El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez is a progressive rock / math rock project from Bayamón, Puerto Rico led by The Mars Volta guitarist Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez, originally created as a means for Lopez to work with Hella drummer Zach Hill. The line-up was completed adding bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña of The Mars Volta and former Hella bassist Jonathan Hischke on synth bass. The quartet recorded a trio of albums in 2006, the first of which, Cryptomnesia, was released May 5th, 2009. Rodriguez-Lopez recruted The Mars Volta band-mate and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala to contribute lyrics and vocals to the album, which weren’t tracked until two years later in 2008, with Bixler-Zavala stating that he needed time to “dwell on the enormity of the recordings” before placing lyrics to them. The vocals for the last two recordings have not yet been completed. |