Music from Argentina

Any selection music from Argentina must begin with an opening flourish of tango, so before we venture along the country's other fascinating musical byways, we're going to hear from the king himself, Carlos Gardel, who unleashes his enchanting baritone on 1935's "Por una Cabeza" (about a compulsive horse-fancier and womaniser), and pioneer of nuevo tango, Astor Piazzolla ("Libertango"), who played a mean bandoneón and helped revolutionize the tradition by weaving in classical and jazz accents. After that, our Argentinian Essentials will take you from the folk guitar of Eduardo Falú to national rock legends, Charly Garcia and Luis Alberto Spinetta. You'll find nueva canción legend Mercedes Sosa and current pop hero Diego Torres in Next Steps.

As rich, passionate and exotic as the country itself, our collection of Argentinian Essentials continues with activist and folk star Mercedes Sosa — "the voice of the voiceless ones" — who was exiled to Spain and became one of the leading lights within the politicized nueva canción movement during the mid-'60s: 1971's "Gracias a la Vida", a tribute to Chilean poet Violeta Parra, was one of her signature songs. She died in 2009. Diego Torres offers a sweet, summery pop confection with hints of flamenco on "Sueños" from 2001's Un Mundo Diferente, and Chango Spasiuk delivers his own fresh take on chamamé accordion tradition with the mesmerizing "El Camino". Our Argentinian rock mix gets extra-fruity in Deep Cuts, thanks to Kapanga and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs.

In the world of Argentine rock, it's all about reinvention and cross-fertilization — that's how an outfit like Kapanga developed their energetic hybrid sound, mixing the propulsive skank of ska with blasts of punk guitar and crazy swirls of accordion: check out "Me Mata" from 1998 debut album A 15 cm de la Realidad. Also driven by invention is supreme mash-up group, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, who extended their popularity out of Buenos Aires via soundtrack appearances on Grosse Point Blank and The Matador — here they blend roughly equal parts of rock and hot, big-band salsa with the title track of 1998's La Luz del Ritmo/The Light of Rhythm.

There's much more to the music of Argentina than the tango alone, and while we've included that signature genre's key artists here — from the golden songs of Carlos Gardel to the modern electro-fused tango experiments of the Paris-based Gotan Project — these Essentials offer a taste of the South American country's many flavours. We've got everything from the globally popular soundtrack work of jazz-crossover genius Lalo Schifrin — who scored movies like Dirty Harry and Bullitt while also exploring his sonic heritage with "La Yumba" — and Gustvo Santaolalla, famous for The Motorcycle Diaries and his gorgeous, Academy Award-winning Brokeback Mountain score, to the juiced cumbiaton of El Original, the hard blues of Pappo, and the landmark folk of guitarist Atahualpa Yupanqui.