Renovation of Sandra  tango-canción, the sung tango of Buenos Aires, has long been overdue, and Sandra   does the job superbly With  her strong and personably modern voice, she redefines the genre and makes a marked gender shift: the opening title-track, which sets a startling tone for the album, is a bold interpretation of Edgardo Acuna's `Tango Varón', which means 'male tango' and has inferred notions of virility.

Any recent traveller to Buenos Aires knows this extraordinary dance style of sung stories is as vital today as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Luna's version of Carlos Cereti and Carlos Buono's contemporary 'Carritos Cartoneros' proves this, creating a telling picture of those who people today's streets. Like Argentina's first immigrants, they are both sustained and disillusioned by impossible dreams, which are particularly pertinent given Argentina's current economic crisis.

Each song has a keen story and many are reinterpreted classics, from the dramatically minimal version of the exquisite Manzi/Piana track 'Milonga Triste' to the groundbreaking Bach-like cello arrangement of Le Pera and Gardel's `Lejana Tierra Mia' (Far Away Land of Mine), which is a real tour de force. But the track which most embodies this artist's power is 'Me Llaman Luna' (They Call Me Luna). Inimitably fusing evocations of the singer's life and the tango she has grown up with, it features a superbly innovative arrangement with wonderful jazz piano underpinned by flamenco­inflected rhythms.

Let's hope Luna can do for tango what Mariza has done for that other port music, fado. As it is, the album on its own is trailblazing.

Jan Fairley, January 2004 – Songlines-UK