A Buenos Aires abbiamo avuto la fortuna di passare una serata con Tanghetto, o meglio, con Diego Velasquez, uno dei due fondatori del mitico gruppo salito alla ribalta delle scene elettroniche con il cd "Emigrante".
Così tra lo champagne e la musica perfetta di Mario Orlando, abbiamo parlato di tango e del tango elettronico (anche se lui ama chiamarlo nel caso delle sue produzioni "musica di Buenos Aires"...), dei suoi progetti e del nuovo cd in uscita.
Riportiamo qui l'intervista in inglese.

Why electronic tango?
Max: It's clear that we are sons not only of our geography, our soil, but of our time as well, and those two main currents of "DNA information" usually may end up in fusions like this. We both listened and learnt about tango since we were kids. And of course, we always loved different kinds of music, say, jazz, classical, pop, and ethnic from all over the world. It's a great combination, sounds of the past embracing our present.

Diego: Yes, and urban life, especially in a huge megalopolis like Buenos Aires links you to what happens in the rest of the planet. In fact, tango itself is a result of various influences, coming all of them from different parts of the world. So, why electronic tango? Simply because we wanted to, we were meant to do that, when we began it was artistically daring and very original, brand new. And, of course it was a way of keeping our own stuff alive and contributing to our own culture.

How is your relationship to traditional tango? Do you dance tango?
Max: Well, I myself studied for a couple of years with tango maestro Virgilio Expósito when I was still a teenager. He taught me all the different aspects of music, not only tango, but composition in general, and how to compose real songs. He had this gift and shared it with me. But when it comes to dance, none of us is really a dancer.

Diego: Maybe sometime in the future we will learn how to do it... :)

Which are your favourites tango classical and modern orchestras?
Diego: Between the classic orchestras, we especially admire the Troilo orchestra and Pugliese's, and for a duo I'd personally pick Salgan and DeLio

Max: there are many good modern orchestras, such as El Arranque or Color Tango. But talented musicians playing tango today are, fortunately, countless. And we couldn't avoid mentioning Astor Piazzolla, for he is and will always be a source of inspiration.

Which is the relationship between your music and the dance? You present tango dancers performances in your shows, isn't it?

Diego: Basically it's a very danceable kind of music. We always had the idea of this music being danced.

Max: Like we do with the music, I mean the experimenting aspect of the project, there are many good dancers who are coming up with something new and very valuable artistically. Most of them are experienced traditional tango dancers that break the rules with complete knowledge and consciousness of what they do. It's a fact that is better breaking the rules from inside of them.

It seems that electronic tango has a great success at the moment in Buenos Aires, what do you think about this?
Max: Yes, in fact our record "Emigrante" just broke the gold sales barrier, which is something very unusual for an independent artist in Argentina. It's an excellent moment to be creative and expose your music.

Diego: Success was a nice "extra" for this project. We hardly suspected it to be as fast like it was. But definately, without knowing, we were doing something that peolple were looking for. A nice coincidence, to play the music you like and that this music is the one many people enjoy.

Which is the future of your project.
Max: For the year 2006 we are planning at least two european and american tours, many shows in Buenos Aires and the rest of the country and the release of the second official album. Another project that is very advanced at this point is the release of a live DVD. For the rest of 2005 we'll keep on playing songs from the album "Emigrante" and from the project "Hybrid Tango", along with some new songs we started to play in some recent gigs. We were working with Djs and so we also plan to release a remix album called "Buenos Aires Remixed" with very uptempo remixes, a club feeling and some covers. This time we are "tangorizing" two classic pop songs.

Please tell us about your next european tour.
Diego: So far (1 sept. 2005) our tour schedule will take us to France and we are trying to do something in Italy as well. Anyway we'll surely have to attend the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, we are nominated this year with "Hybrid Tango" and this will takes us to the States (Los Angeles) in the first days of November.

Max: Anyway as I said we plan to go again to Europe really. See you on tour!!