Five years ago Argentine musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, together with Uruguayan musician-producer Juan Campodónico conceived of a group that would be a collective of Argentine and Uruguayan artists dedicated to creating "contemporary music of the Rio de la Plata," the body of water that separates the two countries. What began as studio-based project combining programming and samples with acoustic and electric instruments has now evolved into a band that plays live with a minimal amount of electronica. Today Bajofondo is an eight-member group, with seven musicians and a VJ who triggers images in real time along with the music. As a result of the band's musical expansion, Bajofondo has liberally added elements of Latin American roots music, moving their sound beyond "tango-tronica" and leading them to drop "Tango Club" from their original name to simply "Bajofondo" for the new release, Mar Dulce.

The new album, Mar Dulce, was recorded in real time. All the members played together in the studio as if they were a rock or a jazz group, which was a radically different approach from the first album. Mar Dulce was recorded in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Madrid. The multiplicity of locations reflects the cosmopolitan attraction of Bajofondo, as well as the eclectic list of guest artists including the extraordinary British singer and composer Elvis Costello, Spanish rapper Mala Rodríguez, virtuoso Japanese bandoneon player Ryota Komatsu and several Rio de la Plata artists whose origins cover the entire gamut from traditional to vanguard. Uruguayan artists participating range from the great Lágrima Ríos (this would be her last recording) and guitarist Toto Méndez (musical director of Alfredo Zitarrosa's quartet) to electronica duo OMAR and vocalist Fernando Santullo, ex-Peyote Asesino, a band that also included Juan Campodónico. Argentine artists include Gustavo Cerati, the frontman for Soda Stereo, the most popular rock group in Latin America in the 1980s, and Juan Subirá, keyboardist and composer of Bersuit, one of the most popular bands in Argentine rock, who makes a surprising appearance on Mar Dulce as a singer, revealing another facet of his talents.

Nevertheless, there's something that unifies artists of such a variety of origins, nationalities and generations, and it's a feeling that is very difficult to translate into words. If there was someone who defined tango as "a sad feeling one dances to," in the case of Bajofondo's music that definition could be expanded to "a feeling one may listen and dance to." It's something intangible, a certain melancholy that has something to do with existential issues and also with the old traditional barrios of Buenos Aires and Montevideo -- what Santaolalla likes to call "cosmic tango." And this feeling can be found in artists as diverse as Elvis Costello and Mala Rodríguez.

Although the evolution from Bajofondo Tango Club to Mar Dulce is obvious, there's also a Bajofondo aesthetic that remains a constant. There are no written laws for the music of this band, but there is a distinct "bajofondista" ethos that was present in the first album, continued on Supervielle and can now be heard in it's most fully realized form on Mar Dulce.

CLIP "PA BAILAR"


CLIP 2 "PA BAILAR"


Bajofondo EPK


Bajofondo EPK Part 2