Tango Volcano: a traditional quintet, strongly rooted in classical discipline, but dominated by the passion of its players.
Virtuoso violinist Lucy Waterhouse brought the Tango Volcano players together after spending an inspiring 2 months in Buenos Aires in Autumn 2000, sponsored by the Churchill Memorial Fund. She lived and breathed tango, researched the authentic sound, took private lessons with top 'tanguero' violinists, and performed with some of the world's leading tango musicians. She returned to the UK determined to find the right players to fulfill her vision: to form a group with an edge and an energy like no other, London's first fully fledged tango band.
Lucy Waterhouse was soon joined by Lucy Hare, an accomplished double bass player and self-confessed tango obsessive - she dances professionally too.
Key to the sound, Tango Volcano's bandoneon is played by Kristina Kuusisto, an exceptionally talented Finnish musician who studied the bandoneon with Mosalini, the famous Argentinian master, in Paris for five years before becoming his assistant.
The string section is completed by electric guitarist Nigel Woodhouse, an active freelance musician with a love of South American music, and Roger Davison, an experienced musical director and West End performer, plays piano.
Tango Volcano gratefully acknowledges financial support from the PRS Foundation.
Tango Volcano's debut album:
"CATCHING FIRE"
17 great numbers including: Piazzolla's famously sensual bandoneon solo, "Oblivion" and the fiery "Michelangelo 70" ; traditional favourites include "Quejas de Bandoneon", "El Choclo" and "Nocturna" and six brand new tangos written especially for us in 2003; Graham Lynch's hypnotic, slow milonga "Milonga Azure", Ross Lorraine's funky and addictive "Tango X" and "Red Tango" by Sergei Zyatkov, a trio tango all the way from North Siberia!
Available direct on CD from Tango Volcano, price £12
Make cheques out to "Tango Volcano" and send to:
Tango Volcano, Flat 1, 90 Highbury New Park, London N5 2DJ
Please include your full name, phone number and postal address.
Review of CD album "Catching Fire"
It was with some trepidation that I slid this cheesy-looking homemade CD into the system. Band and album titles aside, most tango outside Argentina is highly unflammable and the last UK outfit I heard murdered fine early tango cancion songs by doing them in English. So I was gleefully surprised - shocked even - as each track of this London-based quintet's debut improved on the previous one.
Whether testing themselves on Astor Piazzolla's more rhapsodic works or pumping strings, bass and squeezebox to danceable classics by Juan de Dios Filiberto, Julian Plaza and Angel Villildo, the band played a heated, horny orchestral tango balancing passion with control and poise (the recording has some rough edges at high volume but it adds to the effect). They also showcase several new works by different composers, most of them after Piazzolla - Graham Lynch's "Milonga Azure" and Ross Lorraine's "Tango X" are stylish confident pieces.
Naturally I'm now looking forward to seeing them live, where, no doubt, dancers drool to have such talent in the flesh - especially violinist and founder Lucy Waterhouse and Finnish bandoneonist virtuoso Kristina Kuusisto, both of whom shine with a Latinesque glow on the press photo and on the disc. Only the final track, a thin version of Piazzolla's "Verano Porteno", lacks drive - but it's sooo difficult, and this is Tango Volcano's first album.
