Santino Gonzales, who records music under his nickname “Tino,” is an artist from Los Lunas, New Mexico. Moved by the landscape of his childhood, Tino uses ufology, adobe, & radio to investigate cultural attitudes around the fear of alienation & the desire for connection. Lately, Tino has been exploring how these interests relate to ideas about home.
Sonically, Tino uses improvisation and looping to create soundscapes inspired by times past. Fractured melodies weave in and out of one another, punctuated by radio static and home recordings. This sound collage, with instruments both old and new, situates Tino among contemporary sound artists and ambient musicians.
While inspiration comes from many places, Gonzales’ music could join a mixtape with the likes of Grouper, The Caretaker, Windy & Carl, or videogame soundtracks like Kentucky Route Zero.