Ismael Serrano is a Singer/songwriter and guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 from Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, popular in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, known for his insightful and often political lyrics and eclectic musical influences.

Early life

He was born in the neighbourhood of Vallecas

Vallecas

Vallecas is a neighborhood of Madrid composed of two districts: Puente de Vallecas and Villa de Vallecas...

 of Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 (Spain) in 9 March 1974. After studying Physics in the Complutense University of Madrid

Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...

, Ismael Serrano started his musical career in the early nineties in Madrid, singing folk based guitar music in a café circuit, at abashedly political venues like Libertad 8, Galileo and Nuevos Juglares. The movement proved to be very popular, inspired by the 20 year old ‘Protest’ song movement under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

, as well as the Nueva canción

Nueva canción

Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...

 movement of Latin America.

Atrapados en Azul

In 1997 Ismael Serrano signed with Polygram

PolyGram

PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...

 (now Universal) and released his first disc: “Atrapados en Azul”, with songs such as "Papá cuéntame otra vez", "Vértigo" o "Amo tanto la vida" that became hymns for youngsters in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

. For this work he was nominated as ‘Best new artist” for the Spanish Musical Awards of the “Sociedad General de Autores y Editores”.

Second and third records

The follow-up disc, "La memoria de los peces" (1998), increased his popularity (sales level for Platinum in Spain, Gold in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

). In his third production “Los paraísos desiertos” (2000) Serrano moved more to Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 styles and African sounds. Two important music nominations for this work: Best Original Song for the Goya Movie Awards (The “Spanish Oscars”) for the song “Km.0” (of the feature with the same title) and Best Sound Engineering for the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards

Latin Grammy Awards

A Latin Grammy Award is an accolade by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. Unlike the regular Grammy Award which primarily honors music produced in the United States, the Latin Grammy honors works produced anywhere around the...

.

Recordings 2002-2007

New productions appeared in the following years: “La traición de Wendy” (2002), Principio de Incertidumbre” (2003, double live concert disk), “Naves ardiendo más allá de Orión” (2005) (phrase extracted from the final dialogue of the Blade Runner

Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...

 cult film), and “Sueños de un hombre despierto” (2007) pointing out Ismael Serrano as one of the main exponents of singer/songwriter trend in the Latin music world.

Feature film

In May 2002 Ismael Serrano participated in his second feature film “El corazón de Jesus”, a German-Chilean-Bolivian production written and directed by Marcos Loayza. Previously, in the year 2000, he sang the eponymous theme song at the close of the film Km. 0

Km. 0

Km. 0 is a 2000 film from Spain that tells several intertwining tales of mistaken identity and coincidental meetings that take place near the Kilometre Zero marker in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.-Plot:Km...

 - a romantic comedy of errors involving several sets of people who meet at, or otherwise have in common, Kilómetro Cero

Kilometre Zero

In many countries, Kilometre Zero or similar terms in other languages, is a particular location , from which distances are traditionally measured...

 in Madrid.

Retrospective (2006)

In late 2006, 10th anniversary from the release of his first CD, a retrospective of his work was released as a double CD under the name "El Viaje De Rosetta" (in reference to the Rosetta (spacecraft)

Rosetta (spacecraft)

Rosetta is a robotic spacecraft of the European Space Agency on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The spacecraft was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and will reach the comet by...

). This deluxe boxset contains a disc with all his singles, another disc with rarities, live tracks and collaborations, and a 48 pages booklet, and is also available in a single CD and DVD edition.

Discography

Atrapados en azul (1997)

1. Papá cuéntame otra vez
2. Vértigo
3. Donde estarás
4. Caperucita
5. Yo quiero ser muy promiscuo
6. Amo tanto la vida
7. La extraña pareja
8. El camino de regreso
9. México insurgente
10. Un muerto encierras
11. Atrapados en azul
12. Ana

La memoria de los peces (1998)

1. Últimamente
2. Al bando vencido
3. Recuerdo
4. Ya quisiera yo
5. Regresa
6. Vine del norte
7. Sin ti a mi lado
8. Tierna y dulce historia de amor
9. Instrucciones para salvar el odio eternamente
10. A las madres de mayo
11. Canción de amor propio
12. Mi vida no hay derecho
13. Pequeña criatura
14. Qué va a ser de mí

Los paraísos desiertos (2000)

1. Km.0
2. La mujer más vieja del mundo
3. No estarás sola
4. La cita
5. Tantas cosas
6. Una historia de Alvite
7. La huida
8. Has de saber
9. La casa encantada
10. La ciudad parece un mundo
11. Lo que hay que aguantar
12. Ya ves

La traición de Wendy (2002)

1. Eres
2. Un hombre espera en el desierto
3. Si peter pan viniera
4. Cien días
5. Ahora
6. Pájaros en la cabeza
7. Buenos Aires 2001
8. Prende la luz
9. Qué andarás haciendo
10. Fue terrible aquel año
11. La ciudad de los muertos
12. Será
13. Cobertura: 95% del territorio nacional #

Principio de incertidumbre (2003)

CD1

1. Últimamente
2. Principio de incertidumbre
3. Cien días
4. Vine del norte
5. Ya llegó la primavera
6. Km.0 (con Javier Bergia)
7. Eres
8. La extraña pareja (con Lichis)
9. Aquella tarde
10. Pájaros en la cabeza (con Pedro Guerra)
11. Amo tanto la vida
12. Plaza Garibaldi

CD2

1. Qué andarás haciendo
2. Recuerdo
3. Ya ves (con Luis Eduardo Aute)
4. Papá cuéntame otra vez
5. Ahora
6. Zona Cero
7. Déjate convencer
8. Vértigo
9. Tierna y dulce historia de amor
10. Un muerto encierras
11. Prende la luz
12. No estarás sola
13. A las madres de mayo

Naves ardiendo más allá de Orión (2005)

1. Elegía
2. El virus del miedo
3. Sucede que a veces
4. Duermes
5. Reina del super
6. Volveré temprano
7. Alicia
8. Fragilidad
9. Allí
10. El vals de los jubilados
11. Jóvenes y hermosos
12. Estamos a salvo
13. Dulce memoria
14. Ya nada es lo que era

El Viaje De Rosetta (2006)

CD1 (Singles)

1. Papá cuéntame otra vez
2. Dónde estarás
3. Amo tanto la vida
4. Atrapados en azul
5. Mexico insurgente
6. Caperucita
7. Últimamente
8. Vine del Norte
9. Tierna y dulce historia de amor
10. Pequeña criatura
11. Km 0
12. La mujer más vieja del mundo
13. No estarás sola
14. La huida
15. Eres
16. Qué andarás haciendo
17. Cien días
18. Elegía
19. Sucede a veces

CD2 (Rarities)

1. Vértigo (Encuentros con la Habana)
2. Mira que eres canalla (Tribute to Luis Eduardo Aute)
3. Con los cinco pinares (Claudio Rodríguez - Poesía necesaria)
4. Dos kilómetros de paciencia (25 años - Javier Bergia)
5. El último cantautor (Ni jaulas, ni peceras - La Cabra Mecánica)
6. Nueces (Esta mañana y otros cuentos - Coti)
7. El aparecido (Tribute to Víctor Jara)
8. Caballo de cartón (Un barco de sueños - Cantautores cantan a niños)
9. Chove en Santiago (Lo mejor de Luar na Lubre)
10. Vine del norte (Live at Lo + plus)
11. Ya se van los pastores (Son de niños)
12. La Locura (OST "El corazón de Jesús")
13. La Cordura (OST "El corazón de Jesús")
14. Vuelvo a Madrid (Until now an iTunes only song)
15. Principio de incertidumbre (15 September 2003)
16. La extraña pareja (Live with "La Cabra Mecánica" 2 February 2004)
17. Plaza Garibaldi (27 April 2004)

Sueños de un hombre despierto (2007)

1. Casandra
2. Canción para un viejo amigo
3. Canción de amor y oficina
4. Nana para un niño indígena
5. Somos
6. Zamba del emigrante (feat. Mercedes Sosa)
7. Habitantes de Alfa-Centauro encuentran la sonda Voyager
8. Testamento vital
9. Sesión continua
10. Si se callase el ruido
11. Te conocí
12. Amores imposibles
13. Para médicos y amantes

Unedited songs

1. Cita a las siete en La Moncloa
2. Con una pena de muerte
3. Cuatro estaciones
4. La ciudad parece un mundo (primera versión)
5. La cordura
6. La locura
7. La tormenta
8. Los torpes
9. Mañana quizás sea tarde
10. Por qué no te quedas en casa
11. Por ti
12. Vente conmigo
13. Y yo buscándote

Un Lugar Soñando (2009)

1. Somos
2. Cancion Para Un Viejo Amigo
3. Sucede Que A Veces
4. Cancion De Amor Y Oficina
5. Caperucita
6. Penelope Espera En Peumayen
7. Sesion Continua
8. Vine Del Norte
9. A Las Madres De Mayo
10. Zamba Del Emigrante Con Mercedes Sosa
11. Si Se Callase El Ruido
12. Tantas Cosas
13. Ya Ves
14. Recuerdo
15. Canción De Amor Propio
16. Observando Las Estrellas
17. Habitantes De Alfa Centauro Encuentran La Sonda Voyager
18. Ultimamente
19. Vertigo
20. Casandra
21. La Extraña Pareja
22. Como La Cigarra
23. Papa Cuentame Otra Vez
24. Eres
25. Ya Nada Es Lo Que Era