1990s In 1992, Cerati recorded
Colores Santos ("Holy Colors") with electronic musician Daniel Melero, a longtime
Soda Stereo collaborator. 1993 saw the release of Cerati's first solo album
Amor Amarillo ("Yellow Love"), which included the participation of
Zeta Bosio and Cerati's wife at the time, the Chilean singer, actress, and model
Cecilia Amenábar who sang and appeared in the video for the lead single "Te llevo para que me lleves" ("I'll take you so you can take me"). In 1995 Gustavo Cerati teamed up with three Chilean musicians, Andrés Bucci, Guillermo Ugarte, and Christian Powditch, to form
Plan V. Plan V released two albums:
Plan V (1996) and
Plan Black V Dog (1998), a collaboration with the British electronic music group
the Black Dog. In 1999 Cerati formed the electronic duo Ocio with longtime
Soda Stereo collaborator and trumpeter Flavio Etcheto, releasing
Medida Universal. Around this time Cerati participated in the album ''Outlandos d'Americas: A Rock en Español Tribute to the Police'' collaborating with
Andy Summers of
the Police and
Vinnie Colaiuta (
Frank Zappa,
Sting), on a cover of the Police's "
Bring on the Night", (Spanish: Traeme la Noche).
Bocanada ("Puff") was released in 1999 and was regarded as Gustavo Cerati's proper debut as a solo artist. It was recorded in Estudio CasaSubmarina (Cerati's home studio) in
Buenos Aires. Cerati used an
MPC to record many of the tracks. The 48-piece orchestra in "Verbo Carne" was recorded in
Abbey Road Studios in London. The album was also mixed and mastered in London at
Townhouse Studios.
Bocanada immediately reached gold status in
Argentina and received many accolades in the Argentinian and Latin American press. The album was universally praised for its grandeur and its beauty and is still considered by critics and fans alike as Cerati's
magnum opus. The veteran
Mexican rock critic David Cortés Arce had this to say about it, "
Bocanada is a fundamental album in the history of Iberoamerican Rock, in general, in all of the Spanish speaking countries."
2000–2005 In 2001, Cerati made his foray into film with the score for the movie
+Bien (literally, "+Good." A better translation of the phrase as used in Argentina would be "Of course", "duh!"), in which he acted as well. The film was an independent movie directed by Eduardo Capilla, and starred
Ruth Infarinato,
VJ for
Latin MTV. Cerati's wife at the time,
Cecilia Amenábar, also played a small role in the film. The soundtrack was nominated for an award in the category of the best instrumental pop album at the
3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards. In August 2001, Cerati held a private concert in the historic
Avenida Theatre in Buenos Aires. He was accompanied by a 42-piece orchestra conducted by Alejandro Terán. The recording of the concert was released as
11 Episodios Sinfónicos ("Eleven Symphonic Episodes") and consisted of seven arrangements of
Soda Stereo classics and four of his solo songs played entirely by the orchestra. Cerati took
11 Episodios Sinfónicos on the road, playing
Mexico City, Caracas,
Santiago, and finishing it off with three shows at
the Gran Rex theatre in Buenos Aires. The CD was well received by critics and fans alike, and a live DVD was eventually released. Simultaneously, Cerati teamed up with longtime collaborator Flavio Etcheto and Leandro Fresco to form the self-described "power laptop trio" Roken, which he played concurrently during the
Siempre es Hoy tour. Roken's non-conventional approach focused on improvisation and writing songs in real time. They played in various festivals throughout Latin America as well as in underground clubs in the United States. In 2004, "Canciones Elegidas 93-04" ("Selected Songs 93-04"), a double album compilation of Cerati's solo work, was released simultaneously in
Spain and
Argentina. The release was followed by a small tour of
Mexico,
Argentina,
Chile and
Spain.
2005–2010 After working for much of 2005 on new material, Cerati released
Ahí Vamos ("There We Go") in April 2006. Co-produced by longtime
Soda Stereo collaborator
Tweety González,
Ahí Vamos marked Cerati's triumphant return to guitar rock. For the recording of
Ahí Vamos, Cerati was accompanied by longtime collaborators,
Richard Coleman, Fernando Nalé, and many others. The album was mixed by Héctor Castillo, a prolific engineer whose credits include
David Bowie,
Lou Reed, and
Aterciopelados, to name a few. The album was mastered by
Howie Weinberg at
Masterdisk in New York City.
Ahí Vamos was lauded by fans and critics alike as a return to form for Cerati. The
Ahí Vamos tour traveled through Latin America, the
Caribbean, the United States (where he played in New York's
Central Park), Spain, and on 12 October 2006, Cerati played London, England, for the first time in his career. In 2008, Cerati released a DVD version of
Ahí Vamos and performed in various festivals throughout Latin America alongside,
Shakira,
Fito Páez, and
Gustavo Santaolalla.
Fuerza Natural was a marked change from the riffing of
Ahí Vamos and the electronics of
Bocanada and
Siempre es Hoy. The collections of songs focused on a cleaner, more
acoustic pop sound, as well as
folk and
Neo-psychedelia.
Rolling Stone Argentina took notice of this, "pero es más folkie, más espacial y más acústico, con una legión de guitarras, mandolinas y dobros que levantan polvo sobre las programaciones" (English: but it is more folkie, more spatial and acoustic, with a legion of guitars, mandolins, and dobros that sprinkle dust on the sequencers). Similar observations were made by Mariano Prunes writing in
AllMusic, "
Fuerza Natural has a curious sequencing structure, as it seems to be organized in stylistic batches. It begins with a trio of
bona fide Cerati hits in that suave, effortless manner that always suited him so well; it then switches to a surprising but rather unsuccessful bluesy/folksy diptych." Regardless of the mixed reviews,
Fuerza Natural entered the charts in
Argentina,
Mexico, and
Chile at No. 1. It is the first Cerati album to be sold in digital format in
Argentina through
MusicPass as well as was
iTunes. The album sold 40,000 copies in Argentina in its first week of release and 500,000 albums worldwide. In 2010, Cerati was awarded a Latin Grammy for "Best Rock Song." The
Fuerza Natural tour kicked off on 19 November in
Monterrey, Mexico. Cerati played Stadiums and large venues in
Mexico,
Argentina,
Peru,
Chile, The United States,
Uruguay,
Colombia and
Venezuela, 21 shows in total. Cerati's final show was held in
Caracas,
Venezuela on 15 May 2010. Cerati suffered a stroke immediately after the show. == Personal life ==