–A labour of love that needs more lovers
2009 July 31
Man of action. Man of ambition:
Tango Vía, the organization this tango double-bass player from the famous Orquesta El Arranque presides, is up to nothing less than archiving every single tango recording in a super-high definition, archive-grade digital format, following strict technical processing that will drastically enhance the sound quality to make it an almost-perfect match to the pristine original.
Wonder how we could help them succeed with this project, arranging some sort of fund raiser or something? Read the entire article here.
UPDATE:
AFP on youtube:
BBC:
HT: Janis
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Ignacio Varchauvsky is a tango super-hero! Not content with starting El Arranque, he was the guiding energy behind Orquesta Escuela, raising the money and talking Emilo Balcarce out of retirement and into setting up, training and directing the orquesta. And now he’s collecting and digitising all the tango recordings there are, and the figure is 100,000 surviving recordings? Amazing.
Could we talk milonga organisers into adding perhaps 50p or £1 to the cost of milongas? It wouldn’t be popular: we all complain about the cost, and some milongas are only just hanging on. But I’m sure the more popular ones could afford to add a small amount per head to give to this vital work. Obviously most of the money is going to have to come from government/industry/business in Argentina, and hopefully from international foundations too, but it would be helpful, even in a small way, and would show our appreciation of the music.
Indeed he is a true tango hero!
I was also thinking of how to support them, one thing I thought of was to sell memberships now, memberships that will give you access to the material as soon as it is ready. On the website it is a yet unfinished members sections, so maybe they have something coming up.
I agree that project like this scale should seek sponsorship or funding from government/industry/business in Argentina or UNESCO type of organization. I doubt that individual efforts is going to help much financially. And they are right, clock is ticking. I met an old milonguero whom had hundreds of old tango LPs in BsAs, a lot were out of print stuffs. These people are not getting any younger. A good chance that when they are gone, the old records go with them.
I do look forward to the realization of this ambitious project. 100, 000 recording… Wow, I better start saving now. ：-）
I am so grateful that Caroline Neal (Varchausky’s American wife) sent me the links and that you posted them for dancers to know about this important project that needs money to get started.
@TP: I started saving myself
I really hope they do well. Apparently they got about 6000 songs done already.
I guess one of the most important things we can do at the moment is to spread the word, hoping that the news reaches the right people.
@Janis: Thanks for sharing the links, very interesting project, and clearly very important.
Thanks so much for helping us spread the word about the project. I was moved to see this posted and the responses which followed. The Tango Digital Archive has been such an exciting project for us at TangoVia so far, and we really do need support to make it happen…while it still CAN happen, while we have access to the material, in good shape. ANY support is greatly appreciated–from positive energy and spreading the word, to contributions of any size. Thanks!
Thank you Caroline, as you can see, we are very excited about your project. Good luck and keep up the good work!