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Lewes Guitar Festival: Las Morochas
The Lewes Guitar Festival 2006 is a UK debut for Argentinian
duo Las Morochas. The band, formed of Ianina Pietrantonio
and Cecila Zabala, aim to interpret the work of tango musician
and composer Astor Piazzolla, and show influences of folk,
jazz and classical music in their tunes. Piazzolla, known
as ‘El Gran Astor’ in his own country, is the
most influential tango star of the latter half of the twentieth
century, who invented ‘nuevo tango’ by fusing
it with elements of jazz, thus moving the genre into the modern
age, and assuring a new younger audience for the genre. Las
Morochas, among that fanbase, formed in Buenos Aires in 2003
and bring a unique, twenty-first century interpretation to
both Piazzolla’s work and traditional Spanish and Argentinian
styles of folk and tango.
Sample pieces are found on their website, and these influences
are immediately clear to the listener. The music is powerful
and moving, yet also gentle and often playful, the contrasting
and complimenting sounds of flute and guitar dancing around
each other before joining forces to transport the listener
to Argentina or Spain. There is expression and feeling, joy
and sadness, all very simply but honestly conveyed. This is
music to sit and contemplate life to, and music to dance to:
as varied as Las Morochas’ diverse influences. Their
pieces are accomplished and contained, with touches of imagination
and free-flowing creativity. LK
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