The Filarmed recorded the ballads during Medellin’s annual Tango Festival along with Argentinian tango vocalist Ariel Ardit, who in recent years has become a regular visitor and star performer in Medellin -- the city where Gardel and poetic tango lyricist Alfredo Le Pera both died in a plane crash on June 27, 1935.

“After many years dreaming about paying homage to Carlos Gardel – my maximum point-of-reference – and after visiting Medellin in 2013, finally I felt the necessity to confront such a project: performing the entire repertory of songs from Gardel’s films with a symphonic orchestra on the 80th anniversary of his death,” Ardit said.

Among the album’s iconic songs -- with all music written by Gardel and lyrics by Le Pera --are Mi Buenos Aires Querido; Soledad; Cuesta Abajo; Golondrinas; El Día Que Me Quieras; Rubias de New York; and Volver.

Ardit – born in Córdoba in 1974 but living in Buenos Aires since 1982 – principally performs with smaller orchestral groups featuring bandoneon, piano, violin and contrabass. Prior to cutting the Gardel album with the Filarmed last year, Ardit recorded in 2014 another homage-album to the iconic bandoneon musician -- Aníbal Troilo 100 Años – in the world-famous Teatro Ópera in Buenos Aires.