what a year!


Long time no read. Since tango dancing and event organization was massively effected there was no reason for a newsletter. However there was more time to work on tango music and our TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE. In regards to that, there is big news.

Executive summary:

Tango events:
At this moment we still don't see a possibility to make definitive decisions regarding new event dates for Vienna Calling Tango Marathon and International Milongas in 2021. We hope to be able to get in touch with you with new tango event dates during the first quarter of 2021.

Tango music:
In December 2020 Christian Xell, Jens-Ingo Brodesser, Béné Beauloye and Bernhard Gehberger agreed on cooperation of TangoTunes, myTango.online, Tango Time Travel and TANGO-DJ.AT. All TangoTunes recordings are going to be added to the TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE. By then the database will feature ~80.000 tango recordings and expand its position as the largest digital accessible tango archive providing sound samples, full cover art, extensive meta data and covering all kind of tango music sources - from 78-RPM shellacs, over LPs, CDs up to digital releases.

Basic meta data information is accessible for free. Unlimited features and full meta data is available via two supporting membership options - DB Membership and Full Membership. If you want to support maintenance and development of this database project financially or by contributing in other ways please let me know, there is a long to-do-list of things to add, correct, research, improve and develop.

myTango.online is a new project by Chrisitan Xell offering tango music compilations dedicated to tango teachers and dancers. Using the promo code 6035 will give you a 20% discount on your purchase.

If you want to know details about those  successful projects TangoTunes, Tango Time Travel, Tango Records, TANGO-DJ.AT Database providing information and new  digital tango releases, and why I consider this important for the tango community, please feel free to read on.

Otherwise Happy New Year!

Bernhard Gehberger
TANGO-DJ.AT
Vienna, 2020-12-28

Extended version (for tango nerds :)

I am happy to be able to announce this exciting, big news at the end of this crazy year - after Tango Time Travel also all of the TangoTunes releases are going to be added to our TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE! Why do I consider this important?

Less and less big music labels show activities in releasing new and good quality tango music. Basically it comes down to providing a limited set of existing releases in lossy and quite often inferior quality via the few known big music platforms or streaming services. In both cases those recordings come with no, unreliable or wrong meta data. While those platforms earn good money by selling the same old releases, it comes down to private organizations and individuals to actually provide new and higher quality content.

Then there are some free copy and paste download and youtube distribution tango music activities "for the love of tango" and the good of the tango community. While the intention might be good, the affect and consequences are not. In most cases the quality of both music and meta data is inferior. By supporting the idea that tango can be made available for free takes away resources from projects actually trying to make new tango transfers available in better quality.

How many successful tango music releasing projects do you know? I think it's possible to count them on one hand worldwide. Why is that? There are too many problems to overcome. Let's list a few: huge financial backing, access to tango recordings, expensive transfer equipment, plenty of necessary know-how, lots of time at hand, pile of legal issues to sort out, infrastructure and workforce to produce transfers and finally offer and distribute them.

Therefore I consider any initiative to collect, transfer and work with tango music in a professional way extremely valuable. In regards to this I want to point out recent projects. The newest one being Tango Time Travel by Jens-Ingo Brodesser and Bénédicte Beauloye who started to produce and distribute their tango transfers just recently. So far their releases feature an extensive selection of new important mainstream tango transfers for D'Arienzo and Fresedo complementing the releases of TangoTunes.

TangoTunes by Christian Xell started to release their transfers called Tunes in 2012. Christian was able to obtain large tango record collections as well as getting access to some archives. By setting up multiple high quality transfer stations in different countries, approx. 2500 high quality transfers have been produced. Transfers by TangoTunes are aiming for the serious tango DJs and tango collectors. They are available worldwide as digital high resolution files in various formats over their website tangotunes.com.

Christian's new project mytango.online is providing tango compilations for tango teacher and their students or tango dancers looking for a good quality tango music compilation to dance and practice to. Currently there are two compilations online. Using the promo code 6035 will give you a 20% discount on your purchase. The revenues will go to selected tango projects such as the TANGO-DJ.AT Database and The International Tango Argentino Foundation (titaf) which acquires available tango shellac and tango vinyl collections mostly in Argentina to save the cultural heritage of Tango Argentino.

When adding those digital tango releases to the database we had to come up with a new concept. Different to regular LP or CD albums, digital compilations can contain hundreds of tracks. Both projects, Tango Time Travel as well as TangoTunes provide high quality record label covers and individually produced compilation covers. In a traditional way of tagging albums it is not possible to have both, the album cover as well as hundreds of media label covers as all of it will be saved in each track file. Since I do not want to lose either the individual media labels, or the compilation cover, I had to come up with a new concept for adding digital tango releases. The individual tracks, as well as any compilation including them are added as individual digital products - exactly like they are released and sold. Therefore digital transfers may appear double in the database, once as single digital tango transfer featuring its own media label, as well as part of one or more compilations. That way all of the meta data and cover arts can be added and accessed.

And last but not least to our own projects TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE and TANGO RECORDS. Different to the above digital transfer projects those do not focus on commercial mainstream tango recordings necessary for every Tango-DJ, but compliment them by a more specialized collection and archive based approach.

TANGO-DJ.AT maintains the largest digital accessible tango music archive.  The TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE is a research tool to access our tango music archive without any direct link to digital downloads or products. An extensive article is going to be published in the next edition of the info7 archive journal. We try to make multi media meta data information available about any existing tango recording. Our archive therefore includes all kind of tango music media. When we have access to 78-RPM records or LPs we produce state-of-the-art archive transfers, include official and unofficial (by collectors and clubs) CD releases, as well as professional digital transfer releases. Extensive sound samples as well as full cover art and booklet scans are included in the database. By that supporting members have the opportunity to listen and compare to a variation of tango recording transfers and releases - approx. 75.000 tango recordings by now.

TANGO RECORDS is an officially registered record label, but does not offer public releases yet. Given the number of challenges to overcome and our focus on non-mainstream archive relevant tango recordings, which limit possible financial revenues, it quite likely never will. However since our association is about preservation (our archive and database project) as well as provision of tango music, we try to make unknown, rare or hard to find tango recordings relevant to some tango collectors and djs available as TANGO RECORDS releases. Those are available to supporting members of TANGO-DJ.AT only and contribute to the maintenance of the TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE.

Extending, maintaining and developing the TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE is a huge challenge. There is a long to-do-list of things to add, correct, research, develop and improve. Any form of support is appreciated. If you find it to be useful and beneficial to the tango community please talk about and refer to it. At the moment our supporting members keep the project running.


This newsletter turned out to be a book, but since there is no tango to dance, maybe you fancy some tango reading instead.

I am excited about the new digital tango releases becoming available and cooperation of Tango Time Travel and TangoTunes with TANGO-DJ.AT DATABASE. And I am confident that we are also going to be able to enjoy new tango events and dancing in 2021!

All the best, stay safe and have a Happy New Year!

Bernhard Gehberger
TANGO-DJ.AT

Vienna, 28.12.2020