The Tourism Delegate Councilor, Almudena Maíllo, presented today, along with musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla and representatives from the TAI University School of Arts, the route ‘Sound Images of Madrid’, which invites visitors to discover the city through four sound pieces developed by the renowned artist along with students from the school. This pioneering initiative is part of the municipality’s strategy to position Madrid as a benchmark destination in the audiovisual field with Madrid Film Office.
The route offers a sensory journey through emblematic spaces such as Retiro Park, Mercado de la Cebada, CentroCentro, and the Madrid Metro, through a work developed by the Argentine artist, a two-time Oscar winner and creator of the soundtrack for the video game and TV series The Last of Us, along with over 30 Music and Film students from TAI.
Maíllo emphasized that with this initiative, «Madrid is consolidating its position as a key destination in screen tourism, thanks to the generosity of Gustavo Santaolalla and his work on this project with young talents.» For the Tourism Delegate Councilor, «with this tenth brochure-route, we reinforce a strategic line that allows us to expand the offer of cultural experiences, connect with new audiences, and project the sound identity of Madrid to the world.»
The work is presented in a brochure-route format, inviting visitors to explore the city through active listening, immersing themselves in the soundscapes captured by Santaolalla and his team. This is the first original sound identity created by the composer for a city, a milestone that expands Madrid’s intangible heritage and strengthens its positioning as a cultural and audiovisual tourism destination. The work is added to the catalog of products and actions developed by Madrid Film Office aimed at promoting the dissemination of Madrid’s audiovisual heritage and screen tourism in the city.
During the presentation held at the Casa de la Panadería, Santaolalla explained that one of the challenges was selecting the scenarios, given the richness of sounds and corners that Madrid offers. «There is a very strong part of my identity that is Spanish. I have felt, especially in recent years, a kind of personal debt to Spain. I feel the need to get closer to the beginning of my roots, and Madrid is always the place I want to return to,» the musician said.
The route is the result of an immersive workshop held in 2024 in which TAI students participated guided by Santaolalla, who introduced them to creation based on soundscapes. Part of the work with ambient sounds, which has been a very important part of the composition, according to the artist. «My love for John Cage and Murray Schafer, who invented the concept of soundscape, made me lean towards the possibility of going to a place with a couple of microphones and rescuing its essence through its sounds,» Santaolalla explained.
The collaboration of Madrid Film Office, the audiovisual office of the Delegated Tourism Area, for the development and publication of the ‘Sound Images of Madrid’ route, is part of its support for the dissemination of Madrid’s audiovisual heritage and the generation of products aimed at promoting screen tourism and cultural connection with Madrid through audiovisual media.
Among these actions, their line of tourist brochures dedicated to series filmed in Madrid stands out, as well as the Landscape of Light and its representation on screen or the maps that invite you to explore the city through the work and life of figures such as Álex de la Iglesia, Luis García Berlanga, Ava Gardner, Almodóvar, or Concha Velasco, the most recent brochure published this summer. The ‘Sound Images of Madrid’ route is the tenth brochure on screen tourism produced by Tourism and the first focused on sound creation.
In addition to these brochures, among the actions carried out in the last year by Madrid Film Office to promote screen tourism, the guided tours program ‘Madrid on screen’ launched last summer and expected to be repeated in 2025 stands out; the sponsorship of the book Madrid from the cinema, published by La Librería Editions, and the study The screen tourism in Madrid: an approach to the keys of a future subsegment, carried out by the Autonomous and Carlos III universities and the National Emission Tourism Observatory (ObservaTUR).
Furthermore, the audiovisual office of the City Council has collaborated with the exhibitions Madrid, destination of dreams: Bigas Luna’s urban cinema #YoSoyLaJuani at the Serrería Belga Cultural Space; Yvonne Blake. Dressing Spain and Hollywood at the Casa de la Panadería, and Madrid, Almodóvar girl, held at the CondeDuque Contemporary Culture Center, which has also led to the publication of the map of the same name by Ocho y Medio Editions. /
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