Rodrigo y Gabriela to release new album 'Area 52' in January 2012

Mexican acoustic rock duo Rodrigo y Gabriela will release their new album on January 23, 2012.

Entitled 'Area 52', the album is their first recorded collaboration with another group of musicians; a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra composed of some of Havana's finest young players, collectively known as the C.U.B.A.

The album has been produced by Peter Asher, known for his work with James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, 10,000 Maniacs and Diana Ross; as well as being A&R at Apple Records. The album was co-produced by Rodrigo. It has been mixed by Rafa Sardina, 25 times nominated (and 11 times winner) at the Latin Grammys.

On 'Area 52' Rodrigo y Gabriela revisit nine of their compositions and reinterpret them in a new and dramatic fashion, this is Rodrigo y Gabriela as they have never been heard before.

The new arrangements were done by Switzerland based composer / arranger / pianist Alex Wilson, best know for his work with Courtney Pine and Ernest Ranglin. Recording took place during the summer at Abdala Studios in Havana and later at Rod & Gab's studio in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Guests on the album include Anoushka Shankar on sitar, rock drummer John Tempesta (The Cult, White Zombie, Testament) on two tracks, jazz bass player Carles Benavent (Miles Davis, Chick Corea) on two tracks and Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran.

Rodrigo explains: "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". He adds: "we knew it was out there, everyone has heard of Area 51, but we wanted to take it a little further".

Rodrigo y Gabriela have sold in excess of 1.2 million albums, earlier this year they collaborated with Hans Zimmer on 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'. They have sold out world tours that span London to Los Angeles, Paris to Tokyo and Dublin to Sydney, in recent years they have worked with Robert Trujillo from Metallica, Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, Al Di Meola, L Shankar, Alex Skolnick from Testament and Strunz & Farah.

'Area 52' will be released on Rubyworks on January 23rd.

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