Aldo Benitez was born in Morón, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1980. He took his first steps in the world of music with an acoustic guitar that only had two thick strings and a broken body. After taking some classes on how to play the electric bass with Anael Cantilo –among other teachers– he went on to play this instrument with two successive bands (Sandelius and Karaoke Warriors), which he formed with Coiffeur, also known as Guillermo Alonso (another composer from the west of Buenos Aires) and other high-school friends such as Fe!r from Yicos.

At the same time, Aldo would fill up cassette tapes with songs he never dared to play with his band, or songs he seldom played. In 2001, he made a third musical attempt before launching his solo project, called Rock Set, consisting of an experimental music duet involving artist Coiffeur. Rock Set included two keyboards for children, whose sounds were played and processed in real time with electric-guitar and bass pedals. In 2005, he contributed some lyrics (“Buenos Recuerdos” or “Good Memories”) to Coiffeur’s first record, called Primer Corte (First Cut). To Aldo’s great surprise, those lyrics ended up as part of Uruguayan artist Dani Umpi’s third novel.

While working on these projects, Aldo became one of the founding members of Colectivo RudaMacho (2002-2005), a cycle known for the parties that bear the same name. He actively helped create the cycle’s atmosphere and contributed to the recording of videos, among other activities including a mini-party in the hallway of the Ruth Benzacar Art Gallery. This event was held as part of a contest called Curriculum 0, 2005 Edition, where Colectivo RudaMacho was pre-selected.

In early 2006, Rock Set finally turned into an intermittent project, and Aldo became intensely focused on his solo career. He started to perform live with an electric guitar for kids, an MP3 player with tracks previously recorded with Abletone Live!, and a floor microphone to sing into. On certain occasions –basically, when there was a video projector available– the music tracks were accompanied by videos.

In mid-2006, Aldo started to record/compose what would be his first long-play record, “El portafolio sin peso” (A Weightless Briefcase), technically supervised by musicians Ismael Pinkler and Gabriel Lucena (Entre Ríos, AUTO). Aldo did the programming, recorded vocals, and played the guitar and bass for the making of this album, which was finally launched in July 2007 by PEATON Discográfica, Aldo’s recent venture in the record company industry.

Two other tracks involving Aldo will have seen the light of day by the end of the year: on the one hand, there is “Sapo” (Frog), a song co-written with Marcelo Fabián, to be launched by record company “Sed de Mal”. On the other, there is this cover of the song “Ay, mi gorrión” (Oh My Sparrow), originally performed by Juanito el cantor to be launched as part of the album “Planeta Oeste”.

Aldo Website

Aldo in Space