Gotan Project
Encyclopedia
Gotan Project is a musical group based in Paris
, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal (French
), Eduardo Makaroff
(Argentine
), and Christoph H. Müller (Swiss
, former member of Touch El Arab
).
in 2001. Their music involves tango, but also uses elements such as samples
, beats, and breaks.
Live material was also broadcast on Gilles Peterson
's world music
show Worldwide on BBC Radio 1
in May 2004. Philippe Cohen Solal has also released a DJ set: Inspiración Espiración - A Gotan Project DJ Set Selected & Mixed by Philippe Cohen Solal (2004). This album is a compilation of classic tangos from the likes of Anibal Troilo
, Ástor Piazzolla
and Gotan Project remixes. The album also includes a bonus CD with the track "La Cruz del Sur" - which was meant to be included on La Revancha del Tango, but did not make the cut in 2001.
Before Gotan Project, Müller and Cohen Solal formed a duo called Boyz from Brazil.
Tango 3.0 was released on April 19, 2010.
's and Alfredo Le Pera
's "Por Una Cabeza
" which had been featured in movies such as Schindler's List
, Scent of a Woman
and True Lies
.
Following the renewed success of the "Tango Project" album, the modern trio then decided to give themselves a name that paid tribute to the "Tango Project", this time using a form of word play
called "vesre
" that is very common in Lunfardo
, an argot
of Rioplatense Spanish
. This wordplay involves, in the simplest cases, moving the last syllable to the beginning of the word ("vesre" itself is "reves"—the Spanish
word for "reverse"—with the second syllable in first). Thus, the word Tango becomes Gotan, the name the trio have chosen for their project in reference to the hugely-successful Tango Project album which helped popularize tango music once again.
, with Jennifer Lopez
and Richard Gere
. American gymnast Alicia Sacramone
used an excerpt of the piece for her floor routine in international competition, including the 2008 Summer Olympics
in Beijing
, while teammate Samantha Peszek
set her routine to their rendition of "Whatever Lola Wants". Their music has been featured in American television shows Nip/Tuck
, Sex and the City
, Brothers & Sisters and Chuck
, as well as the 2003 Swedish documentary on consumerism, Surplus
, and the 2004 documentary on worker-led factory occupation in Argentina, The Take. In 2004, they recorded a little-known Piazzolla piece with Brigitte Fontaine
: "Rue Saint-louis-en-l'île." In late 2006 the track "Epoca" from the La Revancha del Tango
album was featured in The Truth About Charlie
and also UK television advertisements for Boots, directed by David LaChapelle. Epoca has also featured in commercials for Finish dishwashing detergent in the United States and Australia, and for the Portuguese Fox Broadcasting Company
series commercials. Their music has also been featured on several episodes of the UK hit TV show, Top Gear
. "Epoca" is currently used in the Finish Jet Dry dish detergent ad background.
In 2004, another track from the album "La Revancha del Tango" was featured in a motion picture, this time in the movie "Ocean's Twelve
". The song "El Capitalismo Foraneo" starts playing at the end of the scene where Catherine Zeta-Jones' character interrogates "Matsui", played by Robbie Coltrane.
In 2010, "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" was again featured in a motion picture. Knight and Day, an action comedy film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
† The CD edition of this title was released for promotional use only.
†† This title was made available in digital download format as well at the time of its original release.
† This title was made available in digital download format only.
†† This title was released for promotional use only.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal (French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), Eduardo Makaroff
Eduardo Makaroff
Eduardo Makaroff is a musician, songwriter and producer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.He arrived in Paris in 1990 where he still lives today, a city he considers the second capital of tango music after Buenos Aires....
(Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
), and Christoph H. Müller (Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, former member of Touch El Arab
Touch El Arab
Touch El Arab was a pop/electronica group from Basel, Switzerland, formed by members Philippe Alioth, Christoph Müller and Stefan Hopmann. Their humorous song "Muhammar" was a major hit in Switzerland, France and Italy in 1987 and 1988. Christoph Müller is a former member of Boyz from Brazil and is...
).
History
Gotan Project formed in 1999. Their first release was "Vuelvo Al Sur/El Capitalismo Foráneo" in 2000, followed by the album La Revancha del TangoLa Revancha del Tango
La Revancha del Tango is the debut album of Gotan Project, released in 2001. In October 2010 the album was certified Gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000+ in the UK.-Track listing:# "Queremos Paz" – 5:15# "Época" – 4:28...
in 2001. Their music involves tango, but also uses elements such as samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, beats, and breaks.
Live material was also broadcast on Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson , is a DJ, record collector and record label owner from London, UK. Through his labels Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and latterly Brownswood Recordings, he has been associated with the careers of well-known artists of the 1990s such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size and Jamiroquai...
's world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
show Worldwide on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
in May 2004. Philippe Cohen Solal has also released a DJ set: Inspiración Espiración - A Gotan Project DJ Set Selected & Mixed by Philippe Cohen Solal (2004). This album is a compilation of classic tangos from the likes of Anibal Troilo
Aníbal Troilo
Aníbal Carmelo Troilo was an Argentine tango musician.Anibal Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with social dancers during the golden age of tango , but he changed to a concert sound by the late 1950s...
, Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
and Gotan Project remixes. The album also includes a bonus CD with the track "La Cruz del Sur" - which was meant to be included on La Revancha del Tango, but did not make the cut in 2001.
Before Gotan Project, Müller and Cohen Solal formed a duo called Boyz from Brazil.
Tango 3.0 was released on April 19, 2010.
Band name
The name of the trio is a play on the name of a famous tango compilation album that featured several American classical musicians who came together to record a tango album, originally released in 1982. This album, called the Tango Project, includes a rendition of Carlos GardelCarlos Gardel
Carlos Gardel was a singer, songwriter and actor, and is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was born in Toulouse, France, although he never acknowledged his birthplace publicly, and there are still claims of his birth in Uruguay. He lived in Argentina from the age of two...
's and Alfredo Le Pera
Alfredo Le Pera
Alfredo Le Pera was an Argentinian journalist, dramatist, and lyricist, best known for his brief but fruitful collaboration with the tango singer Carlos Gardel...
's "Por Una Cabeza
Por una Cabeza
"Por una cabeza", meaning "by a head [of a horse]" in Spanish, is one of the most famous and popular tango songs by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera , written in 1935. Alfredo Le Pera was a Brazilian from São Paulo, the fourth most Italian-influenced area in Brazil, and also the birthplace of...
" which had been featured in movies such as Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
, Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
This article is about the American film. For the Korean drama, see Scent of a Woman .Scent of a Woman is a 1992 drama film directed by Martin Brest that tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer...
and True Lies
True Lies
True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...
.
Following the renewed success of the "Tango Project" album, the modern trio then decided to give themselves a name that paid tribute to the "Tango Project", this time using a form of word play
Word play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
called "vesre
Vesre
Vesre is one of the features of Rioplatense Spanish slang. Natives of Buenos Aires and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and never in formal circumstances...
" that is very common in Lunfardo
Lunfardo
Lunfardo is a dialect originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and the surrounding Gran Buenos Aires, and from there spread to other cities nearby, such as Rosario and Montevideo, cities with similar socio-cultural situations...
, an argot
Argot
An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
of Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
. This wordplay involves, in the simplest cases, moving the last syllable to the beginning of the word ("vesre" itself is "reves"—the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
word for "reverse"—with the second syllable in first). Thus, the word Tango becomes Gotan, the name the trio have chosen for their project in reference to the hugely-successful Tango Project album which helped popularize tango music once again.
Music
The song "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" from the La Revancha del Tango album was featured as the music for the main dance sequence in the 2004 movie Shall We Dance?Shall We Dance? (2004 film)
Shall We Dance? is a 2004 American film. It is a remake of the award-winning Masayuki Suo 1996 Japanese film, Shall We Dance?. The film made its US premier at the Hawaii International Film Festival.-Plot:...
, with Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
and Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
. American gymnast Alicia Sacramone
Alicia Sacramone
Alicia Marie Sacramone is an American artistic gymnast.Sacramone began gymnastics at the age of eight, began competing in the elite ranks in 2002 and joined the U.S. national team in 2003. At US National Championships from 2004 to 2008, she won twelve medals, including four golds on vault and two...
used an excerpt of the piece for her floor routine in international competition, including the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, while teammate Samantha Peszek
Samantha Peszek
Samantha Nicole Peszek is an American national team gymnast. She was a member of the United States' 2008 Olympic women's gymnastics team.-Career:In 2007, Peszek competed on the gold medal-winning U.S...
set her routine to their rendition of "Whatever Lola Wants". Their music has been featured in American television shows Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
, Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, Brothers & Sisters and Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
, as well as the 2003 Swedish documentary on consumerism, Surplus
Surplus (film)
Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers is an award winning 2003 Swedish documentary film on consumerism and globalization, created by director Erik Gandini and editor Johan Söderberg. It looks at the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, and...
, and the 2004 documentary on worker-led factory occupation in Argentina, The Take. In 2004, they recorded a little-known Piazzolla piece with Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...
: "Rue Saint-louis-en-l'île." In late 2006 the track "Epoca" from the La Revancha del Tango
La Revancha del Tango
La Revancha del Tango is the debut album of Gotan Project, released in 2001. In October 2010 the album was certified Gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000+ in the UK.-Track listing:# "Queremos Paz" – 5:15# "Época" – 4:28...
album was featured in The Truth About Charlie
The Truth About Charlie
The Truth About Charlie is a 2002 remake of the 1963 film Charade. It is also an homage to François Truffaut's 1960 film Shoot the Piano Player complete with that film's star, Charles Aznavour, making two surreal appearances singing his song "Quand tu m'aimes" .The Truth About Charlie was produced,...
and also UK television advertisements for Boots, directed by David LaChapelle. Epoca has also featured in commercials for Finish dishwashing detergent in the United States and Australia, and for the Portuguese Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
series commercials. Their music has also been featured on several episodes of the UK hit TV show, Top Gear
Top Gear (current format)
Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style...
. "Epoca" is currently used in the Finish Jet Dry dish detergent ad background.
In 2004, another track from the album "La Revancha del Tango" was featured in a motion picture, this time in the movie "Ocean's Twelve
Ocean's Twelve
Ocean's Twelve is a 2004 American crime comedy film, the sequel to 2001's Ocean's Eleven. Like its predecessor, which was a remake of the 1960 film Ocean's 11, the film used a celebrity ensemble cast. It was released in the United States on December 10, 2004. A third film, Ocean's Thirteen, was...
". The song "El Capitalismo Foraneo" starts playing at the end of the scene where Catherine Zeta-Jones' character interrogates "Matsui", played by Robbie Coltrane.
In 2010, "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" was again featured in a motion picture. Knight and Day, an action comedy film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
Albums
- 2001 La Revancha del TangoLa Revancha del TangoLa Revancha del Tango is the debut album of Gotan Project, released in 2001. In October 2010 the album was certified Gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000+ in the UK.-Track listing:# "Queremos Paz" – 5:15# "Época" – 4:28...
- 2004 Inspiración EspiraciónInspiración Espiración-Track listing:# "La Cumparsita" - 0:32# "Cité Tango" - 3:54# "Round About Midnight" - 7:09# "Confianzas" - 5:28# "The Man " - 7:12# "Percusiόn " - 4:14# "La Del Ruso " - 7:01...
- 2006 LunáticoLunáticoLunático is the third album by Gotan Project. It was released in 2006 by the Paris-based ¡Ya Basta! records, run by Philippe Cohen Solal. The album is named Lunático after the racehorse of legendary tango master Carlos Gardel....
- 2008 Gotan Project Live
- 2010 Tango 3.0
Singles
- 2000 Vuelvo Al Sur / El Capitalismo Foráneo (10")
- 2000 Last Tango In Paris / Triptico (10")
- 2001 Santa María (Del Buen Ayre) / Chunga's Revenge (10")
- 2002 Santa María (Del Buen Ayre) (12"/CD)
- 2004 Confianzas (CD) †
- 2004 La Cruz Del Sur (12"/CD) † ††
- 2005 La Cruz Del Sur (Remixes) (12") ††
- 2006 Mi Confesión (10"/CD) † ††
- 2006 Diferente (10"/CD) † ††
- 2007 La Vigüela (CD)
- 2010 La Gloria (10"/CD) † ††
- 2010 Rayuela (10"/CD) ††
- 2010 Tu Misterio (CD) †
† The CD edition of this title was released for promotional use only.
†† This title was made available in digital download format as well at the time of its original release.
EPs
- 2001 Gotan Project Remixes (12")
- 2006 Live at KCRW †
- 2007 El Norte (CD)
- 2008 Exclusive Tracks (CD) ††
- 2010 Tango 3.0 - The Remix EP (CD) ††
† This title was made available in digital download format only.
†† This title was released for promotional use only.
Videos
- 2005 La Revancha del Tango Live (DVD)
- 2011 Tango 3.0 Live (DVD/BLU-RAY)