My favourite Tango DJs in Europe

posted Nov 4, 2014, 12:23 AM by Sophia de Lautour [ updated Nov 4, 2014, 12:45 AM ]

My travels around Europe in September and October of this year covered Northern / Western Europe. The tango part of my trip consisted of Berlin, Bregenz (Tango en Punta Festival), Paris, Brussels, Nijmegen (El Corte) and Amsterdam. I am yet to explore tango in Southern or Eastern Europe.

Based on this itinerary my favourite Djs were the Netherlands based Tango DJ Duo Age and Sebastian - Age Akkerman and Sebastián Coli Bazzini.

_{Age (l) Sebastian (r) source: http://tangodjduo.nl}

I had the great fortune to stumble across these dazzling DJs at Los Locos' 4th Birthday Milonga in Amsterdam (Oct 7). It was sadly my last Milonga in Europe for that trip and what a grand finale it was!

What I love about Age and Sebastian's dj'ing is firstly -they do great arrangements (the most important factor!). Secondly, I love the way they team DJ so seamlessly and harmoniously.

Thirdly, I love the way they project their song details on to to a wall at the milonga. This means that they project their playlist details (previous and current song title and orchestra, singer and next tanda) with a beamer on to a prominent wall in the milonga. Would be great to see this practice take off at milongas in Sydney (hint, hint).

Age and Sebastian are not DJs that hide their musical secrets, scared that their arrangements will be stolen and recycled at some other milonga. I know of one DJ that is so afraid of this possibility that he has deleted the names off all his songs! The problem is that he then can't always remember which song is which!

This talented duo instead generously reveal all the necessary song details to help dancers better understand better the songs to which they are dancing, and to decide who to invite for the next tanda. By so doing they help, in a very significant way, to raise the standard of musical knowledge in the tango community and the quality of the dancing experience as a whole.

Full kudos to them. I look forward to dancing to their music one day. Perhaps they will be invited to DJ at a festival in NZ or Australia. Wouldn't that be great!

Here's Age and Serge's bio from their website:

"Since 1999, we collect and discuss tango music together. We combine our strengths as tango teacher and musician. As a duo, we enjoy discussing and deciding the next tanda together during the set.

Our laborious analysis found that many tangos are transferred at incorrect speeds. We've developed a way to retune® tango to its original tempo and pitch.

We project playlist info (previous and current song title and orchestra, next tanda, etc.) with our beamer on a wall.

We want happy dancers guided through all emotions of the classics, from delicate through rhythmical to dramatic. Be assured of a stream of danceable music, golden classics and lesser-known jewels from the impressive legacy of ’30s-’50s era. We love sung tangos intermingled with instrumentals and we are crazy about milonga.

We vary with coherent tandas in a way that feels natural and fresh. Playing with the mood, we create and follow the flow, connecting you with the music and each other.”

_{Age and Sebastian Djing at Los Locos 4th Birthday Milonga, Amsterdam (photo taken by me!)}