ATO Records is excited to announce the release of the new studio album by Rodrigo y Gabriela. Entitled Area 52, the record was produced by the legendary Peter Asher and will come out on January 24, 2012. Area 52 contains nine of Rod and Gab’s favorite songs from their own catalogue re-arranged and re-configured for a 13-piece Cuban orchestra comprised of some of Havana’s finest young players, collectively known as C.U.B.A. It’s Rodrigo y Gabriela’s first recorded collaboration with another group of musicians.

“The album is called Area 52 because we felt like Mulder and Scully approaching this — it was just a crazy idea, to see if a big Cuban band could play our music, a step in the dark. We knew it was out there, everyone has heard of Area 51, but we wanted to take it a little further,” Rodrigo says. “We saw it as a trip into the unknown, an experiment,” he continues. “Okay we knew the producer, and had spoken to the arranger on Skype; but we didn’t know the musicians or the studio, or Cuba for that matter.”
Fresh from scoring Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with Hans Zimmer, Rod and Gab headed for Cuba in the summer of 2010 armed with their guitars, unplayed arrangements and a sense of intrepid trepidation. They had met Asher while working on Pirates of the Caribbean and came up with the idea for Area 52 shortly thereafter.  Asher says: “Rodrigo and Gabriela are two of the most extraordinary musicians with whom it has ever been my privilege to work. From Gab’s complex multi-voice one-woman rhythm section to Rod’s searingly creative lead lines, they are forging genuinely new, exciting and viscerally powerful music.”

Rodrigo y Gabriela & C.U.B.A. Tour Dates:

2/19 – Dublin, Ireland @ The Olympia

2/21 – Glasgow, UK @ The Academy

2/22 – Machester, UK @ HMV Ritz

2/24 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton

2/26 – Brussels, Belgium @ Cirque Royal

2/27 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia

2/28 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia

3/1 – Lausanne, Switzerland @ Les Docks

3/2 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Komplex 457

4/3 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount

4/4 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

4/5 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater – Oakland

4/7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium

4/10 – Broomfield, CO @ 1stBank Center

4/12 – Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre

4/13 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater

4/14 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre

4/16 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ Massey Hall

4/20 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall

4/21 – Yeadon, PA @ Tower Theatre

4/23 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre

4/25 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre

4/26 – Charlottesville, VA @ NTELOS Wireless Pavilion

4/28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle

5/1 – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore at Jackie Gleason Theater

5/4 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

5/5 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s