Infos/Contact: tdkstudiotdk@gmail.com
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C. feat Jazzopholy.
Hi TDK and thanks for being here with us and
sharing with Jazzopholy !
TDK.
My pleasure. Thanks for inviting me and for inviting TanGossip...
C.Feat Jazzopholy. Well, properly speaking, for us, I mean for our readers, this is going to sound like playing out of the frame since Jazzopholy is mostly dedicated to Jazz and Blues. But we had a crush on TanGossip, and we ventured to let ourselves be carried away... especially as we discovered the multiplicity of its targets and interests, among which Jazz is somewhat an outstanding one. TDK. Definitely. Actually Jazz was my first ingredient if I dare say. For all the love I have for Tango music, I wonder if I would have created a Magazine if the urge to dig deeper
into the bridges between Jazz and Tango hasn’t been there... That’s the reason why, I guess, the first painter I invited to be exhibited in this virtual Museum is Jacques Cauda and his boisterous chromatic Jazzmen. It sort of echoes the contents of the interviews where I tried to scan the influence of Jazz on Tango music.
Jazz selon Jacques Cauda.
C. feat Jazzopholy.
We are big fans of Jacques Cauda’s paintings here as you’ve probably noticed.
TDK.
Yes, he is an outstanding figure in the history of 21st century painting. Very inspiring artist too. For me it was simply amazing to be allowed to count all his Jazzmen
as part of the first issue. It helped me think the very architecture of the magazine and keep the freedom of wide perspectives. Besides being a great source of inspiration for TanGossip’s graphic Design...
C. feat Jazzopholy.
How about Graphic Design then?
TDK.
Yeaaaaa... one of Tango’s surprises... but even beforehand, one of life’s surprises... Indeed, it all started when I was a kid and my music teacher would complain to my father about my being a total fraud... him talking
notes... me answering them colours... I didn’t realise back then how I ached to produce visual music, because it also works the other way around... not only could I paint music after hearing it, but also hear some music once I was contemplating a painting... It took me long to synthetize and integrate the two distinct travels and encapsulate them in one art, that is Graphic Design. Fortune had it that it was Tango that triggered this curiosity and catalysed the shit to happen. And, of course, necessity, because I needed some skilled nerd to shape Tangossip’s DNA and then it became obvious to me as much as to all the guys I’ve been torturing that the vision I was pregnant with couldn’t be communicated unless it was eventually executed by myself.
C. feat Jazzopholy. The last two pages say TanGossip was born in TDK Design Studio. So you’re using your DJ nickname also for your Graphic Design Studio? Are we talking about the legendary tapes from the 80s here or am I dreaming ?
TDK. Defo. I mean, we could also read it as “Tav, Dalet, Kaf”, or 400-4-20 = 1, or even Tronche de Kul (giggles). But definitely, TDK tapes are at play. And probably using the same nickname is a way of reasserting the aforementioned synesthesia. Thank you for emphasising that.
C. feat Jazzopholy.
Another remarkable aspect is the web of languages in which the magazine unfolds itself. It seems to me it is a dance in itself. Was it an editorial strategic choice or... TDK.
A necessity man! I mean I could/would have spared myself the huge quantity of work it implied. But I think métissage is something inherent to Tango dance/music/culture and no writing could mirror its richness without resorting to (at least) the main languages that are in use within Tango communities. I was thinking about adding Arabic and Chinese but I trust French, English, Spanish and Italian will do for now. When the magazine is more supported (which is unfortunately not the case so far), I could afford a whole team of translators, and in the meanwhile I’m doing the work (save for two translations). I totally agree on the choreographic dimension the use of all these languages produces. It creates a rhythm, and plays with the reader’s
expectations. I fancied a French spine, and then English, Spanish and Italian adornos. Tango-like. The Mosaic theme has been developed during the interview with my hermano and DJ colleague Alberto Germano. He was referring to Tango DJ-ing as a Collage and making a witty parallel with the artworks of a Collage artist that was exhibited in London. My mission seems to be mostly throwing muscular bridges between different islands of the archipel called Art. And Tango is the best
metaphor for this multiplicity. It is a total Art, the only one that gets so near the Greek Tragedy. And within this total art, translation is at stake - as in Jazz - since orchestras keep giving their own version of settled common standards most of the time. Either this is translation, that is interpretation, or else I’d prove to be the Pope of China.
C. feat Jazzopholy. Talking of the Pope of China, I see you’ve been quoting Mozart - in three languages - and this wonderful excerpt where he depicts the process of creation itself, from its genesis to its development and final achievement. Can you tell us more about the Genesis of TanGossip, the choice of the themes, and the organisation of the contents? Does it work like an organic piece of work, the same way Alberto Germano sketches his collages. TDK. OMG, I’ll do my best and not come up with an answer the length of a Bible. Let me startwith Tangossip’s genesis: it was in bed, bedroom or boredom, it doesn’t matter. I was covid-bedridden and did have quite a couple of visions, among which Tangossip was the first to be interpreted, not to say executed. Mozart’s approach to describe the process of thinking is a phenomenologic one and rings the bell of Tchouang Tseu and hischapter about the music that comes out of the void. It almost describes a certain state of hypnosis - for which the bed is a pretty good metaphor by the way -, a certain state of perception and consciousness. From that specific station, anything related to the choice of the themes or the organisation of the contents is organic in the sense that it works like a fractal. I trust musicality, instinct and absolute surrender to let TanGossip shape itself and while I’d be its silent mouthpiece and musical baton. I would specify that I’m no big fan of collages though. The guest of TanGossip #2, Nathan Haddad, is an outstanding painter who sketches the Anatomy of the Soul through variations on psyche-scapes that do not fail to remind us of Tango dancers emotional lives giggles), and he’d rather talk about assemblages. Basically, the same way the first phrase of Tango is programmatic, once you got your angle, there is no choice any longer, properly speaking. You’d better have good ears and trained eyes to let the shit happen. I can’t really describe the way the first Tangossip took form, at least not in a linear way. The only thing I can bodly assert is that the moment I started contacting people and writing the essays and imagining what it could look like, suddenly everything was moving according to perfect synchronicities with incredible echoes between the different pieces of the puzzle, until I got convinced that it was already existing in another dimension, and that I was merely translating it into Being.
C. feat Jazzopholy.
I guess there’s no need to ask you for the general theme of Tangossip #2... All we hope for is that you won’t need a second covid episode to come up with it. Stil, can you sketch the general landscape of the first issue, and tell us if there’s a bridge between the two Tangossips?
TDK.
Obviously, every issue is going to be unique. Not only as regards the themes it will tackle, but also with a unique tonality, a unique angle, a unique painter. Hence, a new architecture or geometry. It is about creativity, so as a matter of fact, it will stage it as freely and inovatively as possible. Otherwise, I don’t see the use of a dead corpse to talk about Tango. But, of course, there is a continuity in the discontinuity, and to make another DJ-ing parallel, not only do we care about constructing beautiful narrative Tandas, but we also imagine the whole landscape, with bridges between the different Tandas, to make it all a musically intelligent structure.
Somewhere we would love to live in.
The main keys to the first issue are Troilo, Orlando Goñi and Jazz. From there, I wanted tomap the music of the opening of the 20th century in Europe and America, included classical, contemporary, Jazz and Tango music. I was able to sketch an esquisse with the pianist of SONICO. The figure of Eduardo Rovira proved pivotal, essential and directly linked to many other references. With Orlando Goñi, the theme of drunkenness was like “no shit Sherlock”. And the interview with Ricardo Calvo and Sandra Messina lead up to another similar figure, namely El Tigre del Bandoneon, which is going to be my next portrait in Tangossip #2. The truth is, of course there is an aesthetic, as much as a political angle. But you don’t go to the theatre to have the author spoil the whole damn story before you got to feel it by yourself. I leave it to the
readers to wonder why I move on from the history of prostitution to the dances of slaves and the way they may have created some of Tango moves. For instance. Anyway my job is not conveying ideas. I work with colours, geometries, emotions, stories, and even though
I’ve been thinking a lot about all this, busy translating letras de Tango, compiling and playing music, reading about people’s lives, I try as much as I can to leave it backstage and only play some magic, Jazz-like.
C. feat Jazzopholy. Has this experiment transfigured your life as yet ?
TDK.
I’ve never worked as much as this, Gods help (Giggles) The truth is thanks to Tangossip, I’m orchestrating my whole life into shape. I am also working with overgorgeous artists and opening dangerous and exotic new doors. It has many solid and tangible direct consequences: I am rethinking the aesthetics of my theatre,the dramaturgy of my texts, even the way I breathe, the town I should live in. I hope that every reader should get intoxicated and feel totally and irremediably burning with passion for something, somemusic or someone, because that’s the spirit here. Also it lead me to think about a project mixing music and
philosophy, which would be the elaboration of some Ethics based on Musicality.
C. feat Jazzopholy.
Thank you TDK... I realise we’ve been talking a lot about the Magazine, but we haven’t even introduce you as an accomplished artist—
TDK.
To hell with that !
readers of Jazzopholy ? TDK.
I suggest a Chinese portrait... or an ABCD’aire.
C. feat Jazzopholy.
ABCD’aire! Here you go!
TDK. Okay... today’s ABCDaire:
A for Absolute, Amethyst
B for Bags Groove
C for Coriander
D for Drama... or Drugs
E for E.T.
F for Funambulists
G for G-moll
H for Hanky-Panky
I for Intimacy
J for Nijinsky (even though Yea I know it’s not really the
first letter)
K for Killer
L for Languish
M for Mozart
N for “No shit Sherlock”
O for One
P for Psilocybin
Q for Quantics
R for Roses
S for Serendipity (whatever the Fuck it means)
T for TanGossip !
U for Utrecht (the town I was conceived in)
V for Venezia (my heartown)
W for Whiskey
X for Xylophone (Viva Milt Bags Jackson)
Y for Yggdrasil
Z for Zoo as in Abrazoo
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Infos/Contact: tdkstudiotdk@gmail.com
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