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Written in Folk Roots issue 129, 1994
 

JOXAN GOIKOETXEA & JUAN MARI BELTRAN
Egurraren Orpotik Dator...
NO-CD Rekords CDNO 04 (1993)

I think this might be the album from Euskadi I've been waiting for. It reaches below the structured, rhythmical inhibitions of much pan-European music and touches something else, and in doing so it makes something strongly linked to a people and a place, an expression of culture (a concept much trumpeted by nationalists throughout the world, but of which they, being largely shouters and shooters rather than listeners or creators, are usually unable to produce examples).
      The result is a music which is likely to find understanding in places as geographically separated from the Basque country as, for example, Sámiland, Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Indian nations of the Americas, particularly as musicians working deep in the traditions of those countries open themselves up to the avant-garde as an arena for the development of new directions.
      Improvisation is inherent in the music of the percussion boards, txalaparta, which is central to this album. "Two boards placed horizontally, insulated from the ground, produce a two-part chant, a broken chant dominated by a descant.... One of the voices describes a space similar to a river while the other pushes it, moves it out of position, gets in its way, diverts it and puts the finishing touches to it. On the txalaparta the left hand sings while the right hand works for its freedom and returns it to nature", to quote Jorge Otelza's sleevenote.
      Here it's played by Juan Mari Beltran and Juanma Vicente, and is surrounded by textures and accordeons from Joxan Goikoetxea with Beltran's strident reed instruments dulzaina and alboka, xirula (high tabor-pipe), eltzegor (horn), toberak (like txalaparta but using metal bars), electric guitar-based sounds, radios and more from Suso Saiz, and featuring master of trikitixa (diatonic accordeon music) Joseba Tapia and the great singer Amaia Zubiria.


© 1994 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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