Soy o estoy

Cuatro Caminos is not just an album; it's a sonic map that originates in northern Mexico, where the Metro and the old Toreo de Naucalpan intersect with the streets of the neighborhood that saw Café Tacvba grow up. The title plays with that duality: the paths that lead to a place, but also the routes each person chooses to understand the music. In that territory, Rubén Albarrán became Élfego Buendía for the first time, and the record marked a turning point: they abandoned synthetic electronic rhythms to embrace real drums and percussion, a change that is evident from the first measure.

The song Soy o estoy arrives at 2:48 with an energy that feels like it was captured in a single take, without studio touch-ups. It’s no coincidence: behind the controls were Dave Fridmann, Aníbal Kerpel, Gustavo Santaolalla, and Andrew Weiss, each contributing their vision to capture that moment when the band decided to leave the artificial behind. The result sounds like Café Tacvba in its rawest state, as if the air of Cuatro Caminos had gone straight into the microphone.