Petrodollars Tango

A tango with undertones of what ails Argentina; economic, moral, ethical and governance collapse.
Enjoy the dance and the message behind the dance.
Leo

Mystical Tango Magic

To end the year on a high note, here’s a tango from the heart.
Music by Tanghetto – Remix by me.

Have a wonderful 2015!
Leo

Tango Solitario

Experimental assembly and editing of a sensual Tango dance.

Music: Sola – Gotan Project (Live performance) Remix by Leo Bar
Special thanks to Paul – Nano Projections for use of Nano Projections – Smooth yourself from vimeo.com/nanoprojections

Along came a Tango

When I decided to put together this piece had to deal with 4 different media, in different formats, sizes and codex. So I began to strip audio from the live video recording, remastering it and adding a layer of voice overs. These were created from text to speech,  formatted, changed in pitch  and amplified to produce an echo-like sound in the background.

From then on I edited the video and mixed it with the tango dance (that was performed to a different music and muted) Since the dance was more like a classical ballet, rather than tango I liked the effect that would be created by pairing it to a modern and mournful tango. All that said, added scenery and stills from those years mentioned in the lyrics and the concept became a reality.

Personally, enjoyed the discovery and melding of styles and consider it to be an exceptional piece of history, folklore and nostalgia all wrapped in a beautiful package.

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Ballet-like dance to a modern tango. Superbly interpreted and performed by Gisela Natoli and Gustavo Rosas.
Scenery from Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Music: Gotan Project (live) remix and audio voice-over overlays by Leo Bar.
Enjoy the show,
Leo

 

Tango Contratiempo

Once I heard the musical composition, I fell in love with this fusion tango, and knew I had to produce a video for it. That was 2 years ago! The approach I took was to make it as syncopated in imagery as the composition itself. As I was making slow progress towards the middle of the project, a new project popped up and I had to put this on ice for a while.

Once I returned to it, I had lost my train of thought and the pace I wanted to maintain. Restarting to tune in and reconnecting with the inspiration did not go smoothly. Hopefully the start-stop-start nature doesn’t show in the final product. Enjoy the show!

Contratiempo – [translation] In music It can be written with silences (in this case as a syncopation written with silences). If the instrument running pace no longer produces sounds. Syncopation in music is the compositional strategy to break the regularity of the rhythm, through the accentuation of a note on a weak spot or a semi-strong compás.
[Spanish] Puede ser escrita con silencios (en este caso se denomina contratiempo). Si el instrumento que ejecuta el ritmo no produce sonidos prolongados, se oirá lo mismo como escrito con notas de síncopa escrita con silencios.
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Music: Montserrat (a modern tango fusion) by Bajofondo (live) in Montevideo,  Uruguay (remixed by Leo Bar)
Some photographs of Bs. As. courtesy of Fotografo Volante @ flickr.com/photos/ruggeroarena/

so LONG miLONGa

A tribute to Alfredo Zitarrosa – (March 10, 1936 – January 17, 1989 in Montevideo, Uruguay) was a Uruguayan singer, composer, poet, writer and journalist. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the popular music of his country and Latin America in general. For more info see my blog :: or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Zitarrosa
Vintage 1940’s Montevideo film: Prelinger Collection :: Archive.Org – Public Domain
Music:Zitarrosa by Bajofondo – Remix by Leo Bar
Dancers: Gustavo Rosas & Gisela Natoli (live performance)
Graphics, Digital Paintings: Leo Bar

Tango Glorioso

In this production I decided to use masks and filters in addition to the split screens due to the intense lighting of the dance scenes. By masking this sequence with an antique look I tried to minimize the glare of the fluorescent lighting. Once I had done it to the dance portion, for the sake of balance did it to the scenic clips as well. The vignette was added to promote the “old” look and to further enhance the masking.

Gustavo Rosas and Gisela Natoli dance (rearranged by Leo Bar) to a new age tango – Gloria by Gotan Project (remixed). Traditional scenery of places and events in Uruguay and Argentina can be seen side by side with the dancers.
Art and paintings by Leo Bar.
Enjoy the show,

Leo

Aromas de Tango

Created a superimposed atmosphere of imagery and locales to highlight a very stylized tango dance and the accompanying music. All photos and imagery are from Buenos Aires and Montevideo and many represent traditional tango bars.

The group Bajofondo represents a new modality of music called neotango or electrotango. Some of their music is outstanding.

Music: Perfume – Bajofondo :: Remixed by Leo Bar

Special thanks to Paul Holman for the use of portions of his video Milonga de Milongas. See more of his videos at youtube.com/user/paulrholman

Tango Euro Klez

Music: Tango Bar & Kiev Swing by Garry B :: https://vimeo.com/garryb; listen to his music :: http://soundcloud.com/garry-b
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– The migration of tango from Argentina and Uruguay to Western and Eastern Europe –
1900 – 1920 : Tangos were mainly sung and played by small instrumental bands (fundamentally trios and quartets), until “La Orquesta Tipica” arrives on the scene, with the incorporation of the bandoneo’n. In 1907, one of the very first genuine Argentine Tangueros to visit Paris (France) was composer Angel Villoldo, who wanted to do some recording. (At the time, Paris had the best recording facilities and techniques.) In 1918, writing lyrics for the tango became all the rage with singers such as the tragic Carlos Gardel and celebrated salon orchestras like Francisco Canaro‘s giving the music a new legitimacy and acceptance. Carlos Gardel is still revered today, many decades after his death.
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By 1912, dancers and musicians from Buenos Aires, traveled to Europe and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland.
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One of the most popular ballroom dances in Europe during the 1920’s and 30’s was unquestionably the tango. This explains why this music appeared later in ghettos and concentration camps. Following a boom in Western Europe, the tango reached the east by the late 1910’s. However, as opposed to countries like France and Germany, frequently visited by Argentine Orquestas Típicas, most Eastern European countries became acquainted with the tango only through records, the radio and journals. This indirect connection may explain the character that this music developed in such regions. With increasing popularity and a new stream of local tangos, the style’s re-embodiment gradually drifted away from the South American model. Poland, which had regained its independence after the Warsaw treaty of 1919, quickly became one of the capitals of European tango at a time when most of its musicians, both in the classical and the popular scenes, were Jewish.
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Enjoy the show,
Leo

Tango Sureño

This dance is a Milonga danced to milonga music – a cousin of the Tango. Enjoy the sow!
“In a book published in 1883 Ventura Lynch, a noted contemporary student of the dances and folklore of Buenos Aires Province, noted the influence the Afro-Argentine dancers had on the “compadritos”, who apparently frequented the Afro-Argentine dance venues, “the milonga is danced only by the compadritos of the city, who have created it as a mockery of the dances the blacks hold in their own places”.
Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more “rustic” style than Tango”. {Source: Wikipedia}
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Photography:
CB1985IFY – Palermo; Omar Guebel – Photos of La Boca :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohgg/collections/72157600270319242

Leo Bar :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leobar-pixinmotion/ 
Music: Reliquias porteñas – Francisco Canaro – – (November 26, 1888 – December 14, 1964) Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leader.