In November 2005, just minutes before the Gotan Project were due onstage at the Gran Rex theatre in central Buenos Aires, Argentina, band guitarist and native Argentine,
Eduardo Makaroff, summed it all up in one key quote:
"The lyrics of many of the famous tango songwriters would always talk about going back to this city, and so we're returning to the South and to the place that's in our hearts." Seven months previous, Eduardo and fellow Gotan producers; Parisian Philippe Cohen Solal and Swiss-born Christoph H. Müller, had flown from their homes in Paris to record the new album, Lunatico', in Buenos Aires' prestigious Studio ION - the famed venue where tango greats like Astor Piazzolla had once laid down their aural magic to vast reel-to-reel tape machines.
Sat in on the sessions with them were a host of local session musicians; a complete string section, two emcees, one trombonist and Argentine piano legend and long-time Gotan collaborator, Gustavo Beytelmann, conducting much of the musical goings on.
Five years on from breaking new ground in tango and electronica with their debut, 'La Revancha Del Tango' - now having sold in excess of a million copies worldwide, and shows anywhere from Tel Aviv to Tokyo in between, the band now had the small matter of developing the longstanding love affair that the public had now embarked upon with tango to concentrate on.
With a decidedly stronger emphasis on the more organic roots of tango, almost to a classical level, 'Lunático has taken one step backwards in order to move two steps forward in what not only the Gotan Project, but also many of Argentina'stop tango musicians see as the progression of their beloved music's ever-evolving lifespan.
