Diego Souto is one of the most active players and composers of music for Chapman Stick in South America. Since his beginnings in the late 90's, he has faced very discrete projects, both soloist and part of a group. After a long series of demo-tapes, which captivated the attention of public and independent media, his first CD was released in 1999, named "Palabras de Fuego" -Words of Fire-, and described by its author as a conceptual piece of music for Stick and Sound Fragments. It was in fact a much promising Opera Prima, which mixed World Music, Minimalism and Industrial Music. This was received with many positive reviews by press.
The first version of "Ojos Amni?ticos"-Amniotic Eyes- was released in 2001 as a web-based album, in fact it was the first virtual album ever released by an Argentinean artist. It was originally meant to be a Self- Improving album, a concept developed by Diego as a way to overcome a known quotation: "an album is never finished, just abandoned".
Unlike Palabras de Fuego -which was recorded in reel tape and then digitally mixed- Ojos Amni?ticos is definitely a cyber-album, every single sound in this CD was manipulated endlessly until it became difficult to discover its real source. Until year 2003, various upgrades of Amniotic Eyes were available for downloading from Diego's web page.
His latest album Ciudad de Grises was recorded in 2005 and it's conceptually different from its predecessors for this piece of work was meant to be performed live by a band -a trio of Stick, Bandone?n and Drums-, that's why themes were composed using more "realistic" sounds than on previous album. The sonic atmosphere of this work is definitely retro-futuristic, traditional styles like tango and folklore are continuously mixed with contemporary patterns and avant-garde sounds.
Despite Diego's music is far from "Easy-Listening" genre, the attention that media provided to him across the years is quite generous, for he has performed in TV, Cable TV and Radio many times.
He has contributed to many projects, both as a member, co-producer, or just as a guest musician. Among them are the electro-noise project LOTHUS -which has released the outstanding CD "Desert of Frequencies"-; the Chilean group E-MEN, the Brazilian post-punk band ICONOCLASTICOS, the histrionic guitar ensemble EL CORNO DEL FANYULO -its only album "Diga Guisky" is considered an icon of Uglyism-; the neo-tango trio "Ars Cottolengo"; the glam-pop singer Eloisa Lopez -which recently released the outstanding CD "EL"-, and the experimental dance project AureliaX.
He has performed live and given lessons countless times in Argentina, southern Brazil and also Chile, sharing stages with other South American bands and personalities like the electric violinist Sami Abadi, The Buenos Aires Guitar Circle- Argentinean incarnation of The League of Crafty Guitarists, an international guitar circle founded by Robert Fripp -, the world-renowned guitarist Fernando Kabusacki, the model and singer Deborah del Corral, the Brazilian bands Iconoclasticos, S.O.L., Cine Victoria, Antoine Trauma, Zumbi do Mato, and many, many more.
He has also written articles for several magazines: El Musiquero (1995- 1996), Perro Negro (2001 - 2002), El Guitarrista (2005) and Periodico de Artes del Sur (2005).
He is founder of Parasito de Luz, a web-based record label and catalog of avant-garde artists from South America.
