The Gotan Project add extra voltage to the tango

Gotan Project have enjoyed a remarkable rise to success.

Gotan Project's new album is named after the beloved racehorse of the Argentine cancion (a form of tango) maestro Carlos Gardel. The horse is Lunatico and, according to Christophe H. Muller, the Swiss producer, the album is named because "the mood changes from one track to another in a slightly deranged way, and because great horses belong to the tango code".

Gotan Project's rise is remarkable. The French producer Philippe Cohen Solal started out as a music consultant for European film directors such as Lars von Trier and Bertrand Tavernier in the 90s.

A well-known figure on the Swiss electro scene, Muller moved to Paris where he met Cohen Solal (in 1995) and formed the dance imprint Ya Basta!

A number of side projects emerged such as Boyz from Brazil, Stereo Action Unlimited and Fruit of the Loop. The unifying factor was the duo's love of Latin music and left-field electronica. Of these projects, the one they thought had least promise was Gotan Project: a collaboration with Argentine guitarist Eduardo Makaroff that attempted to update the tango sound.

"We were doing Brazilian hybrids and other bits and pieces where there was more opportunity to expand," says Muller. "But with Gotan Project there was no flexibility. Tango had a bad image at that point. People thought it was music for old people - boring and rather corny."

They turned this outmoded perception on its head by adding beats and visuals to coincide with the highly charged, sensual nature of tango dance steps.

"In Argentina, the visual side of it had become cliched. Even the dancers and bandoneons (the tango accordion) had taken on a corny image. We tried to avoid that, even though, musically, we immediately saw that Argentinian tango isn't corny at all. Not only because of guys like Astor Piazzolla, but going much further back than that."

They released the album La Revancha Del Tango in 2001 and, much to their surprise, it was an international success. Even Argentina embraced this reworking of the tango sound, coining the phrase "electro-tango".

In a way, the format of the first album was straightforward: construct a dubbed- up cover of Piazzolla's tango classic "Vuelvo al Sur", add film-noir references with a cheeky lounge version of Gato Barbieri's theme from Last Tango in Paris, and gain a couple of alt-rock cred points with a reworking of Frank Zappa's Chunga's Revenge.

Makaroff added milonga (an older variation of the tango) and various folkloric guitar styles to Cohen Solal's and Muller's beefed-up tango concoctions. Additional guests included the bandoneon player Nini Flores, Patrice Caratini on upright bass, Gustavo Beytelmann on piano, and the Catalan vocalist Cristina Vilallonga. All appear once again on Lunatico.

"For the first album, we wanted to bring back tango to the dance floor," says Solal. "On the new album we wanted to make something more akin to a rock or pop record."

"The thing about tango is that there's so much material still left to explore," continues Muller. "Like jazz, it's one of the great musical styles of the 20th century. It's as big as pop or rock. The first album just touched the tip of the iceberg. There's the whole folkloric side of the music as well. It's tango with a big T."

LOWDOWN

WHAT: The Gotan Project
WHO: Philippe Cohen Solal, Eduardo Makaroff, Christoph H. Muller
ALBUMS: La Revancha del Tango (2001), Lunatico (out now)

- INDEPENDENT