This project is named after the Charango. In Buenos Aires, the home town of
D.J., Gocharan is colloquial for Charango.
The Charango is a small 5-string guitar. It is the national Instrument of
Bolivia but also well known in the north of Argentina, in Chile and Peru. It
originates in the "Viguena de mano", a spanish plucked string
instrument which was brought to South America by the conquerors. There, it
fascinated the folks of the mountain regions, who's music until then
did not know a comparable instrument. Since there are no trees growing in
the high plateaus of the Andes, the Indios had to improvise: they
substituted the wood for the body of the guitar with the body of the
armadillo and thus invented the Charango. The Charango bears some
resemblance to the baroque guitar: both instruments have double strings, and
the shape and playing technique is similar as well.
Today the Charango is a commonly used accompanying instrument in the South
American Andes. Diego Jascalevich developed a new, melodic playing technique
for this little harp like instrument. For the ensemble "Gocharan
Projec" a sound never heard before evolves, equally rhythmic, full of
temper an lyric.