Kepa Junkera

Published by DEIA, August 18, 2011

It’s the middle of the night, Tuesday August 16. I get up and it’s 3 in the morning. I turn the TV on and a gentleman is reading the Tarot cards.  A great many of people would wish to know which is going to be their future, according to them, to be able to take the correct decisions in their life.  Is the future written out?  What a fantastic mystery! Just image when I started to “play” with that old trikitixa, with one or two broken-down buttons, if somebody would have been able to tell me the essential point that it would be for me in my life. Seated in the living room, I look back on my long and fascinating career that I have taken to stub with this bellows of hell behind my back and I awake up from that journey with the vertigo of facing in a few hours a new project: Recording next to the Symphony Orchestra of Basque Country, directed by Enrique Ugarte, some of the most important themes of my career. Of course the idea impassions me and at the same time it is a hoped-for project years ago. It is not easy to try to join two worlds like the one of classical music with the folk music or more traditional.  Few times they interweave. We already work side by side previously in a concert officiated at the Kursaal of Donostia, but now we are going to ruffle up the curl and to make together, in a different and more innovative way, the themes selected for such project, side by side, that will be from those beginning songs that accompany me from the very start of my music career till the last new album Ultramarinos & Coloniales.  Definitively, we want to achieve a high-quality music and energy album filled with illusion, effort and lots of talent.  Who would have said year’s ago that a trikitixa would be seen accompanied by the whole symphony orchestra? I´m so excited thinking about that, aside from being new recording album, we are also creating new roads to explore, as much in classical music as in traditional one, uncovering new frontiers to an instrument like the trikitixa. I hope that between all of us we will be able to materialize all the unique and special moments that we are going to live thanks to the music. Now if the future of today was written or not in the present of yesterday, it’s the least important.  Break a leg!!!!

www.kepajunkera.com

Share on Facebook

FOR Kepa Junkera, frontiers do no exist, neither physicial nor mental. He has demonstrated it again in his last album, Herria. In order to record it he has travelled thousands of kilometres’ and sailed to several continents in search of interpreters and instruments that would put voice and music to the Basque folk songs. With Herria, Rekalde’s trikitilari closes in a brilliant way the trilogy that started 2008 with Etxea and followed by the next year with Kalea. In total more than 70 songs, 49 countries, 128 musicians and 155 singers. An overwhelmed number of participants that reveal the great effort accomplished during two long years for Kepa Junkera´s team. A team that yesterday was with him during the presentation of his new record, presented on stage of the remodelled Campos Elíseos.

Behind the scenes, in order to go by unnoticed, and as if it has nothing to deal with them, there was Aitor Narbaiza, Santi Yaniz, Bea Etxebeste, Kirmen Goikuria, among others. To all of them and too many more, Kepa Junkera wanted to thank their support that they offered him to be able to accomplish the project Herria. And also to a very special person, his wife, Miren Goikuria, who he mentioned filled with emotion of a man that has a special sensibility. The same feeling that impregnated his projects since he stepped on stage with a trikitixa at the town’s pilgrimages.

Kepa embarked with this project, in which he feels “very proud”, guided by a main principal: “To keep sharing euskera and our culture with people all over the world”. First came Etxea with state singers and musicians like Miguel Bosé, Loquillo, Estrella Morente or María del Mar Bonet. In Kalea he crossed the ocean, heading to the lands of South America, just as our forefathers did. And in Herria, the most travelling work of the three has left room for artists of so many awkward places as Boise, Istanbul or Hawaii. Yesterday, in the presentation, could not be the majority of 130 musicians that they have collaborated with in Herria could not be there, but nourished representations of Biscayan society were there. Because if what Kepa has are friends. They refused to lose the presentation like the mythical sportmen, José Ángel Iribar and Dani, that next to the executive Fermín Palomar they represented the Athletic. Also we found Marino Lejarreta, Xabier Jon Davalillo, Eduardo Castañeda, Carmelo Mendía, Marino Montero, Kike Santarén, José Ramón Epelde, Bingen Zupiria, Ktoño Frade, Beatriz Marcos, José Angel Pereda, Jesús Garitaonandía, Amaia Basterretxea, Julio Alegría, Iñaki Astigarraga, Mikel Bilbao, María Loizaga, Ignacio Casado, Andoni Olivares, Andoni Ortuzar, Beatriz Marcos, José María Amantes, Enrique Thate, Xabier Basañez, Juan Cid, Juan Carlos Belmonte who didn´t want to miss this day. And master of ceremonies, Isidro Elezgarai that would be why Caja Laboral (Basque Bank) has support Kepa in this musical boundary-free adventure.

By José Basurto ( DEIA )

Published in the newspaper DEIA

Share on Facebook

Kepa Junkera produces ‘HERRIA’, his last album of his international collective project.

Article written by:
Maider IZETA | LOS ANGELES.  News published in the Diario Vasco on June 6, 2010

He has recorded with singers of Iranian origin, Korean and Navajo Indian musicians
A camera man and a photographer accompanies Kepa Junkera during this musical journey
“The Basque people of California have given me a lot. They are people who enjoy these encounters ”

“Years ago I made a bet. As a musician, you have to consider challenges. There are many artists I admire and with whom I have always wanted to collaborate and work with them it´s a source of energy for me. “These are the convincing words of the musician of Biscay, Kepa Junkera when he speaks of ‘Etxea‘ and ‘Kalea‘, the first two albums of his trilogy of Basque songs that will come to an end in a few months with ‘Herria‘ and which is much more than a collection of traditional songs versions sung in Euskera by a wide range of guest artists.

The first two installments of this project which, judging by the given names to the records, travel from private space of home to the city’s public, passing through the nexus of both, the street, were released 2008 and 2009, respectively. Today, Junkera is immersed in the production of ‘Herria‘, the latest album of a project that, in the last legislature, was financially supported by the Basque Government.

As in the previous work, the Biscayan musician has been traveling to Europe, Africa and America in search of unique sounds to merge with the rhythmic melodies of trikitixa. This search has led him to settle temporarily in California. “I’ve been in cities like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Oakland …, places that attract me much by its diversity,” he says. In his visits to those cities, Junkera has recorded with Iranian-born singers, Korean musicians, Navajo Indians and a blues band, among others.

Continues to open doors

But Kepa Junkera´s project goes beyond the merely musical. His goal in this trilogy is, as he explains, “To open our music to the world. To do this, I have been helped by many interesting musicians, which I am very grateful. My goal is to continue to open doors. “Therefore, he visits cities like San Francisco or New York but not limited to long study sessions. Junkera spends time on the streets, collecting testimonies from people they have met during his travels.

A camera man and a photographer accompanies him on this musical journey. Some of the testimonies he has collected during his stay in California come from people of Basque origin. “I am very interested into uniting this chorus,” says the trikitilari. “The Basque people of California have given me a lot. These are people who enjoy these encounters and the experience is very positive. I receive love from them.”

In California, the main Basque communities are located in San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield and Chino. The people from Chino, located an hour from Los Angeles, have been directly involved in producing the next album of Junkera. And that ‘Herria‘ includes several songs recorded with the group NOKA. “We have recorded” Eperra’ “and some other themes. It’s being a very nice experience, “says Kepa Junkera. NOKA consists of three female descendants of Basques. The trio just released their second album of Basque folk songs, a work that fits well with the Junkera´s project. Besides recording with NOKA, visiting Chino, Kepa Junkera has been able to met the Basque Diaspora and collect their testimonies. Several people from the Euskal Etxea Chino (Chino Basque Club) have worked with the Biscay musician during his  stay in the Californian state.
Junkera´s album will be ready later this year: “I would like to release it in November. So my goal is to finish it by October. We’ll see.” Although he doesn´t known the number of songs included in ‘Herria‘, the musician Biscay is convinced that it will exceed the twenty songs. “It will be a double album as well. Follow the designs of ‘Etxea‘ and ‘Kalea‘.” From now until late summer, Kepa Junkera will continue to reside in California to continue his musical project.

Share on Facebook