Chillida-Leku

Published in DEIA, December 23, 2010







THE human evolution has not had a constant continuity throughout history. Moments of a great development have followed with other ones of sudden stop and stagnation. But even so, there is something that always has kept on unalterable, the benefit of art. I am ignorant of the true motive it has been always pigeonholed in the divertissement, the enjoyment and even I would say as a pastime, when in reality it is one of the fundamental pieces on which lays the foundations of the correct development of every society. We already know the dispute surrounding with the possible closedown of the museum Chillida Leku of Hernani. Eduardo Chillida is an artist whose work fascinates me. I have visited several times the museum; sometime I have even interpreted my music inside the facility. Certainly, it is an authentic delight to take a walk around the gardens admiring his works. The shapes, the force, its energy, what he transmits, it all forms a work of art in herself, which is one of the emblems of Chillida Leku. But it is that this museum, it is not only an area where exhibiting the donostiarra artist's talent, but also the person in charge of protecting all his patrimony and negotiating the way creator wanted it to be. At the end, as always, everything is a cost-reducing issue: The financial crisis, problems of management, etc.

Everything has been said, but we also should tone up a “my fault" from our part, the citizens, for the poor interest that arouses our artistic inside of us. The art in any of his disciplines makes us better, develops our neuronal system like in the capacity of transmitting feelings. And I don’t know if we are aware of it. We are a species that evolves based on needs, before materials were more urgent, now, the same ones, becomes of a very different nature, more personal. But it seems that we keep on going without realizing it. Let's promote pleasure and the need for art and our society will evolve firm, still with results in the long run, but definitely, forever.

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Photograph by txokoarte

MORENTE

Published in DEIA, Dec. 16, 2010


I know his daughter, Estrella. Curiously she was the person who opened the trilogy project singing Haurtxo txiki of the album Etxea. I always imagined being able to fuse together our oral tradition with the flamenco music and the result was spectacular. They have just mention to me that she sang softly to her father’s ears melodies and songs while he found himself bedridden in the hospital. Incredible! Enrique Morente, the great revolutionary of the singing, past away last Monday at the age of 67. The "maestro" that every time he sung imposed the law of his talent he was one of the most renewing and important figures of the contemporary flamenco. He was born on Christmas Day, 1942 in Granada and being an adolescent he traveled to Madrid being very curious of learning and discovering the secrets of singing. Enrique "el granaíno" (the man from Granda) as he was known then, aroused the interest of a full heart born ethnic Flamenco singer, Pepe de la Matrona, because of his attitude and devotion in his art. During his career he touched stick there was, as well he presumed, affirming that he was the only capable one to sing the "49 notes and half of the jondo". He fused the flamenco with oceans of cultures and music’s. He experimented with a lot of artists of very different styles. He sang poems and the letters of the most important writers and also he could dedicate himself to the pure of singing. He always looked further on and was ahead of his time, with the resulting criticisms; "They criticized me of being innovative and not being Gypsy", he said. He obtained very important prizes like the National Award of Music or the gold Medal to the Merit in the Fine Arts among others. Besides he had and kept a deep affection to our land and maintained a great friendship with another great artist of our homeland, Mikel Laboa. Flamenco is something energetic, sincere, of worldly essence, something that is kept in their souls, a mystery that reminds the crying and forces it vast of the human soul. Morente would say that you have to be "savage, free and to sing what you feel", or what is all the same, being oneself. Thank you "Maestro" for so much talent and all the singing.


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NUN HAGO?

Published in DEIA, Dec. 9, 2010




All bottled up in the most important dates of the Basque culture, collecting affection and the support of a great many people. And at the same time, one great of the cultural Basque panorama has left us after a life of brawl and passion. Xabier Lete has been one of those figures that who also in time will be appraised as he should be. He was born in Oiartzun in 1944 and one of the members of that mythical group was so-called Ez Dok Amairu very discipled along with Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, José angel Irigaray, José Antonio Artze or Lourdes Iriondo. He and many others have been my teachers and in which I have gotten inspired when creating many of my albums. He was poet, singer and above all an passionate of our culture and of our essence that he protected when it was not easy to do and in which he based later on in sculpturing true works of art that grew from his talent. In the course of his life he published many works and even having political responsibilities that he had to retire because of health problems in 1985. Recovered of his sickness Xabier continued with his work as a singer and poet and received rewards and very important recognitions like the reward of Felipe Arrese Beitia poetry, granted by Euskaltzaindia, or the one of the Basque Country in Literature. All artists always have a special workart; a composition that, God knows why, reaches the public's heart. Past the years or playing hundreds of concerts, the public will always ask for that book, that song or the melody that accompanies your name. And who hasn’t listened to Xalbadorren Herio-tzean sung by Xabier? I was stunned watching him reciting and singing the ballads of the folksongs with such passion on TV. His fists tight, his teeth and mouth with tension and with that stressed mouth and his gaze that emanated "emotion". Always looking into the deep inner feeling in order to stir up and express the hidden. Gora zu XABIER!!


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Osotasunean

Published in DEIA, December 10, 2010





Here we are in Christmas season, starting off with Saint Thomas's, Christmas and New Year..... And also another year is the Durango´s Fair of the Basque Books and Music. I’m eager to be there. Lately, I have not been able to attend because of my tight and busy agenda, but this year indeed I need to feel the atmosphere of "tis the season”. Besides this year is very special for me, I will present for the first time to the public the complete Trilogy of the Basque Folk Music. There I will be in the same stand of Hiri Records, among others, the three records: Etxea, Kalea and Herria. The three chapters in which we have summarized the day's run lived during the realization of this project. It thrills me to remember many of the moments lived throughout this trip and seeing that this concluded adventure is reflected in each and every one of the 74 songs that have been recorded. 283 artists of 49 countries, infinity of producers, technicians, photographers, video cameras, managers, people of production, studios. We all have worked to the fullest; achieving a project that I am very proud of for the illusion and all hard effort everyone has put in this trilogy, demonstrating that music does not understand neither frontiers nor languages. All looking for a common goal, sharing our identity there where, somehow, we already have been present. This weekend, Durango can be a perfect starting point for this personal journey, could be with the trilogy or with any other work that there, at the fair, they will expose, which I know will be many and very good ones. I for one am happy to have finished the work. Finished? The project never ends. It finishes the effort, the dedication, but while there are people that listening and living the songs stirs up their inner feelings, I am sure that the project will continue to be alive in the most strangest and fantastic corners of our soul and of the human essence, where each and every of the journeys reside through our wandering around takes us. We’ll see you in Durango!


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BESTEEGAN

Published in DEIA, Nov. 25, 2010





I BELIEVE THAT we have become the most incoherent species of the planet. We know that the motor of our existence is our mind. It is the part of our body that tells us apart from the rest of the living beings. And even so, we have transposed all our knowledge in upgrading our lives economically, sanitary, labor level, etc., Forgetting about the most affective and sentimental part. In a primary school in the Japanese city of Kanasawa the professor Toshiro Kanamori, 57 years old, that has be teaching more than over 30 years. In Kanamori´s class, he tries to reach out the idea of the true values of life to his students and of the pursuit of happiness. Toshiro affirms that a professor's most important job is making his students learn how to experiment and sharing the different experiences lived making good use of each opportunity to express one’s individually. That way he manages to create between his students strong affective links, that allow them to be able to express each and every feeling that exist inside of them. When they laugh, the really laugh, they cry deeply and feeling everything with intensity to make them finally live life to its most. During a year, a television’s team recorded all that happened during the class of Toshiro to realize an incredible documentary that has obtained a great success. They have taught us that to express our innermost feelings makes us different - That is something that others do not do!- and because of it we, during the years, acquire a cuirass that you hedge within yourself to feel safe. This documentary demonstrates that to express what one feels produces in others empathy, complicity and that joins the people, brings them closer together. We live in a world than instead of creating bonds between us; we tie them down in order that the other one does not escape, instead of showing of who we are, or playing the necessary role to conquer the fellow being. Expressing our emotions either in public or in private is something that we are not accustomed. It is about time to change, as Toshiro says “Let the people live in your heart..." so they can live forever in our soul.


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