Plaza Francia's 'A New Tango Songbook': An Uplifting Experience

Let me begin my review of Plaza Francia’s album, A New Tango Songbook, by saying that Tango is not a musical genre that I listen to often - in fact, I would classify myself as novice at best.

 

However, I enjoy a wide variety of music and Plaza Francia are a unique group – actually, their background isn’t really Tango and the majority of the supergroup are not Argentinian. It is a collection of very talented musicians, led by French vocalist, Catherine Ringer, who all add new sounds and their own influence to the genre.

It is important to preface my knowledge and understanding of Tango as amateurish but I feel given the readership of Subba-Cultcha my comprehension of the genre may not be far off from your own.

I listened to the studio album 'A New Tango Songbook' and a remixed live album available on Soundcloud 'Live Re Experience', and they are remarkably different but enjoyable in separate ways. If Tango is a genre that you feel sounds dated, I suggest listening to 'Live Re Experience' first, it is more a fusion of latin jazz sounds with powerful female vocals. It is both very uplifting, but also light and something you easily can groove to.

'A New Tango Songbook' is a more traditional Tango sound, which by Plaza Francia’s standard is still very contemporary and unique. While still employing a similar upbeat jazz sound, it is noticeably more subtle and has a more serious feel to it.

The 8th track, “La Que Se Fue,” combines Catherine Ringer’s powerful voice with horns and a catchy rhythm and was my favourite track of the album.

I’ve heard their sound described as elegant, and I tend to agree. It is a beautiful sound by some very talented musicians and well worth the trip down a less trodden musical genre.

To find out more about Plaza Francia, click here.

To visit the band's Facebook page, click here.

Words by David Polonsky.

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