- Musicians, creators and artists were left with the urgency of “reinventing” themselves at the beginning of the confinement. What was a financial disaster for their lives has been perceived by many as an opportunity, at least to feed their career. Many actors and media have also opened the doors to this passionate contemporary passion for reinventing themselves and have asked stabbed – and musutruk, of course – videos and concerts made at home.
Gartxot has not been asked for anything. It carries in the veins the eagerness to create. And it's obvious. Only at the Best Fest 2017 UP Festival! He went up dressed as a dog on the stage of the Bukowski bar in San Sebastian and since then he has always been dressed up as a dog head (“always”, of course when he sings). And as he has since done in his Bizaldi project, he freely translates songs that come from other languages and makes his own adaptation.
By writing these lines, Gartxot Unsain has uploaded version 90 to Youtube under the name of Kuarentena sessions. Version of Frank Ocean by Donostiarra Iñigo Serrulla. It has been one of the most produced works so far, along with electronic production and the reverse. But he has offered us everything. Alex Ubago, Bon Iver, Maria Arnal and Marcel Bages, Grays and Cohen in Basque, Billie Eilish, Tame Impala... Everyone is on your Youtube channel, including Aserejé!
I shall repeat: Gartxot has made 90 versions in just two months. Some are more elaborate, some are simpler. But what does that matter? The songs have been used to play, to launch their messages, to offer their demands and to offer reflections that have come to the forefront in this difficult situation. We are more than one who thanks to him we have discovered good music. And the ones we've enjoyed with beautiful words: creativity "to be and not to be."
Gorka Bereziartua recently told us to reflect on the anxiety we live in the cultural sphere in ARGIA: “The massive precariousness of life, the lack of economic security, social isolation and new forms of socialization focused on permanent technological intermediation have created a society that lives in constant concern.” And that influences culture, for example, streaming concerts that have multiplied during lockdown.
I accept, I haven't heard any of the uploaded songs. Because although consumption is more massive than ever, supply is also more massive than ever before. Too massive. And that’s why market logics work differently when it comes to culture, music or art (“All Northern Market Depended”). And that's why experiments like Gartxot's are so beautiful. Because they're given for free, or rather, because they don't expect anything in return.
PD: Only Better Fest is not going to be held for now. Not because of COVID-19, because we already had a virus that wants to privatize culture and destroy the non-commercial scene.