Gentle Giant Interview

If you like strings, consider Karenautas, a 14-piece outfit featuring five violinists, four cellists, and two double bassists – with a singer, clarinetist, and drummer completing the lineup. And Karenautas are from Argentina, so if you like tango…well, actually, don't expect any Piazzolla on Recreo, Karenautas' 2012 debut album, and clarinetist Martín Rur has suggested in an interview that listeners shouldn't regard the group as devoted primarily to Argentina's musical heritage. Instead, Rur noted the influence of Ravel, Debussy, and Bartók, but there are also non-classical touchstones, and even a big Argentine one: Recreo is dedicated to the late Luis Alberto Spinetta, a giant of Argentine rock who died in February 2012, not long after the album was recorded.