The Mango Balloon
Julian Curwin’s The Mango Balloon is essentially a stripped-back chamber version of The Tango Saloon, with a lighter sound adding lounge, exotica and continental jazz to the larger band’s tango/western blend. Aside from six members from The Tango Saloon, the recordings also feature special guests, bringing their own distinct flavour to the music – Volume 2 features Brian Campeau on vocals and guitar, Volume 3 Shenzo Gregorio on viola, and Volume 4 Matt McMahon on Rhodes electric piano.
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Watch the official video for ‘Dancing On My Own Grave’
reviews
The Mango Balloon: Volume 4 album review
The Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand) September 29, 2017 (4.5 stars)
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Why he is not the most in-demand film composer in Australia – the world! – I don’t know, as he has the imaginative range and skills to shade any image with a perfect counterpoint. Read more >
The Mango Balloon: Volume 3 album review
The Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand) June 7, 2014 (4.5 stars)
Curwin’s compositions have a comfortable South American-Spanish familiarity and are all played with capable delicacy. Read more >
The Mango Balloon: Volume 2 album review
The Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand) December 7, 2012 (4 stars)
Attractive melodies materialise and dematerialise, and sounds flutter and float in the guitarist-composer’s delightfully genre-free approach. His sextet is a little chamber orchestra capable of realising a breadth of sonic options with precision, humour, passion and understatement. Sydney would be a duller place without Julian Curwin.
Live review
The Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand) July 21, 2014
Curwin uses his sextet more like a small orchestra than a band, the music defined by the subtleties of his scoring as much as by the melodies and rhythms. The compositions are everything, and yet the character of each player still shines through, like different panes in the same stained-glass window. Read more >
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