Cineplexx

Argentinean graphic artist Sebastián Litmanovich launched his recording career as Cineplexx in 1997, after an intense period living in New York City that prompted him to form his debut group, the Amarena Incident. Over the following six years he issued four albums—Comprimido, Posologia, Electrocardiograma, and Capacidad Maxima: 1 Persona—while simultaneously pursuing graphic design commissions. Those early releases stood apart from everything that followed, consisting of restrained, enclosed stretches of electronic noise. With the arrival of the 2003 mini-album Pequenos Accidentes Dommesticos, however, the material had largely shed its earlier detachment and shifted toward acoustic and synth-driven indie pop shaped by the luminous reveries associated with the Flaming Lips and Magnetic Fields.

From his Barcelona design studio Litmanovich spent subsequent years performing across Europe and assembling a fresh collection of gentle, wistful pop songs that surfaced as the 2006 album Restar. For the 2008 release Picnic he enlisted several prominent indie figures, including Jad Fair, Duglas Stewart of the BMX Bandits, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, and Federico Aubele. The album that came next incorporated '80s synth pop into his sonic range and included contributions from Lupe Nuñez of Amor de Días, Stu Kidd of BMX Bandits, and Nigel Baillie of Camera Obscura; Nuevahola Records issued it under the title Perfume in 2012. During the same period Litmanovich began producing remixes for other acts such as Stealing Sheep, BMX Bandits, Conveyor, and Enrique Iglesias.

In 2013 Cineplexx delivered Magenta, a set of covers drawn from Broadcast, Elliott Smith, Saint Etienne, and the BMX Bandits. Those largely straightforward renditions of indie pop numbers offered scant indication of the sharp stylistic pivot that arrived next. Florianopolis, released in 2014, immersed itself in disco and Afro-funk while featuring guest appearances by Linda Mirada, Lillies of Mars, and Ana Montiel. True to his pattern of avoiding repetition, Litmanovich stepped back slightly from disco on the following Cineplexx album; 2016’s Espejos folded in polished '80s pop textures and extended into traditional Latin ballads.