Kepa Junkera & Sorginak
Trikitixaren Historia Txiki Bat – Una Pequeña Historia de la Trikitixa (Fol, 2014)
After several recordings fusing Basque accordion music with the sounds of the globe, Kepa Junkera returns to his roots on Trikitixaren Historia Txiki Bat – Una Pequeña Historia De La Trikitixa (a little history of the tritikitixa). Tritikitixa is the name given to the Basque diatonic accordion.
Even though the accordion was not a native instrument, its portability and musicality made it attractive to Basque traditional musicians who adopted it very quickly.
Trikitixaren Historia Txiki Bat – Una Pequeña Historia de la Trikitixa features a mix of original compositions by Junkera along with traditional dances and tunes adapted by Junkera.
On this recording, most of the pieces feature accordion as the lead instrument accompanied by frame drum percussion and harmony vocals. Sorginak is a group of young women who sing and play tambourines and frame drums. It’s modeled after the well-liked Galician pandereiteiras who made a comeback in recent decades. Sorginak also uses the increasingly popular pandero cuadrado (square frame drum) from western Spain.
On Trikitixaren Historia Txiki Bat – Una Pequeña Historia de la Trikitixa Kepa Junkera plays accordion, panderos (frame drums) from various parts of Spain, panderetas (tambourines), and other percussion instruments.
Sornikak includes Amets Ormaetxea on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; Eneritz Aulestia on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; Leire Etxezarreta on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; Irati Gutiérrez on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; Garazi Otaegi on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; Maria Lasa on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion; and Alaitz Escudero on tambourine, vocals, dance and percussion.
Other guests include José Maria Santiago, Landakanda Iturbide, Leturia and Imanol on tambourines; Eliseo Parra on tambourines and frame drums; Xabier Diaz on tambourines, frame drums, and sea conch.
The CD comes in a hard cover mini-LP 154-page book packed with photos and articles about the history of the Basque accordion. As I mentioned in earlier reviews, Kepa Junkera received substantial subsidies from the Basque autonomous government to produce various recordings so that’s why his CD packaging is always impressive. In addition, the current Value Added Tax (VAT) in Spain is very high so by releasing a book+CD, the label gets the lower book rate.
Purchase Trikitixaren Historia Txiki Bat – Una Pequeña Historia de la Trikitixa
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
