It’s important to note that Charly Garcia isn’t interested in reviving the past—he’s more focused on transforming it. “One of the most beautiful things Charly has always taught us is to look forward, to have a futuristic approach in each of his albums,” says Fernando Samalea, drummer on eight songs of La Lógica del Escorpión and one of the musicians closest to Garcia throughout his long career. Charly Garcia, a cornerstone of Latin American rock, found inspiration for La Lógica del Escorpión in the 1955 film Mr. Arkadin, directed by and starring Orson Welles. In a key scene, Arkadin recounts the fable of the frog and the scorpion, closing with an ironic toast: “Let’s drink to character!” Charly has referenced this fable before: The scorpion, unable to escape its nature, stings the frog that helps it cross the river, dooming them both. This struggle against the inevitability of instinct is a central theme in Garcia’s work, but never as explicitly as it is here. “The narrative thread is crystal clear,” Samalea explains. “Charly had it all planned from the beginning: ‘Rompela’ would open the album, and the cover of The Byrds’ ‘Rock and Roll Star’ would close it. In between, there’s a reinterpretation of John Lennon’s ‘Watching the Wheels’, tied to the fable of the scorpion, narrated by Charly himself.” Garcia takes old melodies, phrases or fragments of songs and twists them to reflect his current emotional state. These fragments from different eras come together with their own internal logic—the logic of the scorpion. In “Te Recuerdo Invierno”, a song he wrote in his teenage years and which only exists in a live version with guitar and vocals from his project Cassandra Lange, Charly reshapes its meaning and infuses it with a new rhythmic spirit, turning it into one of the most emotional moments of the album. “Rap de las Hormigas”, from Parte de la Religión (1987), sneaks into “La Medicina N° 9”. A phrase or melody from Charly Garcia doesn’t mean the same thing in 1987 as it does in 2024. The album, far from being a nostalgic glance at the past, is a reinterpretation of who Charly Garcia has been, but more importantly, of who he can still become. “Charly has said on several occasions that he often returns to melodies he wrote during his adolescence or even childhood,” Samalea says. “There are recurring melodic turns throughout all his albums, along with a very particular style of harmonies. He’s a master at assembling instruments, making each arrangement fit with the others and using silences or empty spaces that, when finally filled, become much more noticeable.” Charly’s voice emerges as raw, unfiltered and full of truth. Each track seems to capture an intimate moment where the robotic nature of the programmed beats contrasts with the fragility of his voice, which needs no tricks to make an impact. The mix of synthesised bass with programmed drums creates a unique hybrid: “Technology, as always, played a fundamental role,” says Samalea. “Much of the music on La Lógica del Escorpión has that joy characteristic of the ’60s, that rock touch. It might be a more guitar-driven album rather than keyboard-heavy, but I think it reflects Charly’s desire to follow that path at this point in his life, simply.” In La Lógica del Escorpión, we find the Charly Garcia we’ve always known: the Dadaist, the forward-looking enthusiast, visceral and free. Charly doesn’t revive the past—he transforms it. His voice guides us through an unpredictable landscape, where each song echoes his immutable nature. This is an album that doesn’t follow rules—it dismantles them with the scorpion’s relentless logic: an uncontrollable impulse that moves forward without looking back. La Lógica del Escorpión reflects the inevitability of being true to oneself, like a sting that strikes without asking for permission.