Katrin Dorn, born in Thuringia in 1963, studied psychology in Leipzig and has worked as a freelance writer since 1996. From 1999 to 2002 she immersed herself in the Argentine tango; on study trips to Argentina she came to know it as a form of expression of European immigrants. The result was “Tangogeschichten”, published in 2002 by dtv premium in Munich. The thirteen stories lead not only to Buenos Aires but also onto the German tango scene, and they revolve around the tension between the longing for closeness and being left behind in loneliness.
The audiobook brings together four of these stories. “Maritas Andenken” tells of a woman with frequently changing lovers and of the objects they leave behind with her; the room in which she keeps them becomes a place of remembrance. “Adrians letzter Peso” follows an unemployed Argentine who, in the bustle of the streets of Buenos Aires, finds himself at the side of an American tourist. “Maries Messer” sketches a love triangle in which desire, jealousy and death are bound together. “Balance” is about a young woman and her partly precarious, partly blissful relationship with her dance partner.
Each story is paired with music by the Duo Tango Amoratado, founded in 2000 by Jürgen Karthe (bandoneon) and Fabian Klentzke (piano), two musicians of the Sexteto Andorinha. “Maritas Andenken” is accompanied by “Silbando” by Catulo Castillo and Sebastian Piana and “Jacinto Chiclana” by Astor Piazzolla, “Adrians letzter Peso” by “El choclo” (Angel Villoldo), “Loca de amor” (Enrique Caviglia), “Madame Yvonne” (Eduardo Pereyra) and “Naranjo en flor” (Virgilio Exposito). “Maries Messer” is paired with “La Cachila” by Eduardo Arolas, “Balance” with Piazzolla’s “Oblivion”.
Mirjam Wiesemann reads all four stories. In 2004 she founded Cybele Records’ audiobook series Wort&Musik together with Vera Forester and Ingo Schmidt-Lucas, and this audiobook is its first production; direction and concept were in the hands of Vera Forester. The spoken word was recorded in July 2004 at the Cybele Studios, the music at Burg Langendorf. The project was supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.
The hybrid SACD runs to 81:21 in stereo and 5.0/5.1 surround; the booklet has 16 pages. The reading follows the edition published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag in 2002. The four stories last between 8:49 (“Balance”) and 30:27 (“Maries Messer”); a bonus track, playable only on SACD players in surround sound, adds Cucaro’s “Silueta Portena” as tango music without words. Stories, novels and audiobooks for children with music recorded specially for them have since appeared in the Wort&Musik series.