Gotan Project is based in Paris and consists of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal, Eduardo Makaroff and Christoph H. Müller. They met in the late 1990's through a mutual passion for the combination of sound with image, electronic and acoustic music.
Gotan Project
Gotan Project
In 2001 Gotan Project broke new ground in tango and electronica with their debut album 'La Revancha Del Tango' (which has sold in excess of a million copies worldwide), and have played shows everywhere from Tel Aviv to Tokyo and in between. For their second studio album 'Lunático', they really wanted to explore both tango and folkloric music from Argentina a lot further than they had before.
Their music has been featured in American television shows such as Nip/Tuck, Sex and the City and Chuck and their song "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" from the 'La Revancha del Tango' album appeared in the 2004 movie Shall We Dance? with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere as well as in the tango sequence of Take the Lead in 2006.
Watch Shall We Dance? movie clip:
From a recent interview with Gotan Project, Philippe answers some questions about the group and the Gotan Object box set:
What is the "Gotan Object" all about?
As it says on the box, it is the world of Gotan Project in a box, so what is the world of Gotan Project? It's about music, visuals of course, and because we are in a moment where the music is changing, not the music, but the medium is changing. We lost the vinyl, we are losing the cd and now it's about mp3 and everything like that. We wanted to bring back, in a way, to the roots of the last century. That's why we have some traditional mediums, like a book, a very old medium but we have also 7 inch vinyl, where you can listen to the 50s version of Gotan Project, also an exclusive poster, like a kind of puzzle, a funny poster, and a DVD, of course, a dvd that Prisca created. It's the DVD of some tracks that you can see on stage, on stage you have visuals on screen and it is extremly artsy and creative. I'm sure the fans will be very, very happy to have it at home, because it's a dvd you can even use if you have a party with friends, you can have it on the screen, it can be really nice, even if you play another music, of course you can play it with our music but it can be like, sort of a moving painting. So, yeah, it's about that, music and visuals, and it's exactly the world of Gotan Project.
What are Gotan Project's further plans? Will there be a new album?
Our plans for now is to go on tour, this exclusive tour. We play a few capitals only, not more then 15 shows. We play in Berlin, in Amsterdam, also Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, some other cities, so it's gonna be fun. We're going to present the new kind of show where we are mixing the two, a revend el tango and lunatico cinematography and tracks. So it's going to be a two hour show with some surprises, it's going be very interesting, I think, for the people who know Gotan Project on stage but also interesting for the people who never saw Gotan Project. After, we are going to take some holidays, then we're going to start in January to record the new album, mostly to compose and produce, and we have a lot of work to do but we are very excited to do that. It's been now a long time since we came back in the studio to create an album. Last time, was a funny experience, we did it between Paris and Buenes Aires. This time it's going to be in Paris and maybe Buenes Aires or maybe somewhere else, I don't know. We talk a lot about that, we are really bringing ideas together and its exactly how we always work. It's kind of a special chemistry between the three people and after, all the musicians involved in that, this is the plan.
About The world of Gotan Project in a box
Handle with care - Gotan Object contains some psychotropic substances, the box set knows nothing of moderation. Beneath the tar-stained casing lies a double live CD of both the "La Revancha del Tango" and "Lunático" tours, 152 pages of photography, "Carnet de viajes", accompanied by the DVD 'Visiones' - image-maker Prisca Lobjoy's live visuals which where projected during the concerts and the photos that she gathered throughout the tour, plus an exclusive poster. And lest we forget, there's the 7" vinyl EP that resulted from Gotan Project's return to their roots : their two greatest successes, "Santa María (del Buen Ayre)" and "Diferente", done like they did it in the golden age; both tracks have been recreated entirely acoustically and in keeping with the original, traditional tango of 1950s Argentina. Coming full circle, the pioneers of electro-tango are aspiring to leave their imprint on the future of Argentinian music, and they know just what they owe to the history which precedes them.
Watch Gotan Object promo video:
Gotan Project exclusive tour
For a decade now Gotan Project has been leading the field in electronic tango music. Their gigs have never been 'just' gigs and their forthcoming tour is going to be exceptional.
The "Exclusive Tour" will be happening only once! If you are not there you will miss it - they will play in the major cities of Europe, each time choosing the most prestigious venues rather than the biggest.
The tour was conceived as a special one off show rather than a series of recitals, this tour will be a way to pay tribute to the end of an era and will showcase Gotan Projects visuals and music from the two previous tours: La Revancha del Tango and Lunático tours, and there will also be some surprises to delight their audiences.
Gotan Project exclusive 2008 tour dates:
(Dates and information subject to change.)
27th November - Bucharest / Palace Hall
2nd December - Rome / Teatro Tendrastrisce
3rd december - Milan / Alcatraz
5th December - Lausanne / Les Docks
8th December - Zagreb / Tvornika kultur
9th December - Berlin / Tempodrom
11th December - London / Roundhouse
13th December - Brussels / Les Halles de de Schaerbeek
14th December - Amsterdam / Melweg Max
15th December - Paris / Olympia
16th December - Barcelona / Palau de la Musica Catalana
18th December - Warsaw / Congress hall
20th December - Lisbon / Campo pequeno
22nd December - Athens / Athens Arena-Pantheon
Gotan Project Official Website
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