In 1978, Argentina organized the Soccer World Cup. Two years had passed since the last military coup (1976-1983) had taken over the democratic goverment in complicity with a big part of our society. At that point, thousands of people had been illegaly put into prision, tortured and murdered. The country was divided between armed resistance, exile, fear and State Terrorism. In this context, the World Cup became an event that exposed many contradictions within society. On the one hand, it was a clear demagogic manipulation orchestrated by the military goverment in alliance with the media to drive away attention from violations to human rights that were being investigated by an international comission. On the other hand, people filled up the stadiums and celebrated in the streets for days when Argentina won the championship. In addition to this, the World Cup was the first colour TV broadcast in the country…
Regarding radio transmissions, José María Muñoz was undoubtedly the most popular ¨voice¨ among football radio commentarists at the time. A Long Play was released soon after the World Cup, featuring Argentina´s goals narrated by Muñoz, along with two musical compositions: Ennio Morricone´s official music for the 1978s World Cup and a piece by the Argentinian guitar player Horacio Malvicino. 78 rpm is based on these materials plus other commentaries made by Muñoz during the matches, gathered from E.T.E.R. archives (Escuela Terciaria de Estudios Radiofónicos-Dir: Eduardo Aliverti). These additional recordings were carefully selected from commentaries that in a very subtil way, exposed the political intolerance of those days. The piece finally takes this historical background as a frame where the characteristic voice of Muñoz merges along with radio advertisments and music from the late seventies in such a way, that memories of horror and rejoice play their endless match between shame and pride, past and future.

78 rpm was commissioned by Audio: Elf exhibition, curated by Manuel Rocha Iturbide.

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