Andres Barlesi brings introspective, improvisational guitar sound to solo project 'Atalaya'

Andres Barlesi first picked up a guitar when he was just
five years old, was in his first band by the age of 12, and went
on to play and tour internationally with the Argentinian indie
band Los Alamos. Today the 36-year-old musician from Buenos Aires
lives in Berlin and is working on his solo project,
“Atalaya.”


Barlesi’s music for Atalaya isn’t confined to particular song
structures. When developing a piece of music, Barlesi often
starts with an image in his head: “I close my eyes… I just let my
fingers go,” he explains. He draws inspiration from the
celebrated American guitarists John Fahey and Robbie Basho and
their “spiritual, open-tuning” sound.


Barlesi has called Berlin home for five years now. It’s not the
cheap rent and beer that drew him to the city, he says, but the
“fantasy to go somewhere else.” When not working on Atalaya,
Barlesi teaches music to small children, adding the occasional
Black Sabbath song to his lesson plan: “They have to learn
something cool when they’re starting,” he laughs. 


Produced by Monika Müller-Kroll