Gotan Project formed in 1999. Their first release was "Vuelvo Al Sur/El Capitalismo Foráneo" in 2000, followed by the albumLa Revancha del Tango in 2001. Their music is based on Argentinean tango, but also uses elements such as samples, beats, and breaks. Live material was also broadcast on Gilles Peterson's world music show Worldwide on BBC Radio 1 in May 2004. The band has also released a DJ set: Inspiración Espiración - A Gotan Project DJ Set Selected & Mixed by Philippe Cohen Solal. This album is a compilation of classic tangos from the likes of Aníbal Troilo, Ástor Piazzolla and Gotan Project remixes. The album also includes a bonus CD with the track "La Cruz del Sur" which was meant to be included on La Revancha del Tango, but did not make the cut in 2001. In 2006 they released a second studio album called Lunático, and in 2010 Tango 3.0, their last studio album to date.
Before Gotan Project
arrived in France in the early 1990s to develop Argentine tango music, he performed with his band "Mano a Mano". Christoph H. Müller and Philippe Cohen Solal formed a duo called Boyz from Brazil.
Band name
The name of the trio is a form of word play called "al vesre" that is very common in Lunfardo, an argot of Rioplatense Spanish. This wordplay involves, in the simplest cases, moving the last syllable to the beginning of the word. Thus, the word Tango becomes Gotan, the name the trio have chosen for their project.
The song "Santa Maria " from the album La Revancha del Tango was featured as the music for the main dance sequence in the 2004 movie Shall We Dance?, with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere. American gymnast Alicia Sacramone used an excerpt of the piece for her floor routine in international competition, including the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, while teammate Samantha Peszek set her routine to their rendition of "Whatever Lola Wants". Their music has been featured in American television showsNip/Tuck, Sex and the City, Brothers & Sisters and Chuck, as well as the 2003 Swedish documentary on consumerism, Surplus, and the 2004 documentary on worker-led factory occupation in Argentina, The Take. In 2004, they recorded a little-known Piazzolla piece with Brigitte Fontaine: "Rue Saint-louis-en-l'île". In late 2006, the track "Epoca" from the album of La Revancha del Tango was featured in The Truth About Charlie and also UK television advertisements for Boots, directed by David LaChapelle. Epoca has also featured in the Portuguese Fox Broadcasting Company series commercials. Their music has also been featured on several episodes of the UK hit TV show, Top Gear. "Epoca" has also been used as the background music for the Finish dishwasher detergent brand in much of the world, with the tagline 'The Diamond Standard'. In 2004, another track from the album La Revancha del Tango was featured in a motion picture, this time in the movie Ocean's Twelve. The song "El Capitalismo Foraneo" starts playing at the end of the scene where Catherine Zeta-Jones' character interrogates "Matsui", played by Robbie Coltrane. In 2010, "Santa Maria " was again featured in a motion picture: Knight and Day, an action comedy film starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. In this same movie, "Diferente" from their 2006 album Lunatico was also used in a scene where Roy & June are evading local police through city streets. In April 2012, the band appeared for the first time on US network television on Dancing With The Stars, taking part in the "Results Show".
