The Rough Guide to Astor Piazzolla

Casting around for a description of my current daily patterns for the benefit of an overseas comrade about a week ago, came up with this: "Listening to a lot of Astor Piazzolla (perhaps you know him? An Argentinian tango innovator - 'tango ballet', eg - very dramatic and swirling and energetic and melancholy, &c, &c), and dancing in my bedroom when the sun comes out." Not really so much of the bedroom dancing this last week, with work kickin' my ass a bit again, but still plenty of the Piazzolla by way of this compilation, which reveals a lighter and more playful side to him than Tango Ballet and in so doing has cracked his music wide open to me (much as I've always liked Tango Ballet, it's always been an album that I listen at long intervals rather than in an ongoing way), leaving me keen to explore further. Certain themes and motifs recur across songs and albums, but the ones which've most caught my ear are "Libertango", "Vuelvo al Sur" and "Los Suenos", all genius in their different ways.