Tango Macondo

Despite its name, Tango Macondo is not a tango record. It’s a soundscape of real and imaginary lands, born out of the experience and imagination of Paolo Fresu. The Sardinian trumpet player composed this music for a theatre piece — loosely based on the novel Il Venditore di Metafore (The Metaphor Seller) by Salvatore Niffoi — about Matoforu and his love interest Anzelina, who leave their Sardinian town of Mamoiada, famous for its grotesque masks and vibrant folklore, and arrive in Macondo, the imaginary town of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

While the record conjures the magical atmospheres of the novels that inspire it, it is also deeply rooted in the traditions and sounds of Sardinia and Argentina, thanks in great part to Daniele di Bonaventura’s bandoneón and Pierpaolo Vacca’s Sardinian accordion. The record opens with a tango, the evocative ‘Alguien le Dice al Tango’, but moves into more whimsical territory with the rhythms of ‘Il Venditore di Metafore’. Tracks like ‘Dumburudù/Dillu’ and ‘Ballu Tzoppu/Skamoiada’ are based on traditional Sardinian music, and are two album highlights. It’s remarkable how such seemingly different rhythms can sit so well next to each other, but it is Fresu’s trumpet that pulls them together, acting as a bridge across the ocean that separates them.