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Written in Folk Roots issue 165, 1997

IBON KOTERON & KEPA JUNKERA
Leonen Orroak
Elkar Triki KD-449 (1996)

There’s an outbreak of albums from Euskadi which are truly, deeply Basque but also accessible to non-Basques, and I’ve a feeling that this album could become the one to click, the access point for many new listeners.
      Alluding in title (which means “The Lion’s Roar”) to renowned alboka player León Bilbao (d1990), it combines the traditions of alboka (the high-sounding, duophonic double reed pipe with a horn at each end), played by Ibon Koteron, with that of driving trikitixa (diatonic accordion) from one of its very finest exponents, Kepa Junkera, and of txalaparta (horizontal planks hit with vertical sticks) and the chattering, trilling pandero (tambourine) (both the latter played by Kepa, plus a contribution from great panderojole Leturia), and some vocals (from Maixa ta Ixiar and Oskorri’s Natxo de Felipe and Bixente Martinez), in a way that brings out the essential unifying character, in terms of tune-shape and rhythm, of the Euskal tradition.
      The balance is just right; there are tranquil moments, where Tomás San Miguel’s piano and Luis Delgado’s Arabic and other percussion rise to the surface, but it never becomes even remotely floaty-new-age; it’s immensely robust and it always knows where it’s going.
      Most of the tunes are by Kepa; a couple, and the melodies of two of the three songs, are by Ibon Koteron; this is traditional music but the word “herrikoia” (traditional) doesn’t appear - it’s a living tradition. I reckon one listen to this album and anyone with half an ear would recognise what makes Basque music distinctive.
     

© 1996 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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