy, which had previously been used for the photo session of the album. The venue that was prepared featured a tent for the concert itself, along with a ring where a Mexican wrestling was simulated, an area for wrestling, and other areas.

The concerts themselves, with a repertoire based on the album released that year, featured a series of guest artists who sang both their own songs and Bunbury's own together. Carlos Ann, Nacho Vegas, Adrià Puntí, Iván Ferreiro and Mercedes Ferrer participated in the tour in this way. In 2005 a CD + DVD was released that included what was the Freak Show. The DVD, which lasts almost two and a half hours, includes "The Movie", where all the participants of the show are interviewed, an in-depth analysis of how the idea of the tour was conceived and developed, and accompanied by a series of live songs from the concerts. Additional material includes an interview with Bunbury himself with questions that fans asked through the singer's official website and poems recited by himself. The CD includes a selection of 15 songs taken from the 6 concerts that were performed.

2005 in half

During 2005 the album presentation tour resumed, once the Freak Show CD+DVD was released. Before that, a single concert was held to present the album, dedicated to the poet Leopoldo María Panero, performed by Bunbury himself together with Carlos Ann, Bruno Galindo and José María Ponce. This album was one of the projects in which he became involved during 2004, and it was the second work of this style (collaboration of several artists), after Bushido (2003). In addition, during these years, collaborations with other artists and the Los Chulis project proliferated, which added to everything gave rise to a few years of very remarkable artistic activity.

In any case, the tour was going to be extensive again both in Spain and in Latin America, including two concerts in Japan, where Bunbury played for the first time. As it became known later, physical and mental fatigue began to take its toll. to the man from Zaragoza, who since 1999 had hardly rested from making records, collaborations and tours (in total he performed more than two hundred and fifty concerts in that previous period). The contracting office tried to force him to comply with the commitments against his opinion, and finally it was he himself from his website who announced the dissolution of El Huracán Ambulante (the band that accompanied him during the last eight years), the cancellation of the rest of his tour of Spain and America (except for two concerts, in Zuera and Cambrils) and his temporary withdrawal, without a return date, from the stages. processed the affairs of tours and concerts (Solo & management), creating the new office Rock & chicken, managed mainly by Nacho Royo and who ran with the organization of the Héroes del Silencio concerts in 2007, and continues to be managed by the singer.

In the first of the two farewell concerts of the unexpected end of the tour (Zuera and Cambrils) the singer withdrew on the fifth song ('Sácame de Aquí' belonging to his album Flamingos) to never return, also suspending the second and last concert of the closing stage. This was the third time that the singer did not complete a performance in the province of Zaragoza. The first took place in 2003, in the Oasis room. After what was to be the first concert of that year in Villareal was cancelled, a concert was organized in the aforementioned room that ended abruptly during the seventh song " Infinity". During the time he was on stage it was found that the singer had problems with the return of sound. The second occasion took place in 2004, at the concert he gave during the Pilar festivities on the Paseo de la Independencia. In this case the second part of the concert was not completed since after about an hour the band withdrew and did not return to the stage.

In February 2006, Bunbury released Canciones 1996-2006, a compilation of songs from his solo albums on CD and DVD format, where it achieved a gold record a few days after it was released. its publication.

During this year he collaborated on the records of various groups, such as Revólver or Quique González. She also collaborated on Pereza's latest album/compilation called Los Amigos de Los Animales. She also participated in Jaime Urrutia's album El muchacho eléctrico, in his song "Nada por aquí" and in the video clip of the song itself, shot mainly in the old Entrevías train station, in Madrid..

Cherry time

In 2006 Enrique Bunbury and Nacho Vegas met in Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), and with the help of Paco el Loco they recorded a double album, El tiempo de las cherries. Bunbury He rescued some songs from what was to be his next studio album, Judas, which finally did not see the light of day. With other new compositions, he released an album that received generally good reviews. The initial title was Bunbury and Vegas (although the possibility of it being the other way around, Vegas and Bunbury) was also considered. It was finally published, with its final title, on September 18, 2006.

It was released as the first single "Días Extraños", by Nacho Vegas himself. In addition, those of the songs "It was not good, but it was the best" and "Welcome to dead end street". The video clip for "Puta Desagradecida" would also be filmed in Mexico, to promote the album in that country.

Five concerts were announced at the Metropolitan Theater in Mexico City and one at the Liceo de Barcelona. In this way, what both artists pointed out in the interviews prior to the launch was confirmed: that if there was a live presentation "it will be for a very specific concert". He ended up editing a DVD of this mini-tour (Liceu BCN November 30, 2006) that contained practically the entire concert in Barcelona, along with the "encores" extracted from the performances of Mexico D.F. Apparently, it was at this concert in Barcelona when it was confirmed that there was going to be a meeting of Héroes del Silencio to carry out a tour of few concerts (in the end there were ten) during the year 2007. In this way, the concert of the group that it was wanted to be carried out during Expo 2008 in Zaragoza.

The band that accompanied Bunbury and Vegas at the concerts was made up of members of their respective bands when they played solo. Two members of that band (Álvaro Suite and Jorge Rebenaque) ended up being part of the current band that accompanies Bunbury, Los Santos Inocentes. The latter took shape in the recording of the album after the Héroes del silencio reunion tour (Hellville de Luxe - 2008), and is maintained to this day.

Heroes of Silence Tour 2007

Bunbury in front of Heroes del Silencio at the band concert in Seville in October 2007.

Enrique Bunbury during one of the performances corresponding to the 2007 tour with the group.

Finally, the Heraldo de Aragón published that Héroes del Silencio were returning for Expo Zaragoza 2008. In an Aragonese newspaper it was published that they had been seen rehearsing in the municipal pavilion of the town of Osera de Ebro (Zaragoza). Although general speculation pointed to it, in the end there was no concert during Expo 2008. The group's meeting, as announced by the band itself in an official statement, was aimed at celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their first recordings. To this was added the collaboration with Real Zaragoza, who announced it as part of one of the many events in honor of its 75th anniversary. In addition to playing in Zaragoza for two nights, they offered concerts in Seville, Cheste (Valencia), Buenos Aires, Guatemala, Los Angeles, Mexico D.F., Monterrey.

The expectation for the return was such that the tickets in both Mexico and Spain were sold out within a few hours of going on sale, including a computer collapse of the website where they were sold. In total, the ten concerts were attended by almost half a million people. In Spain, Cheste's concert was one of the most massive in the history of pop-rock in Spanish and, due to the enormous influx of people (it is estimated that around 80,000 spectators entered the venue), kilometer-long queues formed at the road that linked Valencia and surroundings with the speed circuit.

Hellville de Luxe

The singer's performance on Tour Hellville Tour.

The title of Bunbury's fifth studio album, Hellville de Luxe, comes from the name of the house-studio that the singer had in El Puerto de Santa María, his residence until he decided to move to the Angels. It went on sale on October 7, 2008, after the presentation tour had started and several months late with respect to the recording, which took place during the first part of 2008. The production was carried out by Phil Manzanera, it was recorded and mixed at Avinyonet's Music Lan studios in Puigventós (Gerona), and mastered at Sterling Sound (New York). Curiously, Bunbury once again counted on Manzanera in the production after being with Héroes del Silencio, just as he did with Radical Sonora in 1997. In this case, he totally delegated (in Radical Sonora he acted as co-producer). The album was also released on vinyl, being the first since Avalancha with Héroes, in a more complete edition than the CD format (fifteen songs instead of eleven), limited and sold out the same day as it was put up for sale, which is why it had to be reissued again.

The first single was "El hombre delgado que no flaquerá nunca", which was presented on August 20, 2008 in a special program on the Rock & Goal, presented by Juan Pablo Ordúñez. Different media outlets accused Bunbury of plagiarism on this subject by using verses taken from two collections of poems by Pedro Casariego. The artist acknowledged the use of said verses, and defended himself by arguing that "two sentences they plagiarize".

He also released a new band, after the dissolution of "El Huracán Ambulante", which had accompanied him during the promotional tour "Hellville de tour", the new band was formed by Álvaro Suite, Robert Castellanos, Jorge "Rebe" Rebenaque, Ramón Gacías and Jordi Mena. The inaugural concert of the tour was held on September 6, 2008 in Zaragoza; in February he visited North America, whose first part of the tour concluded on April 5, 2009 in Mexico City. On this tour it was the first and only time that the singer did a concert in Poland.

During that time, he received the Diamond Record from the EMI record company for more than 1 million albums sold during his solo career and the album also reached number 1 in digital downloads and sales in physical format in Spain and number 1 on the Mexican charts. In both countries it managed to be a gold record.

In the spring of 2009, before continuing to tour, he recorded his sixth studio album, Las Consecuencias, again at Music Lan studios. In November of that year, after almost two years of touring in which he offered seventy concerts in dozens of countries, the artist ended his show Hellville de Tour with a free concert at the Azteca Stadium. de México, D. F. in which it brought together 90,000 people.

The official live album of the tour was not finally released, despite the fact that it had been recorded and mastered according to the singer's own statements. It was the second time that this happened after the Radical Sonora tour, since of the rest of the tours he has done, alone or with Héroes del Silencio, some audio or video work has always been officially released.

The Consequences

In early June 2009, it was announced that Bunbury's new self-produced album would be released at the end of October. Finally, the release of the album, Las consecuencias, took place on February 16, 2010. Again it was released on vinyl, CD and online, and also the order of the songs on the album was oriented to meet the characteristics of this format, with two different sides for a total of ten songs. The digital version of the album featured an additional song, "Los amantes". The most aficionados have speculated with the possibility that some songs were already composed when Hellville de Luxe was recorded; Bunbury himself acknowledged that he presented Phil Manzanera for the production of many more songs than the fifteen that were finally recorded for that album, and that his producer and friend rejected several, perhaps because they did not fit the sound profile he wanted to give to that album..

Las consecuencias had the collaboration of Miren Iza, singer of the group Tulsa, in various songs. The album closed what the singer himself has called "canciones del puerto", alluding to his place of residence at that time, Puerto de Santa María, and which would include the songs from this album and the two (Hellville de Luxe and Cherry Time).

Previously, on January 15, the video "Frente a frente", a version of a song by Jeanette, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, and corresponding to the first single from the new record project, came to light. in which Jeanette herself had a cameo. As in other songs from Las consecuencias, Miren Iza, singer of the group Tulsa, also took part in this one.

In its first week on sale, the record reached the top in Spain and Mexico, being number 1 in Spain both in physical (vinyl and CD format) and digital sales. In Mexico it was a gold record (30,000 copies sold) on the same day of its release.

The commercial success of the album was relatively unexpected for the singer, who declared before its release that he believed it would be a cult album that only his biggest fans would appreciate, "a very little immediate work" little accessible to the general public. "A few will like it, a lot, and many others, a little. But I warn you, I'm not good at guessing the future. It's a difficult, slow, intimate album... I don't know to what extent it's radioable".

On April 17 and 18, Bunbury recorded a special concert in 3D, for Canal+ 3D, being the first Spanish television channel to implement this technology for a television event. The realization consists of a circular stage of three different environments adapting to the singer's repertoire, the first set is set in a cemetery, in a desert area, in the second there is a crashed plane in the place and finally the last one is set in a motel in the middle of a highway. Directed by Paco Plaza, it was released on May 29, as well as being shown in FNAC centers and in cinemas.

The presentation tour, Las Consecuencias Tour, took place throughout 2010, with a first part focused on small venues throughout the US, to later cover a large part of Latin America once again. The intention was to extend it during 2011 but in the end it was not like that for personal reasons of the singer. Due to this, the presentation in Spain was very scarce compared to other occasions, performing only in five cities for a total of nine concerts.

Great Rex

Gran Rex, which went on sale in 2011, was the live album of the tour to present Las Consecuencias. Produced by Bunbury himself, he had the help of Ramón Gacías, his right hand throughout his solo stage. To edit it, the three concerts offered at the Gran Rex theater in Buenos Aires (November 3, 4 and 5, 2010) were recorded, and it was launched on the market in the format of double CD, digital edition and triple vinyl (the latter on a numbered and limited series). Once again the distribution of the songs was more intended for vinyl than for CD. It was an album of twenty-four songs, which contained songs from all of his albums.

He also offered five additional tracks on his official Facebook page, for a total of twenty-nine songs for a running time of approximately two and a half hours. There was no video edition of the entire concert, but the vinyl edition was accompanied with a DVD ("What you liked most about me") with some scenes recorded by the singer along with five songs on direct. The album was 1st on the charts in Spain and 2nd in Mexico.

It was released by the record company EMI. Later it was learned that this work meant the end of the contractual relationship between the singer and the company after twenty-four years, from the beginning of the stage with Héroes del Silencio. The album also represented an artistic turning point, which is why it has a certain compilation character since the singer stated that he wanted to give his following albums a new sound that would leave behind the last stage called "Canciones desde el puerto".

During this time the documentary "Because things change" was also published, material that reflects the artistic career of the singer.

De Luxe Vinyl Box Set

EMI released a compilation set on vinyl in late 2011 that included all of Bunbury's studio discography up to that point. It included his first six albums plus El tiempo de las cherries, recorded with Nacho Vegas.It was the first vinyl edition of the singer's first four albums and El tiempo de las cherries. This release would come to satisfy the claim of the singer himself, who wanted all his discography to be found on vinyl. All the discs were released in a double vinyl format (except the album "Las consecuencias", which consists of a single vinyl), a format that does not fully fit with the shorter-duration discs, since in these a of the sides of the disc has been left without any recording. The box was accompanied by a book signed by Juanjo Ordás, where each album is analyzed in detail.

Canteen Graduate

Enrique Bunbury during his tour in 2012.

On May 24, 2011, the singer posted a video on his Facebook, where he commented that he was recording the new record material. This was Bunbury's seventh solo album entitled Licenciado Cantinas, it was recorded in the studios Texas Sonic Ranch during the American spring; produced by himself, and had the special collaborations of Dave Hidalgo, Flaco Jiménez, Charlie Mussleehite and Elíades Ochoa. He surrounded himself with his usual band plus percussionist Quino Béjar, which he declared "Record the new Bunbury has been a blast";

It was released on December 15 of the same year, edited by OCESA and with fifteen songs, all of them versions of Spanish-American songs. Again, as in the previous records, it was released on CD, vinyl and online, again with limited edition vinyl. As the first single, the song "Odiame" which was followed by "Take me", "Animas que no amanecia", "El solitario (Diario de un borrocha)" and "To'get to your side". Two different videos have been recorded of the latter. The album was a gold record in Spain and Mexico.

Prior to the launch, it was possible to view the documentary "The open veins of Licenciado Cantinas", whose title emulated that of the work by the Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano, The open veins of Latin America. In it the recording process of the album was collected and Bunbury himself and the rest of the members of his band were interviewed.

During the presentation tour, the short film "Licenciado Cantinas: The Movie" was premiered, narrating the story of an apocalyptic scenario related to the Mayan belief on December 21, 2012. The singer himself is the protagonist of the short, who faces the character called "Licenciado Cantinas". It was directed by Alexis Morante, who has already worked with him on several of his video clips. The film was awarded at the Musiclip festival in the category "Best Musical Short Film".

Bunbury has commented that the album would be the beginning of a new stage in music, leaving behind the sound that characterized the "Canciones del puerto". The singer has added that he had been wanting to record this album, and that due to the circumstances that arose he decided to do it at that moment. Of the sixty or so songs he had in mind, he kept the final fifteen to build a "conceptual" album; according to his words, divided into four parts and somehow narrating the story of the fictional character & # 34; Licenciado Cantinas & # 34;. He listened to all the songs, some better known than others, throughout his numerous stays and trips through Central and South America.

The tour to present the album, "Licenciado Cantinas Tour" It began in Spain in January 2012, although concerts were held prior to the release of the album in the months of November and December 2011 in the United States. During the tour, the US and numerous Latin American countries were also toured. In statements made by Bunbury during the tour, he commented that Quino Béjar has become one more member of his current band & # 34; Los Santos Inocentes & # 34;.

In the summer of 2012, Licenciado Cantinas - Reposado special edition Box Set was released. Includes the original CD, a 28-page booklet with unpublished photos and texts, a DVD with the video clips shot for the album's singles, the medium-length film Licenciado Cantinas - The Movie, and the documentary The open veins of Licenciado Cantinas, along with a CD that includes live versions of practically all the songs on the album. These songs were taken from concerts on the tour and from sound checks of the shows performed (11 songs in total). The box is also accompanied by two screen-printed glasses of tequila.

Rosewood

Bunbury during his performance on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 at the Cultural Center Miguel Ángel Asturias (National Theatre) in Guatemala City.

On October 29, 2013, his eighth studio material, Palosanto, was released, an album of personal change and particular sound. Edited by OCESA, and distributed by Warner Music. It was composed between 2010 and 2013, and the particularity is that the first original demos were stolen when the singer's home in Los Angeles was broken into and his personal computer was stolen. Bunbury stated: "Now I have to rebuild it mentally... I'm not going to recover the file one hundred percent. I am going to recover it in another way and at that moment a new song will appear; I think it could be very interesting". The album was recorded at the Phantom Vox Studios in Los Angeles with his usual band Los Santos Inocentes, and was produced by Bunbury himself. It features string arrangements, which can be found on previous Bunbury recordings, but as a novelty there are vocal arrangements on some tracks by a female gospel trio. This is a novelty in his musical career.

With this new material he achieved the gold record in Spain and also in Mexico he obtained a platinum record.

The album consists of 15 songs released on CD, CD digipak and double vinyl. The vinyl better explains the structure that Bunbury wanted to give the record. Palosanto, which according to the singer could have been double with at least 20 songs, is divided into two parts. In his personal writing to present the album, he explains that the first part has a more technological and digital sound, and the second part is more organic.

The digipak and vinyl edition are accompanied by a second CD, "Any Time Past.... Live 2011-2012", which includes 11 live tracks from the presentation tour of the album Licenciado Cantinas. They are live versions of songs from all of his solo discography, in some cases very different from the originally recorded song.

His first promotional video was "Despierta", released on September 17, 2013, and was temporarily censored in Spain. time its viewing was available again. The following singles and video clips were: "Higher than us only the sky", "Los Inmortales", & #34;Lifeguards" and "Prisoners".

On January 14, 2014 in Mexico the tour of the album began, "Palosanto Tour" in El Plaza Condesa, Federal District. Bunbury himself stated that the tour will not be as extensive as the previous one in 2011-2012 for personal reasons, and it will take place throughout 2014 throughout the American continent and Spain.

The first part of the Palosanto Tour managed to gather more than 100 thousand people in a total of 13 concerts in the Aztec country.

The second part continued visiting the countries of the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and closing his tour of America at the mythical Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The leg of the tour in Spain had some inconveniences due to cancellations of several concerts as a result of a surgical operation that their guitarist Jordi Mena had to undergo and also due to weather issues, which is why Bunbury rescheduled the concerts for the month December.

So the musician then embarked on the second to last leg of the tour, touring the most important points in the United States. In January 2020, he released the single & # 39; Desires to use and throw away & # 39; as a preview of his next album, which he defines as "very important to me and tremendously personal".

Tour with Calamaro

At the end of the tour in the United States, in the months of October and November Bunbury toured some cities in Mexico with the Argentine musician Andrés Calamaro on a mini-tour. The two had already taken the stage several times as guests, the most popular one was on April 12 at Luna Park at the close of the first part of the Palosanto tour.

According to Bunbury himself, the tour had been planned for many years at the insistence of a Mexican promoter, but it was very difficult for two musicians to agree on dates for the release of their album.

On the tour they performed their songs each separately and at the end of the show they got together to sing their own songs and those of other artists, the highlight was the tribute they paid to the musician Gustavo Cerati, playing his song " Crime".

Madrid, Area 51

On October 20, 2014, the release of new recording material entitled; Madrid, Area 51. Live album recorded on June 29, 2014 at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain. With the participation of musicians Iván Ferreiro and Quique González in front of 15 thousand people. With a release date of November 25, 2014 in double CD + double DVD format. The work includes the concert of the Aragonese musician at the Palacio de los Deportes, plus a documentary entitled "Expediente Palosanto" and that reveals the bowels of this show. It should also be noted that this is Bunbury's first live work to be released in high-definition Blu-Ray format, in a single-disc edition that does not include audio CDs.

2015: New Horizons

On November 23, on his official website, Enrique Bunbury published a statement explaining his indefinite retirement from the stage, at the end of the Palosanto tour.

Indicates that it will be a 2015 with other projects for different personal and extra-personal reasons. Thus, this will be his second departure from the stage after what was the premature end of his tour of the album El viaje a nuevo parte in 2005.

Children of the People

On March 9, 2015, the news of the release of "Hijos del Pueblo" was released, an album recorded live during the tour he did with Andrés Calamaro in Mexico in 2014, with publication date on April 14. The first preview was the version of "Crimen", a theme in tribute to Gustavo Cerati, which could be heard from March 16.

Bunbury MTV Unplugged

Bunbury in Córdoba, Argentina, at the first concert of Mutaciones Tour 2016.

In the second half of 2015, the long-awaited recording of an acoustic concert at MTV studios in Mexico was announced under the well-known MTV Unplugged modality. Said concert was recorded on September 1, 2015 and was characterized by having an unusual repertoire of songs different from that performed in previous live performances. Bunbury expressed in a previous interview his desire to renew his repertoire of live songs, since he considered that there were songs that had already been performed too many times. It was characterized by including 5 songs from his discography with Héroes del Silencio, as well as rare songs from his solo career, not including songs from the albums Pequeño, Flamingos and El Viaje a nunparte. The concert included the participation of special guests such as Carla Morrison, Robbi Draco Rosa, Vetusta Morla, León Larregui and Pepe Aguilar. It was broadcast on the MTV Latin America channel on November 26, 2015, and later went on sale under the name, MTV Unplugged: The Book of Mutations in CD, DVD, Vinyl, Blu-ray and Online formats. From this album came the musical tour called Mutaciones Tour 2016, where the artist celebrated his 30-year musical career.

On November 6, he received the Best Spanish Artist award for the second time at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards held in the Netherlands.

Files

On November 11, 2016, the compilation albums entitled Archivos Vol. 1: Tributos y BSOs and Archivos Vol. 2: Duetos were released, where the first album brings together soundtracks made for cinema, theater, television, and also covered songs by other artists. The second album contains exclusively duets that Bunbury has done throughout her career in collaboration with artists such as Andrés Calamaro, Zoé, Jaime Urrutia, Quique González, Pereza, Elefantes, among others.

Expectations

On August 31, 2017, the news of the release of the singer's ninth studio album, Expectativas, scheduled for October 20, was released through his social networks through a short film that shows the recording process and the intimacy of the musicians.

On October 20, 2017, Bunbury releases his latest work called "Expectativas", published with the Ocesa/Warner label, in which he creates a mix of sounds that maintains the essence of his music.

On November 15, 2018, the album was recognized as the best rock album at the 19th edition of the Latin Grammy Awards. The artist thanked the award by remembering his colleagues from Héroes del Silencio and reviewing the "achievements obtained" throughout his musical career.

Possible

January 15, 2020 will see the release of his latest and most recent studio material.

"Throwaway Desires" The first advance of this new production allows us to see a new facet of Bunbury, later she mentions in her social networks that she considers the single as a job "very important to me and tremendously personal".

It is a nuanced album of electronic pieces, in which Bunbury "looks to the present" and shows her "way of feeling today." As the album matures, we hear tremendously serious and deep lyrics with background sounds tinged with vintage electronics that blend in with the content of the present.

In 2020, the book The Bunbury Method calls into question part of the singer-songwriter's career, placing a total of 37 songs under suspicion for alleged plagiarism through quotes from other unrecognized authors. The author of the investigation, Fernando del Val, counted up to 539 verses and assured in an interview that & # 34; a good part of the lyrics that Bunbury has written is made up of fragments of writers whom he does not quote & # 34;.

Intensive levitation course

During the summer of 2020 and given the impossibility of the Posible presentation tour due to the pandemic, it was announced that Enrique is working on a new album, just a few months after the output of Possible.

On October 25, through their social networks, the name of the album, the name of the 10 songs that will make it up, the cover, as well as the date of publication, are made public.

On December 11, 2020, the album is released without any advance notice, later some singles are released that Bunbury himself defines as -delays-, the first being El Precio Que Hay What to Pay. For this work, in addition to working with Los Santos Inocentes, he relied on experimental jazz musicians. The sound transition that goes from Possible to Intensive Levitation Course is not radical: electronics are still key, although, in the atmosphere of the record, there is a greater organic contrast. Also, as a novelty, we find an inclination in the rhythmic bases towards patterns of Afrobeat and jazz.

The Port E.P.

On September 28, 2021, on the occasion of the second anniversary of José's death and as a tribute, the cover of El triste is published. About this work, Bunbury mentioned on his social networks that his version corresponded to "una espinita dunk" due to the last-minute cancellation of his participation in the tribute to El Príncipe de la canción carried out within the framework of Vive Latino 2020, this due to flight problems due to the pandemic. Therefore, during the summer of 2021, he recorded his own version of this emblematic song at Paco Loco's studio, in the Port of Cádiz, "also seeking to wink -as a tribute- to the arrangers of the time (the 70s) emulating a vintage sound and adapting it to the format of a Rock band without complexes or limitations, such as Los Santos Inocentes." Later it would be revealed that this work would be included in a 5-song E.P that would be published at the end of the year.

As previews of this recording, in addition to El Tiste, the videos of the songs Antes de desayunar and El Ritual del Alambre were published; The complete E.P being published on December 10, 2021 on all digital platforms and in physical format with the 2 remaining songs: the new version of Un Hombre en el Espacio and the unpublished Despropósitos.

Private life

Bunbury has been married to Jose Girl (who is also his official photographer), since October 2012 after several years of relationship, with whom he has a daughter, named Asia, born in 2011. The musician had already gone through a marriage in 2000 with Nona Rubio, who later dissolved in 2001.

Among his other relationships, it is worth mentioning the one he had in the 90s with Benedetta Mazzini, daughter of the singer Mina, to whom he dedicated at least three songs: Blessed, Blessed II and La chispa adecuada (Blessed III).

The artist is vegan, and has mentioned the subject in different interviews.

Musicians

During his solo stage he has had two bands of musicians who have accompanied him on his records and concerts, which he named "El Huracán Ambulante" and "Los Santos Inocentes& #34;.

The Walking Hurricane

Integrated	Instrument(s)	Period in the band
Alan Boguslavsky	Guitars	1997 - 1998
From the Moran	Low	1997 - 2005
Copi Corellano	Piano - Keyboard	1997 - 2005
Ramon Gacías	Battery - Percussion	1997 - 2005
Rafa Domínguez	Guitars	1999 - 2005
Luis Miguel Romero	Percussion	1999 - 2005
Ana Belén Estaje	Violin	1999 - 2005
Javier Iñigo	Trumpet	1999 - 2005
Javier García Vega	Trombón	1999 - 2005

The Holy Innocents

Integrated	Instrument(s)	Period in the band
Álvaro Suite	Guitars	2008 - 2022
Jordi Mena	Guitar - dobro - lap steel - banjo - mandolina	2008 - 2022
Robert Castellanos	Low - Low	2008 - 2022
Jorge “Rebe” Rebenaque	Hammond - Piano - accordion	2008 - 2022
Ramon Gacías	Battery - Percussion	2008 - 2022
Quino Béjar	Percussion	2011 - 2022
Santi del Campo	Saxon	2017 - 2022

Discography

Solo

With Heroes of Silence

Videography

Music Videos

Desert of Salton City, California, where Enrique recorded his video clip "El Hombre Delgado que no Flaqueará Ever".

These are all Bunbury video clips released for each official studio album.

Bibliography

• Blay, Pep (2007). Enrique Bunbury: the rest is silence. Plaza & Janés. ISBN 978-84-01-30551-1.
• Videla, Luis (2005). Enrique Se Write with N De Bunbury. The Aleph. ISBN 987-1070-22-5.