Mixing the future with the past
Gabriel Kaplan/Special to The Malibu Times
Take folklore music, link it with the history and culture of Argentina, mix it with electronic music and you have Gotan Project.
Gotan Project-headed by DJ/producer Philippe Cohen Solal, DJ Christophe Muller and tango guitarist Eduardo Makaroff- recently performed at UCLA’s Royce Hall as part of the UCLALive series. Serge Amico on the bandoneon (a form of accordian), vocalist Cristina Vilallonga, violinist Line Kruse and pianist Arnaldo Zanelli are responsible for the tango feeling.
The project was born in Paris, inspired by tango music. The group’s music is the experience of time rounding and connecting the future (electronic beats) with the past (tango), creating a magical present with no meanings, but vague interpretations. Their music contains a vigorous rhythm that never stops and never really starts. Gotan plays around, cutting and pasting melodies, but defining a terrain of its own.
The show at UCLA dispayed lights, shadows and video images projected on a screen that hung in front of the performers, which, with its atemporal repetitive sequences, matched the heavy recurring beats of Gotan’s electronic music. The techno power was louder than the tango instrumentals, creating a monotony in which all the pieces sounded pretty much alike.