Tango #16 (1986)

 

 

 

"Tango #16 in the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine series, offers the unexpected pairing of contemporary downtown NY composers with vintage tango songs. It works though, contributors avoiding mimicry and impersonation, and the essence of tango being retaken by participants as slow, melodramatic songs, with added gusto and drama. Tango is merely a dotted line here, serving as rough guidelines to participants eager to emancipate themselves from any popular format, while seeking the intense, gripping mood of tango. I assume the complex choreography of this dance also appealed to the Tellus team as a kind of stage play, as they had always been interested in music theater, radio plays, radio art, etc. Tango is personified here by the legendary argentinian singer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) with a couple of 78s from the 1930s, and by the late Jo Basile, aka Joss Baselli, a french bal musette accordion player from Paris 1950s-1960s. ..."
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2010 June: Tellus #12 - Dance (1986), 2010 June: Tellus #10: All Guitars! (1985), 2010 August: Tellus #13 - Power Electronics (1986), 2011 March: Tellus #15: The Improvisors (1985), 2013 July: Tellus #23 - The Voices of Paul Bowles (1989), 2014 June: Tellus #26 - Jewel Box (1992), 2016 April: Tellus #25 - Site-Less Sounds (1991).