The Gotan Project Live at L'Olympia Hall, Paris

The Gotan Project is playing again at the Brixton Academy on November 3rd. Get tickets now. If there aren't any left, find someone with tickets and bribe, steal, blackmail. Whatever it takes.

Their gig at L'Olympia in Paris last Thursday was preceded by a set from Martinique singer-songwriter David Walters, an impressive one-man band fusing French song with Afro-Caribbean rhythms, using a mix of guitar, drums and synths. Walters was followed by a set of five jazzed up tangos on piano.

After a 20-minute set change, The Gotan Project came on, dressed all in white suits and red ties. The line-up included MCs Philippe Cohen Solal and Christoph H. Müller, bandoneón player Nini Flores, guitarist Eduardo Makaroff, pianist Gustavo Beytelmann, and vocalist Cristina Vilallonga, backed by a string quartet. The group's renowned visuals threatened to cause some embarrassment at the opening of Diferente; nobody wants to start a concert with a giant screen behind them saying "No signal"! But eventually the techie gods got it straight, and the projection for the Diferente video came on (it's cool, by the way, you can check it out on their website). The latest album, Lunático, is named after Carlos Gardel's racehorse, and the title track was appropriately accompanied by a black and white projection of a race track. The gig included tracks from their new album, with excellent smokey vocals from Vilallonga, and tracks from La Revancha del Tango. Particular highlights were a medley of El Capitalismo Foráneo and Vuelvo al Sur played over each other, and a cool extended version of Tríptico. Mí confesión was definitely the most original number, featuring Argentine rap artists Apolo Novax and Chili Parker projected onto see-through screens above the band.

All in all, an excellent evening. Can't wait for my copy of Lunático!

See also:

• Gotan
• Project
• Paris