Daniel Puente Encina

• Name — Daniel Puente Encina • Alias — Daniel Puente, Dani Puente • Birthplace — Santiago de Chile • Instrument — * Vocals • guitar • charango • bass • percussion • keyboards • Genre — * Singer-songwriter • crossover jazz • Latin blues • Latin jazz • Latin alternative • world music • music of Latin America • independent music • desert rock • Occupation — * Musician • singer-songwriter • composer • producer • film composer • actor • Years Active — 1984–present • Label — * Polvorosa • Intercord • Potomak • Grita! Records • Associated Acts — * Pinochet Boys • Niños Con Bombas • Polvorosa • Website — www.danielpuenteencina.com/

Daniel Puente Encina began teaching himself music at the age of four. On his twelfth birthday, he father gave him a guitar and an hour's lesson. As an adolescent, he studied Musicology and Sociology at the University of Chile.

In his native Chile, he is better known as "Daniel Puente" o "Dani Puente", founder, lead singer and bass player of the anti-fascist new wave/post-punk group Pinochet Boys formed with a few friends in the Santiago of the mid-1980s, one of the most repressive periods of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. His first group, it formed part of the Chilean revolution, as noted in a number of books, documentaries and the fourth episode of Chilean drama TV series Los 80 by Canal 13. In 1984, Carlos Fonseca, a friend of the group and presenter of the programme Fusión contemporánea on Santiago's Radio Beethoven station, offered them a contract with the record company Fusión, owned by his father Mario Fonseca, on the condition that they changed its provocative name –something the group refused to do. The contract was later offered to group Los Prisioneros. Los Pinochet Boys' clandestine concerts were routinely broken up by the police shortly after they began, soon sparking to a youth movement in the Chilean capital. Its four members were harassed, threatened and persecuted for their irreverent attitude and wild performances, and often arrested for having dyed hair. In 1987, after only three years together, Los Pinochet Boys were unofficially forced by the military regime to leave the country. After almost two years of organizing their own concerts and touring with, amongst others, the Inocentes and Plebe Rude in Brazil and Todos Tus Muertos in Argentina, the group returned to Chile to play an active role in the No campaign for the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite, which put an end to Pinochet's regime. Their sole musical legacy consisted of two cassette recordings: "Botellas contra el pavimento"/"En mi tiempo libre" and "La música del general"/"Esto es Pinochet Boys", which have been copied on numerous occasions over the past decades. In 2012, record company Hueso Records from New York remastered both to produce a 500-copy limited edition 7-inch record entitled Pinochet Boys. • Illustration — Daniel Puente Encina Berlin (2013). Photo: Roger Askew

In 1989, after traveling through Europe, "Daniel Puente" moved to West Berlin a few months before fall of the Wall. There, he became friends with members of Einstürzende Neubauten, who would later on play an important role introducing him to a wider audience. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Puente Encina settled in Hamburg, where he founded the multicultural group Niños Con Bombas, sharing the stage with a number of bands from the so-called Hamburger Schule indie scene, such as Tocotronic, Blumfeld and Die Goldenen Zitronen. In 1995, Niños Con Bombas won the "John Lennon Talent Award" and signed deals with Stuttgart label Intercord, Potomak and New York-based international alternative Latin record company Grita! Records, founded by Bad Religion's original drummer Jay Ziskrout. The band released two albums: Niños Con Bombas de tiempo en el momento de la explosión (1996) produced by Chris Rolffsen and El Niño (1997) produced by Thies Mynther. Due to the MTV Music Television Video Rotation and radio airplays, songs such as Skreamska and Postcard were popular in Europe, South America and the US, which the group toured in 1997, with concerts in New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Virginia, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1998, they played in front of a crowd of 90,000 at the Rock al Parque festival in Bogotá, Colombia and, in 1999, at Austin's South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival, with The New York Times saying "one of the most interesting performances was that of Niños Con Bombas". In South America, Puente Encina and his group toured countries such as Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia and performed its alternative Latin Jazz-Ska-Rock sound in Europe as openers for Einstürzende Neubauten. In 1999, Niños Con Bombas moved to Los Angeles, but due to internal differences split shortly afterwards. • Illustration — Daniel Puente Encina, backstage White Trash Club, Berlin (2013). Photo: Roger Askew

In 2000, Puente Encina moved back to Europe and began performing and producing under the name "Polvorosa" in Barcelona, Spain. Once again changing musical direction, he created a new style: "Latin-Elektro-Clash". "Polvorosa" toured Europe and, as openers for Chambao and Ojos de Brujo, the entire Iberian peninsula. In 2004, he released the album Radical Car Dance. The track Behind de mi House became known worldwide after its video, created by German film director Marten Persiel, was chosen by MTV Music Television for its 2004 DVD compendium "Los Vídeos Mas Espectaculares" ("The Most Spectacular Videos"). In 2009, Puente Encina abandoned electronica in favor of a more natural feel and more organic sound. The end result was a mix of Latin, desert rock, jazz and world music. In 2011, he was chosen by Spanish nonprofit organization Instituto Cervantes in Tel Aviv to give a number of concerts in Israel.

In 2012, Daniel Puente Encina recorded his first album under his own name: Disparo, a blues-based work noteworthy for the minimalism of its instrumentation. Its ten tracks included an updated version of "Botellas contra el pavimento" by way of a personal tribute to his first band, "Pinochet Boys". The album was released in spring 2012 and launched in his native Chile, with a subsequent tour of Spain, Germany and Denmark. In 2013, before continuing with his German tour, with the support of Catalan governmental organization Institut Ramon Llull, he invited New York soul singer Mónica Green, granddaughter of Margaret "Maggie" Price of The-Cabineers, to the studio to take part in the recording of new versions of Lío and Mike Tysonboth songs from this album, to give the chorus a touch of Motown. July 2014 saw Puente Encina release Chocolate con Ají (Chocolate with Chilli), the second album under his own name, containing a mixture of genres and described on his website as a personal "Best Of" album, a compilation of his favorite previously unreleased compositions. It reflects a wide variety of styles ranging from South American music, rhythm and blues and Caribbean sounds. He promoted the album in Denmark, during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, in Germany and Italy and began another European tour in 2015. Puente Encina was invited by the Cuban Music Institute's National Centre for Popular Music to give four performances at the 31st "Jazz Plaza" Havana International Jazz Festival in December 2015. In 2016, for the International Workers' Day, he published "Freire", an animated music video created by Chilean illustrator and director Cristián Montes Lynch and his team. With the song from his album Chocolate con Ají and its corresponding video clip, Daniel Puente Encina reflects his critical view of "the unjust, dysfunctional system that is capitalism" and draws attention to the exploitation of mining workers throughout the Andes. In 2017 he invited Majorcan organist and pianist Llorenç Barceló to record a piano version of his smooth-jazz classic Odd Desire. Sangre y Sal (Blood and Salt), his third solo album, published in 2019, was inspired by the mark left by Africa on the criolla music of Chile, Peru and Argentina. In 2019 Daniel Puente Encina was awarded with The Lukas, (Latin UK Awards), Runner-up in the category European Jazz/ Folk Act of the year.

• 2012 – Pinochet Boys, 7" Vinyl, recorded 1984

• 1996 – Niños Con Bombas de tiempo en el momento de la explosión (Album) • 1997 – El Niño (Album) • 1998 – Short Sharp Shock, crime film by Fatih Akin, (Songs "Cocomoon" and "Nunca Diré": Original Soundtrack) • 1998 – Skaliente (compilation) • 1998 – Rolling Stone New Voices, Vol. 21 (compilation) • 1999 – Elektro Latino Vol.1 (compilation) • 2000 – Im Juli (English: In July) road movie by Fatih Akin, (Song "Ramona": Original Soundtrack / Cameo: "Velocidad" live) • 2004 – Head-On, German: "Gegen die Wand", multi-award-winning drama film by Fatih Akin (Songs "Postcard" and "Cocomoon": Original Soundtrack)

• 2000 – "Popkomm Sampler" (compilation) • 2000 – Im Juli (English: In July) road movie by Fatih Akin, (Song "El amor se demora": Original Soundtrack) • 2004 – Head-On, German: "Gegen die Wand", multi-award-winning drama film by Fatih Akin (Song "Not here": Original Soundtrack) • 2004 – Radical Car Dance (Album) • 2004 – "Electronic Latin Freaks" (compilation) • 2004 – "Barcelona Raval Sessions" (compilation) • 2006 – "Sex, City, Music: Barcelona" (compilation)

• 2012 – Disparo (Shot), (Album) • 2014 – Chocolate con Ají (Chocolate with Chili), (Album) • 2019 – Sangre y sal (Blood and salt), (Album)

• 2013 – Mike Tyson Radio Mix (with Monica Green) • 2013 – Lío Radio Mix (with Monica Green) • 2016 – Freire (video clip created by Chilean illustrator Cristián Montes Lynch) • 2017 – Odd Desire Piano Version (with Majorcan pianist Llorenç Barceló) • 2019 – Love is the only sound • 2019 – Frente al mar • 2019 – Bipolar • 2019 – Falta de ti

• *1998 – Short Sharp Shock, crime film by Fatih Akin, (Songs "Cocomoon" and "Nunca Diré": Original Soundtrack). Film score composer *2000 – Im Juli (English: In July). Cameo appearance with Niños Con Bombas playing "Velocidad" live in Fatih Akin's road movie. (Songs "El amor se demora" and "Ramona": Original Soundtrack). Film score composer. *2004 – Head-On, German: "Gegen die Wand", multi-award-winning drama film by Fatih Akin (Songs "Not here", "Postcard" and "Cocomoon": Original Soundtrack). Film score composer *2015 – Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe internationally co-produced drama film by Maria Schrader. Supporting actor as the congress visitor "Sadler". == Documentary film == * 2012 – "El baile de los que sobran". Music documentary film about Jorge González. Chile, TV-Serie: Doremix with Joe Vasconcellos, Screenplay: Cristián Freund, Fernando Fuentes, Rodrigo Sepúlveda, Directed by Werner Giesen, Rodrigo Sepúlveda, Produced by: CNTV, Zoofilms, first broadcast: September 9, 2012, by TVN, TV Chile