At the foot II

Bas(h) Elkar, 2023

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Few will know Robbie Basho. The American guitarist took over the Asian melody and took the last name of the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho. Joxean Arce also received quotes from that poet investigating the religions of mundo.Beñat
Achiary was a member of Artze and, on the other hand, six years ago the guitarist Joseba Irazoki proposed to make a record in tribute to Robbie Basho. This year they meet again and, starting from their own compositions, they have created a much more round disc.

And what did they do? An amazing journey through the world and times. Long songs, some more demanding than others, rather than forming a universe, are a constellation for each of them as a beacon. But it's not a map because it's too free.

Post rock, post folk, jazz, tradition… what is this? But well, what am I asking? Father Achiary, his son Julen in the drums, Joseba Irazoki, and the Xiberutarra bassist Oihan Oliarj-Ines, now assembled, author of Zühainetan, one of the most important Basque discs of the last decade. The Basque vanguard was connected to
the world’s avant-garde in the 1970s, but over time we have lost our place. The musician Alberto Lizarralde says that our gaze has been for lack of gaze, because we thought that the Basque was only going to be for Euskaldunes.

And no. If there were no Basque people in our country, the group at the time of Bas would have a Kursaal, and in Barcelona I do not know which room, and in Paris this theater and in New York the other. Because this II at Bas(h) time is an amazing job to be connected to the world. And not just in cosmopolitan cities. Because this work has a language understandable to all cultures of the world that understands tradition.

I do not know if it is a matter of justice. But I find it unfair the lack of recognition of these musicians… Achiary is 75 years old and shows more freshness than any young man in the current Basque scene. Let us keep the most alive voice of our time young and free. Because the fingers of the forest tell us a lot more about the past and the future.