Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro

Historical background

The Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro was born in Buenos Aires under the name Fernández Branca, within the La Máquina Tanguera movement, which Sofía Cecconi sees taking shape in the late 1990s and whose peak she places during the Argentine crisis. The collective, led by pianist Julián Peralta, brought together a dozen musicians barely twenty years old and grew to nine orchestras. It named itself in homage to Osvaldo Pugliese, for having "resisted" with his orchestra through the lean years of tango - an identification as political as it was aesthetic. Following Pugliese's cooperative model, each member paid a monthly contribution towards shared instruments and the rent of a rehearsal room used by all in turn. A self-imposed decalogue, modelled on the Danish filmmakers' Dogme, banned the "tango curro", the tourist tango they held to be devoid of authenticity and social commitment.

The first record, Envasado en origen (2001), appeared under Peralta's direction. From 2005 Yuri Venturín took over the musical direction and shifted the sound: Camila Juárez reduces the orchestra's sonic sensibility to three principles - amplification, volume, distortion - to the point of running the double bass through two amplifiers. The line-up, however, remains that of the golden-age orquesta típica: eleven players - four bandoneons, three violins, viola, cello, piano, double bass - plus a singer. Mucha mierda (2006), Fernández Fierro (2009), Tics, tan idiotas como siempre (2013) and En vivo (2014) followed. The orchestra holds a weekly residency in its own venue, the Club Atlético Fernández Fierro.

Source: Camila Juárez, "Una nueva sensibilidad sonora en el tango actual. El caso de la Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro," Revista Argentina de Musicología, no. 15-16 (2014-2015), pp. 55-66, https://ojs.aamusicologia.ar/index.php/ram/article/view/47 ; Sofía Cecconi, "La crisis de 2001 y el tango juvenil : de la protesta política y social a las formas alternativas de organización y expresión," Estudios Sociológicos vol. XXXV, no. 103, 2017, DOI 10.24201/es.2017v35n103.1517, https://www.redalyc.org/journal/598/59849770006/html/ (accessed 31 July 2026).