Finns are enthusiastic tangueros. Tango is even called "Finnish national music" here in the north of Europe and Finnish tango has existed for more than 100 years. Of course, the Finns compose their own tango.
The Finns also like the south of Spain. In Malaga there is now a real Finnish colony. So it is not surprising that the first article about the album "Tango Malaga" appeared in the print magazine Suomalainen Espanjassa. This is a Finnish-language publication aimed at Finns living in the south of Spain. There must be quite a few of them if they have their own newspaper ...
So - Tango Malaga is Finnish tango and a little bit more, sung by opera tenor Harri Kaitila and produced in warm Spanish Malaga.
Life should not be taken for granted“, realized songwriter and producer Tapani Puranen in spring 2022. He had just begun to compose music for singer Harri Kaitila and suddenly got a cancer diagnose in Málaga, leading to an urgent operation and medical treatments. That changed the mood for the rest of the work. What if this was his last project?
The result is a collection of songs that reveal Tapanis experience with profound honesty.
Harri Kaitila is a Finnish opera- and concert singer whose vocal field is a lyrical tenor. Since 1999, Kaitila dedicated himself to various concert tango projects and performed in various concert halls from The Slovak Radio Concert Hall to the Berliner Philharmonie in Germany.
His professional career started during his vocal studies at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and his early career Kaitila spent in Vienna and in Berlin, touring Europe and serving as the cultural manager of the Finnish Cultural Institute in Germany.
Tapani Puranen won the Absolute Winner Prize in the Film Music Contest 2022 for his score on film ”Casino.sk”. He also got three Global Music Awards prizes and one of his songs charting number one in France 1996 got more than 7000 radioplays. Puranen moved from Finland to Andalucia, Spain in 2018.
After hearing some of the earlier tango recordings of Harri Kaitila, Puranen decided to write his first concert tango for Kaitila. Spanish multitalent artist Pepe Gonzalez wrote the Spanish lyrics – so the opening track Mujer de Tango of Tango Málaga had been born. Puranen wrote his songs first in Finnish and Kaitila translated the lyrics into Spanish. Kaitila also wrote songs. For example the tango Aunque Se Acabara El Mundo.
Music like this can’t be created quickly. The process „takes a stupid amount of time“, laughs Tapani Puranen who programmed the orchestral parts using some high-end music software. Three songs were programmed by arranger Ari Ismälä as well. The Finnish versions were recorded in summer 2022 and Harri travelled to Málaga in May 2023 once more to record the Spanish versions.
As a teenager Puranen once received a postcard that said: ”Work as you would live forever. Love like you would die today“. This aphorism served as inspiration for the salsa Reloj de Arena. The sand in the hourglass does not stop flowing.
Every grain of sand matters – let’s use them wisely.“
On our website you can prelisten to the music. And you will find links to various platforms where you can stream the album in full or download it.
