Tag: Music

AL VER VERÁS – A VERY BUENOS AIRES ART INTERVENTION

By their very nature, art interventions suggest a union where art and its surroundings come together to create often intangible and playful installations. In the case of art collective Al Ver Verás, their chosen playground is the Buenos Aires skyline. First showing in 2013, the group have since gone through a process of organic experimentation; adding images, music and buildings, until its winsomeness bloomed into their current performance.

March 24th, 2016

TANGO TRACKS ACROSS THE DANCEFLOOR

Tango’s lyrics of nostalgia, passion and heartbreak are a powerful testament to the countries multicultural history. It’s a serious business for many tangueros who dedicate the twilight hours to the scene of late night milongas, dancing to the wee small hours until it’s time for desayuno (breakfast) and a snooze, before doing it all over again. So entwined is the genre with Argentine culture that much of the old tango slang or lunfardo is still in popular use today and scratchy tango tunes play over the airwaves 24/7 on dedicated radio stations. 1930s heart throb and poster boy Carlos Gardel is still regarded as the best tango singer, so don’t be surprised to hear his canciones (songs) seeping out onto the streets from taxi driver’s windows and señoras clutching stereos on doorsteps. So much more than a sexy stereotype, tango illustrates the Argentine psyche and is every bit the embodiment of a way of being.

October 27th, 2015

Argentinian underground bands you should be listening to

Argentinian underground bands

Buenos Aires is filled with great places to hear music and go dancing. But especially there is a recent movement of underground bands that soon will be the talk of the town. Here is a little insight on some of the Argentinian bands you should be listening to: Callate Mark Callate Mark is one of…

June 23rd, 2015

Inside Argentina: A Guide to Discover Rosario

Monumento Nacional a la Bandera

In Rosario the Río Paraná dominates the urban landscape, its tea-brown waters setting the scene for riverside dining, drinking, strolling, and chilling out on peaceful river islands. While Buenos Aires bursts with capital city pride, Rosario paddles its feet in the water….

May 26th, 2015

Argentina For Export: Contemporary Cultural Heroes

Following TRA’s recent look at chefs and sommeliers having an impact around the world, this time we meet some of Argentina’a contemporary cultural heroes, including a Golden Globe winner and a Laurence Olivier Award winner.

February 18th, 2015

Independent Tango Music in Buenos Aires

In our own way we all have an idea of what tango is, even if that comes down to stockings, stilettos and men rocking enough hair gel to fill the Río de la Plata. But an independent revolution’s going on in Buenos Aires and the protagonists want to shout it from their barrio’s rooftops. Tango’s not a crop, it’s culture and it’s not just for export.

May 1st, 2014

Argentinian Culture Around the World

If you’re not lucky enough to be in Argentina right now, and you’re longing for some authentic Argentinian culture, what do you do? Traditionally, you head for the nearest themed steakhouse. That’s a very fine place to start, but is the sum of Argentina made up only by parts of a cow? A boom in tourism in the early 2000s has led to a more amplified understanding of the Argentinian way of life. From music and drinks to film and dance, here’s our look at Argentina’s growing influence abroad.

January 8th, 2013

The Buenos Aires Jazz Scene

Roxana Amed Quinteto

In the booming Argentina of the 1920s, the hip place to look to for ideas if you were an artist or intellectual was mother Europe. Jazz had just become all the rage over there, and hence arrived in Argentina not via the United States, but rather from the likes of Paris, London and Berlin. As the ‘new’ music began to take off in Buenos Aires in the ‘30s, it met with some resistance from certain quarters who viewed it as too foreign, and a threat to traditional types of music such as folklore and tango.

September 18th, 2012

Vendimia and the Rise of Barrio Boedo

When you hear about over two thousand people gathering on the streets of Buenos Aires, odds are it’s a rousing protest or pro-government rally. Yet when similar numbers took to the streets in Boedo last Saturday night, it wasn’t saucepan bashing or Peronist chants keeping them going. Instead, tango music played and Malbec bottles were drained, as the third edition of Boedo’s Vendimia harvest festival got under way…

April 26th, 2012

Argentinian Music: A Biography of (genius) Gustavo Santaolalla

Gustavo Santaolalla

You will have heard Gustavo Santaolalla’s music. He may not be a household name everywhere, but his prodigious talent – some have argued genius – has been one of Argentina’s greatest musical exports. Where to begin? Well, there was an Oscar for Ang Lee’s gay cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. Oh, and there was another one the following year for…

February 7th, 2012