Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

With their exciting clash of tango and dance music, Bajofondo Tango Club (AR), conquered the festivals last year, and the phenomenal concert they gave on the closing night of the Bruges Cactusfestival is still fresh in our minds. They’ll be kicking off their European tour in Vooruit’s Concertzaal as part of Almost Cinema 07 and the Ghent film festival this fall.

You’ll probably be wondering what in heaven’s name Bajofondo Tango Club has to do with film. Let us enlighten you: one of the twelve band members is Gustavo Santoalalla. This Argentinian musician / composer has written fantastic soundtracks to movies such as 21 Grams, Amores Perros, Motorcycle Diaries, Brokeback Mountain and Babel, and won an Oscar for Best Score for these last two. Santoalalla has been a regular guest at the Film Festival Ghent (which specialises in film music) and at its World Soundtrack Awards. Last year, he won the Public Choice Award for the score he wrote for Babel and in 2005, his music for Brokeback Mountain premièred in Ghent.

The Film Festival focuses on Argentina this year, and we just knew the warm-blooded Bajofondo Tango Club would be an excellent choice. This musical laboratory, which operates in the twilight zone between traditional tango and electronic music, has been a hype in South America for years. The band’s second album, Superveille, has been available for a while now and their third, Mare Dulce will be released in September.