Asphalt Tango
| Asphalt Tango Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Distributor(s) | List distributors |
| Genre | World music |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Location | Berlin |
| Official website | Official Web site |
Asphalt Tango Records is an independent record label based in Berlin and focused on music from Eastern Europe and beyond.
Asphalt Tango Production was formed by Henry Ernst and Helmut Neumann in 1997. The two men became friends in the 1980s in the city of Leipzig where both were working a variety of odd jobs (Ernst as waiter and nurse, Neumann as shoemaker for disabled persons, night receptionist). In 1989 both attended the Monday Protests in Leipzig. Upon the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany Ernst and Neumann shifted to Berlin.
In 1996 Ernst was travelling in Moldavia, north-eastern Romania. Upon arriving in the tiny Gypsy village of Zece Prăjini Ernst learned that a highly distinctive regional brass band tradition still existed there. Impressed by the talent he heard and certain a wider public would enjoy hearing a Romanian Gypsy brass band, Ernst returned to Germany and set about booking a tour.
Ernst managed to book twenty dates for the musicians now called Fanfare Ciocărlia in Germany and France spread across 45 days in March–April, 1997. Ernst, realising the work was too much for one person, invited Neumann to help. Initially, Asphalt Tango existed solely as management and booking agents for Fanfare Ciocărlia.
By 2002 the three Fanfare Ciocărlia albums released on Berlin's record label Piranha were amongst the most popular albums that label had ever handled, the combined sales proved to Ernst and Neumann that they could operate Asphalt Tango as an independent label. They released their first album Ma Maren Ma by the Bulgarian Gypsy singer Jony Iliev (produced by Ernst and Neumann), in November, 2002.
Asphalt Tango Records licensed its next two CD releases. The first album was Hungarian Gypsy band Besh o DroM's Can't Make Me. The next album was Serbian Gypsy band Earth Wheel Sky Band's Waltz Rromano. Asphalt Tango's next release was the Fanfare Ciocărlia DVD The Story Of The Band. This DVD incorporated live concert footage, the Ralf Marschalleck film Iag Bari - Brass On Fire (which follows Fanfare Ciocărlia on tour from Zece Prajini to Tokyo). Songlines Magazine, reviewing The Story Of The Band, wrote that it "set a new standard for world music DVDs."
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