Esquivel

Esquivel (Juan García Esquivel, 1918–2002) was a Mexican bandleader, pianist, and arranger whose work in the late 1950s and early 1960s defined the Space Age Pop genre. Working in elaborate stereo sound design with orchestras of unusual instrumentation — divided across left and right channels with dramatic spatial contrast — he developed a vocabulary of orchestral novelty that was simultaneously kitsch and formally sophisticated. Albums including Other Worlds Other Sounds (1958) and Infinity in Sound (1960) on RCA Victor are among the most inventive orchestral records of the period. Rediscovered in the 1990s, his influence on lounge revival and experimental pop has been substantial.

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