Kepa Junkera

HERRIA

Kepa Junkera presents his new record HERRIA that includes 23 songs that has been recorded in New York, Oakland, Paris, Casablanca, Istanbul, Athens, Boise-Idaho, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio-Texas, Hawaii and Bilbao. Maintaining the same outline with the two previous albums (ETXEA and KALEA) HERRIA is the climax of a unique project with a great repercussion as much as to a personal level as to a professional level.

ETXEA, KALEA and now are the three chapters of this giant-sized project in which we present today in its totality. This project has the participation of over 280 musicians and singers of the whole world, as well as technicians, producers and many other persons that have formed numerous joined teams to achieve a goal, taking our identity wherever we have been somehow already present.

BETI BIZI

BETI BIZI is the new album presented under the label of Hiri Records and the production by the musician Kepa Junkera. Xabier Amuriza, the chorus of LEIOA KANTIKA KORALA and Kepa Junkera, himself joined their talents to present this new album composed of 12 songs that seamlessly blend our past, choral and electronic music.

Ancient Biscayans´ ballads recovered by Xabier Amuriza, sung by LEIOA KANTIKIA KORALA and that special touch of Kepa Music seals the unmistakable style of this album which allows us to approach this new album in a different way, combining past, present and even perhaps to give us a glimpse of patterns of the near future.

HABANA SESSIONS

Kepa Junkera´s new CD called HABANA SESSIONS. This new album  includes 11 musical pieces of familiar themes, all composed by the musician of Biscay in which you will only hear the sounds of a piano and a trikitixa, that comes to complete the project FANDANGO, started in June 2009 with Provença Sessions.

Recorded entirely in Havana, Cuba in April 2009,  this album is totally contagious of quality and freshness with the trikitixa of Kepa Junkera and his melodies spiced with the simplicity and the subtlety of the Cuban, Rolando Luna, pianist of the “Buena Vista Social Club” leading together in a different and personal album, full of strength and with a special energy, receiving each other’s music with absolute complicity and seeking to convey the essence of a direct concert, of the close contact with the public.

KALEA

November 2009 KALEA (HIRIRECORDS): This time Kepa Junkera has traveled to America to meet and record with many unique artists, who the singers have sung in Euskara (the Basque language) some of our finest traditional Basque songs. A total of 82 artists, singers and musicians from 11 different countries: Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba, and Brazil. Singers as; Juanes, Lila Downs, Pablo Milanés, Ximena Sariñana, Abel Pintos, Adriana Varela, Georgina Hassan, Hilda Lizarazu, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Liliana Herrero, Liliana Vitale, Pedro Aznar, Sandra Milhanovich, Sebas Bereciartua, Victor “Vitico” Bereciartua, Fabiana Cozza, Fabio Caddore, Ivan Lins, Kadu Viana, Magda Pucci, Cris Miguel, Sandra Oak, Angélica Leutwiller, Zuzu Abu, Sarah Abreu, Joel Teixeira, Edson Penha, Renato Bráz, Vander Lee, Flavia Maia, Giba Alves, Mariah Rocha, Heloiza Ribeiro, Patricia Sosa, Leon Gieco, Manuel García Herrera, Jorge Villamizar, Ele, Eme, Gerardo Alfonso, Mayito, Martha Gonzalez, Miguel Inzunza, Susana Baca, Pamela Rodriguez, Nora Sarmoria and María Márquez. Incredible musicians as Lito Vitale, Celso Duarte, Leonardo Amuedo, el grupo Barbatuques, Carlinhos Antunes, Armando Marçal, Da Lua, Ernesto Snajer and so many others that have collaborated in this record, that is a true reflection of a project that transcends the barrier of an ancestral language. KALEA is a double CD with 24 songs to be published in a deluxe format including an extensive booklet with texts and reviews of each song and it’s lyrics in Basque and Spanish language.

PROVENÇA SESSIONS

With the collaboration of Melonious Quartet, especially their leader Patrick Vaillant who is responsible for carrying out the arrangements of this new CD opening a new path in the career of the prolific musician from Bilbao. Fandango Provença Sessions is a compilation album of songs written entirely by the musician Kepa Junkera in which this time he is accompanied by Melonious Quartet to play them differently and creating innovative new sound spaces in which we discover another side of this composer. “In imagination, where ideas are born and dreams are our wishes, is where I devised for the first time this meeting with my friends Melonious Quartet. Many years ago I discovered their music, their sound and their talent and today after I often yearn that strings and winds accompany each other to merge and seek the most volume of emotions”. Kepa Junkera

ETXEA

ETXEA, an album in which 27 songs of the tradicional Basque culture surround themselves with renown names like; Estrella Morente, José Antonio Ramos, Dulce Pontes, Miguel Bosé, Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, Sole Giménez, Miguel Ríos, Michel Camilo, Andrés Calamaro, Joaquín Díaz, Amancio Prada, Roberto Fonseca, Tito Paris… and so up to 42 singers and 15 musicians extraordinary quality cementing a musical house open to anyone who wants to enter.

There is a musical city where all the cities of the world are represented, as if it were a mutual home. To sing the language of others is the first challenge. (José Saramago)

Come over whenever you want.  Our house is open; the key is hanging on the outside lock.  When I started this project, the house was only a sketch.  The first beams were coming in, the tiles were flying toward the clouds and the foundation was settling.

The traditional songs and the Basque welcomed everyone who was getting closer to share in the construction.

The house has a taken shape, a mixture of farmhouse and a loft, a combination of oak and steel.  The windows are opened so that this refuge can ventilate but also to bring in the air of Havana, yesterday and tomorrow will be Manila.

Thanks to each and everyone for making this house filled with music and emotions. (Kepa Junkera)

HIRI

Two years after winning the Latin Grammy for Best Folk Album for his previous work “K,” Kepa Junkera (Bilbao-1965) returns with “Hiri” (city), a CD where his trikitixa (diatonic accordion)  metamorphoses again expanding his bellows under multiple and colorful universal influences. “Hiri” recalls, evokes and dreams of cities: images, feelings and urban stories, recovered now through music. HIRI has sounds of mixed cultures and folk, but at the same time, so urban and cosmopolitan. In every corner and in every angle of this album you have a pleasing surprise, a lovely revelation. “It’s a very dense CD, with many textures and that has taken me almost two years of dedication,” remembers Kepa, who has returned again to Frederick Manoukian to make the arrangements. The beautiful melodies that “Hiri” gives take off with the surprising and rich multi-ethnic orchestra that accompanies him on this occasion.

ATHLETIC BIHOTZEZ

In 2004 Kepa Junkera faces one of the most special projects of his career. The Athletic Club Bilbao through the foundation had called him to coordinate and manage the project “Athletic Bihotzez”.  The songs composed by him, Kepa Junkera, and the lyrics written by various authors are like different hymns on a single CD in which the bond is in every moment the Athletic Club de Bilbao, Kepa´s soccer team which he follows and supports since his youth. “Athletic Bihotzez” is a compact album that gathers together 13 songs with the intention of becoming capable hymns that can be chanted at the stands in San Mames. Kepa, director of the project surrounded himself with ” acquisition players ” as Xabier Amuriza, Angel Peñagarikano, Kirmen Uribe, Igor Elorza, Francis (Doctor Deseo) and Tontxu Ipiña to record an album that not only takes  “Harrobiaz harro ”as its official anthem, but brings together all types of songs.

But if the record is remarkable by itself, there is no doubt that the collaborations are also important, not only by the number but also the quality and especially for mixing and the fusion of different ideas and cultures that carries this album to the vanguard of what has been done musically so far in the world of football. Collaborations of  Betagarri, Idi Bihotz, Koma, Gatibu, Berbers and Senegalese rhythms, children from Sahrawi, legendary soccers players like Iribar, Dani, Sarabia, Fidel Uriarte, just as Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Alaves, international figures such as Mario Kempes, Emilio Butragueño, N´kono and Pep Guardiola, other sports stars such as Iban Mayo, Virginia Berasategi, Joane Somarriba and Juanito Oyarzabal. A whole cast of figures from different areas together to honor the centenary club that has met, meets and will continue meeting the dreams and emotions of many people, to which this CD is given to, directed, performed and composed with all the love from one of the staunchest supporters of Athletic , Kepa Junkera.

K

Kepa Junkera´s music fans know that one of his most highlights is his live concerts and this last album is a vivid example. With this record Kepa Junkera wanted to complete a trilogy that begun in 1997 with “Bilbao Hora 00:00 h “followed by “Maren “in 2001. K closes this stage in the musical career of Kepa: long years of dedication and continuous effort giving us this double album that gathers up 20 years of musical career. K is best treated album of Kepa in preparation and presentation. The arrangements are made by Kepa Junkera, himself, Jean Frechette, Saxo of Bottine Souriante and Frederic Manoukian is one of the most important pillars of this work giving each topic a different flavor and texture.

MAREN

In the year 2001 released his new album, MAREN, a final leap into his discography toward the future. Kepa Junkera again invites us to travel with his music, to feel the mixtures of cultures and merge with each passing rates for a complete peace and quiet pace to the unleashing and most amazing party.

MAREN is a very special album for Kepa Junkera, in his musical career as in his personal life. Firstly he just started recording with record label EMI and on the personal side, the CD is dedicated to his first newborn daughter. He also discovers in his native Biscay, an ancestral place, full of life and color: Urdaibai, declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO since 1984, it is here where he was inspired to compose several songs of this album. As usual, Kepa counts with a host of collaborators, musicians and singers: the voices of Bulgarka Junior, the choir of voices Albanesas, Glen Velez, Justin Vali, among many more. Kepa Junkera receives the gold record for MAREN, a deserved reward for an intensive labor and retailer that offers a different view point of the music at its most beautiful state.

TRICKY!

In 2000 Kepa Junkera presents a compilation album, expressly for his Japanese tour. Here we can find famous themes as Huriondo or Zolloko Martinak even Gaztelugatxeko Martxa. Thus, Kepa Junkera wanted the Nippon public to come closer to his music and also his special of understanding the music. With 17 songs in this CD, TRICKY is a “perfect” summary of what we can call the “musical road” Kepa Junkera has walked in his career.

BILBAO 00:00H

Bilbao 00:00h is one of the most important records in the discography of Kepa Junkera. More than 40 folk musicians from all over the world work together in this album that is dedicated to his native city, Bilbao. Le bouttine Souriante, Phil Cunningham, Béla Fleck, Hedningarna, Dulce Pontes, Benito Lertxundi, Oskorri, Liam O´Flynn, Paddy Moloney and many more…  will make this double album the best folk album of the year.  Thanks to the this album Kepa receives numerous awards that gives Kepa international recognition and consolidating his prestige as a great performer and one of the most important musicians in Europe. Seven months after its release, Kepa receives the golden album award, something that in the Basque musical scene of the folk music is totally a milestone.

LEONEN ORROAK

Recorded in 1996 it is a tribute to the “albokari” (the person que plays the alboka instrument) Leon Bilbao. In this album, Kepa and Ibon Koteron Junkera merges sound and texture of the triki with the alboka, (a ram’s horn played with a circular breathing technique), “double Basque clarinet” old pastoral instrument that slowly begins to make room in the Basque musical scene. Kepa, with this album wants to deepen in his roots, which he had been drawn years ago, using ancient instruments and rhythms but all adapted to the XXI century, for this Kepa gathers many collaborators, LEONEN ORROAK is far the most complex album Kepa has faced by the moment, the countless collaborations and the complexity of this production directed by himself, makes this album a perfect example in which this musician from Bilbao will gradually increase his musical views. Undoubtedly, LEONEN ORROAK, has another musical genius in the Basque music scene, Ibon Koteron, Albokari, which will participate in the future in many new projects of Kepa Junkera.

ESKUTARA LAU

Together with musician Julio Pereira, in 1995, Kepa Junkera launches ESKUTARA LAU . “Portugal and Euskadi at four hands” and could best describe this work. They concurred for the first time in Fadura, Getxo, at the invitation made by the Chieftains. Later, both also attended the recording of SANTIAGO, the legendary album of the Chieftains, Grammy winner for best folk album of 1997. In the different paths that opens this ESKUTARA LAU, themes will be entangled and mixing, driven by their personalities, slow and easy by Julio Pereira and vital and nervous by Kepa Junkera, melancholy and sentimental, in the depths of this album, the underlying land, water and the sea, leaving aside the cool jazz sound of the city, seeking the warmth of a vital crossroads in Lisbon. As for an example, the song SODADE, as the meeting of cultures.  Many are live recordings, which pervades this work with a special magic, resulting in a unique record.

KALEJIRA AL BUK

Kepa now focuses towards a more careful and complex music; complex in terms of recording, live concert etc… On one hand, he begins to add two “new” musical instruments, the txalaparta (an ancestral xylophone played by horizontal planks bit with vertical sticks) and alboka (ram’s horn played with a circular breathing technique). These two instruments, ancestral to the Basque culture, takes in this project a new role which until now that has not had in the Basque music, announcing what will be the roots for Kepa Junkera´s future music. As usual, he surrounds himself with numerous partners, including Mikel Laboa, Joseba Tapia or Natxo de Felipe, giving us an album with more rock than before heard.  This work boasts him, just as his purest love for his city, Bilbao; this feeling we can find in other albums, but in this album he was exclusively devoted a song to his hometown called, how not, BILBO. This album also surprises us with something new: mixing the sound of triki and the Basque native rhythms with lyrics in English.

TRANS EUROPE DIATONIQUE

Traveling through Europe, Kepa Junkera meets Riccardo Tesi and out of this friendship came the invitation for Kepa by Riccardo Tesi to form a trio, together with Riccardo and Kepa, a skilled accordionist Englishman John Kirkpatrick was the last person to form this ingenious trio. Having visited several places throughout Europe playing together throughout 1992, they chose Belgium to stop and record this album. How could it be any otherwise, the following year TRANS-EUROPE DIATONIQUE was released, where they recorded the sounds and rhythms of the three diatonic accordions.  The experience was so positive and rewarding that it was hardly any work at all to unite the three styles so different from each other. They played in many places, six hands, sometimes without even sound equipment, in a total and exciting direct, an amazing show for those who enjoyed at the moment. So this way Kepa Junkera not only did he broad his horizons but jumped at the opportunity and learned as much as he could of the European world of the show, true in his way of thinking and doing things, Kepa immersed himself in everything he could experiment and see, so in the future it would help him to adapt to his shows. This disc, that today is impossible to achieve, is really special. In the album, the three accordionists merged their skills and their understanding of the music, to create a mythic work, which summarizes the experiences of the three performers offering the audiences something new and different from what they have listen at the moment.

TRIKITIXA ZOOM

Kepa Junkera publishes in 1991 TRIKITIXA ZOOM, combining the trikitixa with a jazz group.  This recording is a groundbreaking in the world of the trikitixa which his first award winning the year before “The 5^th Demonstration of Actual Folk for Young Interpreters” leads him to create this album.  Again Kepa, ahead in his times, composes themes that later on will revolutionize the trikitixa scene.  That is Kepa Junkera´s major achievement for the moment, making the trikitixa more than an ordinary instrument for the village’s festivals. Songs like IRLANDA or BIHAR ARTE are some great examples of the musical strength that the trikitixa has combined with other instruments.

TRIKI UP

September 1990, Kepa presents TRIKI UP, an avant-garde and experimental album.  A recording filled with color and different textures where the trikitixa, jazz, fandango and swing dance together in a miscegenation code.  With out a doubt this is the first time Kepa gives us a different view of the trikitixa, that it is an important instrument just like any other, taking away that “burden” of being considered an instrument of the farm villages and that can only play traditional folk music.  This recording marks one of the most expectacular and important moments for the instrument.  The album, as well as Kepa, ahead of time did not receive any eco what so ever in the Basque musical scene.

INFERNUKO AUSPOA

May 1988, Kepa Junkera published with Jose Mari Santiago (nicknamed Motriku) and Iñaki Zabaleta, the album KEPA, ZABALETA eta MOTRIKU. He records his very first album in which all the themes are his. The newness of this album lies in its content. The new songs brought freshness to the world of the trikitilari and a new perspective that has revolutionized the world of traditional trikitixa. Although at that time it was criticized, the truth of the matter was that songs like “Huriondo” or “San Martinak Zolloko” have already become classics. Kepa Junkera has broken many barriers in the traditional Basque music with this album and when time goes by then we will know the great impact in had.

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