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!


www.kepajunkera.com

AZKEN ERRONKA

Published in the newspaper DEIA on June 24, 2010


MY first contact with him was through reading several of his books. What an incredible ability to tell stories filled with strength and flowing in an amazing way! Of all, I was honored with this dedication to me, which is the following:

The oldest music was the human voice. Somehow we could say the man discovered the music within himself, inside each sound of a word of our rude forefathers, even when it was going to be necessary thousands of years before the first one would be formed. The music has always latent within the man, as a possibility, but, multiple and murmuring, it also lived in nature. The birds already singing, the wind whistling in the cavities of the grottoes, the cascades; thunders like a song of Richard Wagner in advance and altogether, and what we can also imagine, was the nature’s great orchestra, where an empty seat awaits the arrival of man. Which finally appeared holding in his hands a bone with holes called flute. And also a round object with a hole, with a skin stretched over the opening, which would receive the name of drum. Also bringing with him his own voice, and without no doubt, was one of the most sublime moments in history of mankind, in which a human being, man or woman, stood up to sing. From there on, it may not appear at first glance, but the songs collected by Kepa Junkera are about this, in this unique recording that surely will seek new directions in the composition and musical interpretations. To sing the language of others is the first challenge.

José Saramago, the prologue for the album ETXEA (2008).

After learning that Saramago had left us, I read again and again and my feelings pile up in my head. What fascinated me most about him was his sincerity and honesty that he has always been. Saramago was not great because of his work or for his Nobel, just of his pure essence. That is the real Nobel that we all should achieve after facing our own destiny, the ultimate challenge. MILA ESKER lagun!!! (THANK YOU, my friend!!!)


www.kepajunkera.com