Luis Borda: "It is a brave undertaking to attempt the connection between Eastern music, improvisation and Tango Argentino, as there has so far been none. This is precisely the attraction of our project. Just as, in reality, cultures mix and thereby broaden their horizons, so the Tango warms itself here under the Mediterranean sun, and the starry night over the San Telmo quarter in Buenos Aires mingles with the stars over the Sahara. The Tango, which obtains from the German Bandoneon its most important sound colour, from Italian opera its drama, and from “black” rhythms its heartbeat, is embarking on a journey, renewed by the sounds of the Arabic Oud, and through this toing and froing, this exchange, is perhaps opening up a new world. Just as a traveller in search of a new destiny gets involved in a new culture and, without driving traditional rhythms from his heart, is amazed by it, we also want to allow ourselves to be seduced into a new orientation. What one normally understands under the term Tango is in reality a great mosaic both in terms of rhythm and in its expression and degree of complexity and, as so often, it has its source in different parts of our planet. The “black” origins of Tango and Milonga often remain strangely concealed, perhaps because of lyrics reminiscent of the drama of Italian opera which flooded into Buenos Aires with the immigrants of the end of the 19th century. But what really typifies Tango and Milonga is the rhythm, and that is of African origin."
Roman Bunka: "When I first met Luis Borda I knew hardly anything about Tango Nuevo and the music of Argentina. For me the bandoneon was the voice of Tango, especially since a tour through Italy with the group Embryo in the early seventies, when our saxophonist Massimo Urbani listened on the whole tour to a worn-out Piazolla-tape. It was a real surprise when Luis introduced me to the world of Argentinian guitar music.
I was always looking for guitarists who would be interested in my own music on the Arabic lute, the Oud. Usually I was thinking of, and was inspired by, musicians from the Flamenco scene, and the music of Andalucía, “Al-Andalus”, Europe’s Arabic legacy. The andalusian towns of Córdoba, in which the legendary Zyriab taught the Oud in the eighth century, and Almería, in which, a few centuries later, Torres built the first modern guitar, are just a few hours apart. The Oud became first a lute, then a guitar through the addition of frets, travelled abroad and eventually spread across the whole world. The Arabs and their Ouds were driven out of Spain, and until the last century, were forgotten in Europe. Apart from Flamenco, when considering a fusion, I also thought of Brazilian guitarists, and I always had their classic guitar sound in my head.
Then came Luis. Meeting this highly individual argentinian musician and composer, opened a new world of possibilities. His harmonic refinement and radical approach counterbalances the modal and rhythmic playing styles on the oud. The two instruments join elements of the old Mediterranean cultures as well as Alexandria with the harbours of Andalucía. The first Arabic tinged Tango melodies were quite an occasion and we began to compose for this instrumental line-up. We share a love of jazz, improvisation, and experiment. One cannot expect to mould the complex three-quarter-tone system of Arabic music and the rhythmic and harmonic sophistication of Tango Nuevo with elements of jazz and new music into one perfect whole in no time. The so-called World music, already packaged and marketed as a category, has, in reality, only just been born. It will take generations for certain ideas to be realised, which is also one of the exciting things about it. We are only taking the first steps."
