Federico Aubele

• Genre: Downtempo

About

In the wake of the Gotan Project's global success in 2003, fusing tango with electronica became, to put it mildly, fashionable. But Argentina's Federico Aubele came by his tang-tronica credentials honestly; the guitarist and producer is a native of Buenos Aires, and he fell in love with Astor Piazzolla's innovative tango early on. (Aubele calls Piazzolla the quintessential Buenos Aires musician, as tightly bound to the city as Frank Sinatra is to New York.) When he tried his hand at sampling and mixing, the stars aligned: He sent a few demos to Eighteenth Street Lounge Music and immediately impressed them. His debut Gran Hotel Buenos Aires dropped to critical acclaim in 2004, and the single "Postales" became an underground favorite; hipsters around the world chilled out to his aural postcard from the land of gauchos and tangueros. Despite his electronica flirtation, Aubele's never abandoned his acoustic roots. He doesn't use MIDI technology and plays guitar and other live instruments on almost every track he produces. In 2007 he released the eagerly awaited follow-up, Panamericana, which saw him working with singer Natalia Clavier.

- Sarah Bardeen