Tres Mil Uno

The title of this intriguing collection, Tres Mil Uno (3001), perhaps indicates that Argentinian-born, Swiss-based singer Marcela Arroyo, Swiss violinist Andreas Engler and double bassist Daniel Schläppi have an eye on the future. Most of the songs are tangos: a couple of classics and several modern ones, though the arrangements are all stridently post-Astor Piazzolla. And tango has a tradition of looking forward, often with a spirit of grim fatalism. Arroyo brings to the tango songbook a hint of Marlene Dietrich-esque drama on the opener, ‘Preludio Para el Año 3001’, but she can also deliver a folk singer's warmth. Whichever mode she's in, her manner is intimate and this fits well with Engler's jabs on the violin and Schläppi's soft, staccato plucks.

Often the songs are more like three-way conversations, with a jazz band's approach to phrasing and pauses but the occasional steering towards a lilting, classical strain (as on the beautiful version of ‘Oblivion’). If this is the future of tango, it is dark, dream-laden and delectable.