Lisandro Aristimuño
Lisandro Aristimuño taught himself to play guitar by figuring out Beatles songs in a bedroom in Viedma. He used to skip school to serve mate to a record-store employee so he could listen to albums for free. Nobody taught him how to compose, produce or run a record label, yet he has spent more than twenty years doing all three. His obsession with sound made him one of the most distinctive artists in Argentine music: he sold out the Gran Rex nine times, filled Luna Park three times, won Gardel and Konex awards, and one of his songs ended up in a Francis Ford Coppola film. He did it all through a label he created so he would not have to depend on anyone else.
A Home Where Art Was Part of Everyday Life
Aristimuño was born in Viedma in 1978 and spent his childhood between that city and Luis Beltrán, another town in the Río Negro valley. In his home, art was not decoration: his father was a theater director and musician, his mother an actress, and music, literature and acting were as natural a part of daily life as food.
That environment, together with a landscape shaped by the southern wind, helped form his musical identity. Journalists who discovered him in Buenos Aires immediately noticed the difference: his songs carried something that did not sound like the capital.
From Mate at the Record Store to the Stage
He describes himself as a music obsessive, and one story proves it: he would skip school to serve mate to the employee of a record store so he could spend the afternoon listening to music he could not afford to buy.
He learned guitar without teachers. At eleven, he began singing and playing, and by fourteen he was already performing in Viedma bands such as Marca Registrada and La Bisogna, playing covers. Five years later, he left the bands and accompanied musician Fernando Barilá around the region while working on his own songs at the same time.
Moving at the Worst Possible Time
At the end of 2001, with Argentina in the middle of a severe crisis, he moved to Buenos Aires. It was not for a job opportunity or a record deal: he followed a relationship. In the capital, he began studying to become a preschool teacher while finishing his first album.
Azules turquesas was released in 2004 through the independent label Los Años Luz. The response was immediate: it was included among the fifty best albums of the year, Rolling Stone and Inrockuptibles named him a breakthrough artist, and he became a finalist at the Gardel Awards. Ese asunto de la ventana followed the next year, and 39º arrived in 2007.
Viento Azul: Doing Things His Own Way
The move that defined his career came in 2009. To release Las crónicas del viento, his first double album, he founded his own label: Viento Azul Discos. He has not depended on a record company since.
It was not a minor decision. It meant taking responsibility for recording, production, publishing, distribution and management, with all the freedom — and risk — that involved. The album won the Gardel Award for Best Alternative Pop Rock Album.
His method became a trademark: he mixes electronic sounds with acoustic instruments, programming and string arrangements, blending folk, pop, rock and electronic music without obvious seams. He says he does not identify with any single genre but, at the same time, feels part of all of them and has no prejudices about crossing boundaries.
Albums Like Movies
Mundo anfibio (2012) took him to another level. It featured Ricardo Mollo, Hilda Lizarazu and Boom Boom Kid, was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and won a Gardel Award in 2013. Constelaciones followed in 2016 and Criptograma in 2020.
In 2023, he released El rostro de los acantilados, his eighth studio album, featuring Pedro Aznar and David Lebón. Its thirteen songs were inspired by the shapes of the cliffs near Viedma, his hometown. He describes it as an album with a little magic, functioning like a story with a beginning and an end, or like a film. He says he increasingly finds his own identity in his records and has become more conscious that he is the one creating them.
The album won the Gardel Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album. Its presentation filled Luna Park on June 1, 2024, launching a national tour and later producing the live recording El rostro y la luna. In 2026, he continued touring with that material.
Producing Others and Supporting New Artists
His passion for sound is also evident in his work with other musicians. He served as artistic producer on albums by Mariana Baraj, Tomi Lebrero, Liliana Herrero and Fabiana Cantilo, among others, and for four seasons hosted and produced the radio program Ese asunto suena raro on FM La Tribu, dedicated to promoting independent artists and music.
Along the same lines, he created M.S.F.L., short for Música Sin Fines de Lucro — Music Without Profit — a service that shares songs by emerging composers every month without any financial interest. His description of the project is disarmingly simple: he does it for the pleasure of listening and being heard.
Recognition Without Losing His Center
The list of honors is long. Several Gardel Awards, Konex awards in 2015 and again in 2025 as an author and composer, Latin Grammy nominations, and recognition as a Distinguished Citizen of Río Negro in 2013 and Viedma in 2017. His song “El búho” was chosen by Francis Ford Coppola for the soundtrack of Tetro in 2009. He opened for Sting in Palermo, performed at Lollapalooza Argentina and toured Spain opening shows for Iván Ferreiro. With Raly Barrionuevo, he created the Hermano Hormiga project, which took them to the main stage at Cosquín.
None of that shifted his center of gravity. He still releases music through his own label, still produces artists he admires and still writes songs that look south. The boy who once figured out Beatles songs in a room in Viedma eventually made an entire album about the cliffs he saw from there.