Bunbury

Spain's Enrique Bunbury ranks among the most legendary singer-songwriters to arise during the rock & roll decades of the twentieth century and counts as a foundational architect of rock en español. An intense, probing, and unpredictable creator, he has pursued a winding musical trajectory that has both startled and sometimes confused listeners while amassing devoted followings throughout Latin America, Mexico, Europe, and the United States. Bunbury draws on a masterful grasp of Middle Eastern, cabaret, ranchera, blues, flamenco, tango, salsa, milonga, bolero, cumbia, electro, roots and garage rock, heavy metal, and even electro idioms to convey his material.

Born in Zaragoza, Bunbury embraced rock & roll and Spain’s own rich musical heritage with matching fervor. He served as lead vocalist in the high-school rock group Apocalipsis before entering Proceso Entrópico. Dropping his given name, he teamed with guitarist Juan Valdivia in 1986 to establish and front the rock band Héroes del Silencio, completed by bassist Joaquin Cardiel and drummer Pedro Andreu. Héroes del Silencio became one of the cornerstone acts of rock en español, supplying Bunbury with two guiding principles that shaped his entire career: the integration of his broad spectrum of rock, pop, classical, folk, and Gypsy influences in ways that highlighted rather than diluted his Spanish-Latino identity, and the conviction that perpetual change fuels creativity itself.

The band’s pop debut, El Mar No Cesa, surfaced in 1988, reaching number 56 on the Spanish chart and earning steady radio exposure. Héroes del Silencio moved toward a rock & roll orientation on the now triple-platinum classic Senderos de Traición in 1990. Their final two studio albums, El Espíritu del Vino (1993) and Avalancha (1996), adopted a tougher stance and both attained multi-platinum status. Coupled with a potent live presence, every release after the debut topped the Spanish charts and placed inside the Top Five across additional European territories. Bunbury himself matured as a vocalist, sharpening his delivery and stage presence, while also emerging as a distinctive lyricist. The group disbanded in 1996, though several live reunion recordings have appeared since.

In 1997 Bunbury launched the project Copi and that same year delivered his first striking and divisive album, the experimental electro-industrial rock effort Radical Sonora, which featured the singles “Alicia (Expulsada al País de las Maravillas)” and “Salome.” Despite extensive touring, the record failed to chart yet later earned recognition as a classic. Undeterred, Bunbury again tested his audience in 1999 with Pequeño. He assembled a new ensemble called El Huracán Ambulante that celebrated and merged his Arabic and Latin American origins. Tracks such as “Infinito” and “El Viento a Favor” reached fresh listeners. The album’s heartfelt material and the band’s dynamic concerts carried Bunbury across Spain and Latin America, extending across the Atlantic to Mexico, where he captured the live set Pequeño Cabaret Ambulante containing both new and previously unreleased songs. Flamingos arrived in 2002, once more shifting direction by situating his songwriting and genre-blending approach inside a harder-edged framework that incorporated heavy metal.

Although Bunbury’s tours routinely sold out and he enjoyed consistent radio airplay together with substantial YouTube traffic, chart success remained elusive. The year 2004 proved especially active. He joined the collaborative endeavor Bushido alongside songwriter-poet Carlos Ann, Shuarma of Elephants, and Morti of Skizoo, resulting in a provocative, literary, and artful self-titled release. With Ann and writers José María Ponce and Bruno Galindo, Bunbury completed the two-disc-and-book project Leopoldo Maria Panero, titled after the tragic Spanish poet. He also advanced his own work, issuing the double-length studio album El Viaje a Ninguna Parte, which fused his songcraft with Pan-American sounds ranging from Argentina to New Orleans and encompassing jazz, cumbia, tango, and Brazilian music; it peaked at number 39 in Spain. For the live album Freak Show, Bunbury and his band recruited guests Ivan Ferreiro, Adría Punti, Ann, Mercedes Ferrer, and songwriter Nacho Vegas. The collection climbed to number three in Spain, restoring Bunbury to the upper ranks.

After a period away from the road, Bunbury reassessed his course once more. Concentrating on American-style folk, rock, and early psychedelia, he collaborated with Vegas on the twenty-song double album El Tiempo de Las Cerezas in 2006. The command is absolute, the partnership seamless, and the set endures as one of the most overlooked entries in either artist’s catalog. Bunbury rejoined Héroes del Silencio for a reunion tour that sold out its ten dates in the United States, Latin America, and Spain. The audio-video document Tour 2007 was released and reached number one in Spain and Mexico. A year later the documentary photo book Tesoro appeared, showcasing images by the widely acclaimed Spanish art and rock photographer Jose Girl. Also in 2008, Bunbury’s revived affinity for North American rock & roll informed Hellville de Luxe, his fifth studio album, produced by former Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. It attained gold certification in Spain and topped the national album chart. Its success prompted a transatlantic tour that placed the artist in larger venues before packed, enthusiastic crowds.

Hellville de Luxe inaugurated a fresh era of chart achievement for Bunbury, yet he remained unaffected. Rather than replicate the same approach, he turned inward to expose his intimate troubadour aspect on 2010’s Las Consecuencias. The singles included a duet version of Manuel Alejandro and Ana Magdalena’s classic “Frente a Frente” with singer Miren Iza of Tulsa. The original appeared in 1981 on Jeanette’s Corazón de Poeta album and is designated “Jeanette’s Version” here. Additional singles were “De Todo el Mundo” and “Los Habitantes.” Las Consecuencias also reached number one in Spain and was supported by a thirty-city North American bus tour. Bunbury and his band frequently performed for small crowds while deliberately cultivating new touring territories through traditional grassroots methods, venturing well beyond major coastal cities into interior locales such as Detroit and Salt Lake City. During this period he relocated to Los Angeles, dividing his time between the United States and Spain. Later that year he recorded the triple-length live album Gran Rex at the storied Buenos Aires Theater; issued in 2011, it topped the Spanish charts. Another Héroes del Silencio reunion tour followed, concluding with Live in Germany, which ascended to the summit of that country’s charts.

Bunbury’s relentless momentum and shape-shifting continued with 2012’s Licenciado Cantinas. The album presented fresh renditions of some of South and Central America’s most beloved songs by composers including Willie Colón, Hector Lavoe, Louie Ortega, and Atahualpa Yupanqui, among others. Bunbury treated these classic compositions and forms exactly as he would his own, narrating tales of heartbreak and mortality while weaving together an abundance of rhythms and grooves. Director Alexis Morante’s short film Licenciado Cantinas: The Movie accompanied a special-edition box set. The project peaked at number two. A live album, De Cantina en Cantina: On Stage 2011-12, was also released. In 2013 Bunbury transformed again. Palosanto paired emotionally charged songs and melodies with sleek, dark, and austere production, illustrated by the singles “Despierta,” “Más Alto Que Nosotros Sólo el Cielo,” and “Todo.” The contrast resonated with listeners; the album landed at number two.

Early in 2015 MTV invited Bunbury to record an episode of Unplugged, which he titled El Libro de las Mutaciones (“The Book of Mutations”). In a letter to fans ahead of its late-year release, he clarified that the project was not “a compilation album of great successes” and did not survey his catalog evenly. Instead it afforded an opportunity to revisit songs he had not considered for many years, encompassing tracks recorded with Héroes del Silencio, others with his then-current band Los Santos Inocentes, and still others never previously released. Guests Robi Draco Rosa, Leon Larregui, Carla Morrison, Pepe Aguilar, and Vetusta Morla joined him on selected performances. The album reached number ten on Billboard’s Hot Latin Albums chart. Mid-2016 saw the release of the unvarnished Morante-directed documentary El Camino Más Largo chronicling Bunbury’s 2010 North American bus tour.

In November he issued two multi-volume compilation sets spanning roughly twenty years. Archivos, Vol. 1: Tributos y BSOs, a double disc, collected contributions to cinema, television, and musical-theater projects along with covers of Miguel Rios and El Niño Gusano plus a previously unreleased version of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.” Archivos, Vol 2: Duetos comprised three discs and more than three hours of collaborations with an array of artists including Maria Dolores Pradera, Jaime Urrutia, Andrés Calamaro, Mikel Erentxun, Draco Rosa, younger bands such as León Benavente and Zoé, and underground rockers Le Punk and Chus Rebel. In September 2017 Bunbury announced the studio album Expectativas via a twelve-minute film on its making directed by iconic photographer (and his life partner) Jose Girl. As his first collection of original material in four years, he released video singles for the tracks “La Actitud Correcta” and “Parecemos Tontos” that highlighted the album’s tension between tough-edged rock en español and the more acoustic dimension of his recent work. Backed by Los Santos Inocentes, he self-produced the sessions in Los Angeles and Texas. Expectativas appeared in late October.