‘Stand Back, Buenos Aires!’
I got an email before Christmas from one half of a composing duo based in Argentina’s Capital, asking if I’d like to hear some of their music. Of course I agreed that it would be my pleasure and I soon recalled the name, realising I already had an album of music by Daniel Tarrab & Andrés Goldstein.
The package arrived, courtesy of FedEx, and I settled down to listen. I was instantly moved by what I heard and immediately emailed Daniel to tell him how much I was enjoying their music. Having heard what I was able to play (some technical issues!) I have to admit I am thirsty for more… what beautiful music they make. Inheritance was the first disc to go in and perhaps the one which has stayed with me since, being so full of beauty, grace and emotion. The film, a documentary by James Moll (The Last Days), follows two women connected to concentration camp Commandant Amon Goethe – one his daughter, the other a Jew who found herself working as his housemaid at Plaszow – as they meet 60 years after the events of the Holocaust and retrace their experiences in Poland. Strong stuff indeed and I’d very much like to see the film now. The music though is a fitting accompaniment, reaching emotional depths with heartfelt clarity and performance. I can’t recommend it enough.
Editor’s Recommendation La Puta y la Ballena
Andrés Goldstein & Daniel Tarrab are a composing team based in Buenos Aires. The last time they were featured on Film Music on the Web was for the Chandos release of their excellent score to the Steven Spielberg produced Some Who Lived documentary in the Broken Silence series of documentaries about the Holocaust. La Puta y la Ballena is a film with less of a profile in the English speaking world, with no date yet set for a UK release. The film is however available on a Spanish Columbia Tristar region 2 DVD.
Not yet having seen the film (whose title translates as The Whale and the Whore) what I can say about it is that is a romantic drama – and judging from the trailer and stills in the CD booklet, a fairly erotic one – set in the past and present, in Argentina and in Spain during that country's Civil War. The impression one gets is of something along the lines of The English Patient and Land and Freedom meeting Malèna and Betty Blue.
Superb, moving dramatic score by Argentinean duo
La Puta y la Ballena sounds so poetic. There is no question, is simply has to translate as something pleasantly romantic-sounding; "The Bridge and the Ballerina", perhaps; or "The Boat and the Balloon". Well no, in fact it means The Whore and the Whale, which was hugely disappointing to me on a personal level. Such, however, are the trials of life. As for the film - I'd never heard of it. This album's superlative liner notes (by Glen Aitken and Gary Dalkin) make me feel almost like I should go to prison because of this. "Not just the most hauntingly beautiful, intelligent and imaginative film of 2004 - it was, quite simply, the best." Praise indeed. It certainly sounds intriguing - it's all far too complicated for me to sum up in a sentence - but essentially it seems to be.a film about a Madrid-based journalist who traces back through her life, through Patagonia and Buenos Aires. Hopefully I will be able to see it - though I don't suppose for a moment it's readily-available. The best things in life rarely are.
Editor’s Recommendation some who lived
Musical anguish comes in many forms. Presented on this Chandos album are two large-form suites featuring music from documentaries that tackle the devastating effect on human life the Nazi Holocaust had through the experiences of survivors living in Argentina and Uruguay today.
Composers Daniel Tarrab and Andrés Goldstein, both Argentinean-born, help musically-support profoundly upsetting visual material whilst showing great reverence for the difficult subject and in doing so emphasise the important work the Shoah Visual History Foundation does in documenting the past. They thoughtfully combine traditional Klesmer instrumentation with more diverse instrumentation, such as the oft overlooked bandoleon, clearly demonstrating experienced command of the forces involved.