Chango Spasiuk was born in Apostoles, a small locality in Misiones, Argentina, a province with unique cultural characteistics. Set in the frontier region bordering southern Brazil and Paraguay, its society is the product of a complex process of fusion and interaction between contrasting elements of its population: the original native communities (mbuya-guarani), the Creoles, and those foreign settlements established at the beginning of the twentieth century. Among the latter were Ukranians, to whom Chango is intimately linked by virtue of his two Ukranian grandparents.
His formative years were spent in this highly stimulating milieu. His childhood was centered on the carpenter’s shop managed by Lucas, his violinist father, and Marcos, an uncle who sang. The singing duos in red earth patios set aside for musical events, the unrelenting subtropical climate, a terrain of jungle and wide rivers, of laborers working with hoes and machetes on the yerba maté plantations — this is the world that underlies the powerful texture and even mysticism of his music. Chango works within his memory of those informal rural polkas, performed by the whole family, that were such a special feature of his home in Misiones.
However, it is specifically with chamamé, the most powerful traditional folk expression of the Argentine Northeast, where Spasiuk achieves his greatest interpretive and creative virtuosity, taking up the legacy of such well-known figures as Cocomarola, Abitbol, Montiel, and Martinez Riera, among others.
In his homeland, ‘El Chango’ has come to be seen as the guardian angel of chamamé, the most influential champion and innovator of the “music with the deepest swing in Argentina” according to his own opinion. In many ways, his contribution to the revitalization of these folk traditions can be compared to the influence Astor Piazzolla has had in the contemporary development of tango.
A fiery and sensitive virtuoso on the accordian, Chango displays an audacity rarely seen with musicians of this genre. From a position of absolute openness and lack of prejudice, Spasiuk produces a rich mix of sound and tradition, where both legacy and synthesis, improvisation and composition, tradition and modernity play equal roles, making his music an intense listening experience that moves beyond boundaries of style and sound.
Chango Spasiuk has released six albums as soloist in Argentina, among which the many-awarded Polcas de mi Terra (1999) as well as his brand new international release Tarefero de mis Pagos (Piranha, 2004) which all feature selections of traditional pieces from his home region as well as his own compositions. With a fresh BBC Award for World Music (Newcomer Category) to his credit, Chango is now fast building his international reputation with a steadily increasing touring schedule around Europe and beyond.