Lautaro Tissera, an Argentine musician, came to Pakistan on the invitation of the Argentinian embassy to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Pakistan and Argentina relations.

Tissera’s music is the tango from the provinces of the Argentine inland which he performs regularly in Argentina and abroad, though this was his first tour of South Asia. Tissera studied at the Conservatorio de Música Popular of Avellaneda (Argentina). He is also the founder of the Espacio Cultural Don Juan, located in La Plata (Argentina).

Dawn caught up with him in Islamabad and asked him about his work.

Q: What have you planned for your visit to Pakistan?

A: I am not here as a tourist and I have not seen much of Islamabad. I am going to Lahore next where I will also be holding a concert and a workshop for music students at the National College of Arts. But it is an emotional experience for me to be here in Islamabad. The type of music I perform is not known here and I am delighted to bring it to this part of the world. I just performed in Kuwait as part of this tour and I will be visiting other countries in the region next.

Q: How different is Islamabad to Argentina?

A: I have only seen Chak Shahzad where I went for lunch and what was very surprising for me was the number of crows – we don’t have crows in the cities. We don’t see crows in any urban areas. I also went to Habibi where the live music and spicy food were perfect.

Q: Do you frequently perform solo and do you travel frequently for your work?

A: I perform as a soloist or a member of the Tissera-Tolomeo duo and the El Mondongo de Palermo quartet. I have also performed as an invited guitarist of the world famous “Sexteto Mayor” and work as the director of the Argentine tango orchestra “La Sacada”. I travel for performances quite often. I have performed in Spain, France, Brazil, Slovenia and Italy – so more in South America and Europe.

Q: Have you had time to practice for the fusion sessions with the Pakistani artists you’re performing with?

A: There is very little time but we have had two whole practice sessions.

They are very good and they play western music as well so it wasn’t too difficult but of course more time and more sessions would have been even better.

All kinds of music speak to the heart, but Pakistani and Argentine music are very different.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2016