The first concert offered by the Usurbil group is far away. The project began 17 years ago, when Luken Arkarazo (guitar and voice), Joanes Txueka (bass), BEÑAT Txueka (guitar) and Jokin Irastorza (drums) decided to create the Voice of the Blood. In 2022, I wrote in Argia: “Throwing away different music, with a clear ambition to confuse rhymes, they have sought their own voice in the melodies. But at the root have always been the word, the meaning and the voice.” The ambition between rock and hardcore has been, from the very beginning, to say things to the listener, to bring to the stage what we live every day to the end.

During all these years the group has sung the defense of the Basque Country, internationalism, precariousness... I will reflect on the fact that in this way the music of the group has been sharpened. Since Odolaren Mintzoa was published in 2013 to Hauskor, both the poetic weight and the melodies of the letters have been refined. Along with all of them, it has been a project that has been raised, from the effervescence of the song Mirabe, to the exploration of the Last Beach, published in 2022 with the collaboration of the musician Serge of the Eraso group. In the works published so far (Odolaren Mintzoa, Elkar Estudioa Sesioak, Desetsi kontra, Hauskor) have dared to challenge the listener, to play with more abstract melodies… this daring must be recognized to the Usurbil quartet.

Hello among friends: Galicia and Usurbil

The band has created records in the Garate de Andoain studios run by Kaki Arkarazo. There the group coincided with the Nao project, led by Pablo Carracedo Jasper of Galicia, and since then there have been many concerts that both groups offered together within the dynamic “Hamaika herri borroka bakarra”, both in the Basque Country and in Galicia. The importance of singing in Garate from the mother tongue has remained. Over the years there have been close links between the two projects, to the extent that the followers of each group have become friends.

Before the pandemic, Nao left the scenes. Jasper and Amos Varela published a new project called Loita Amada. They will take advantage of Loita Amada’s end-of-tour concert to celebrate the friendship that has been created between the two groups and to dismiss Odolaren Mintzoa in Galician lands. The concert will take place this Friday at the Capitol of Santiago de Compostela and the usurbildarra quartet will act as a telonero at the Kursaal Auditorium of Donostia. It's expected to be a Galician music festival. Loita Amada's concert will also feature some of the artists who have become Galician referents, such as Taxungueiras, Nervo-Rebelom de Inframundo, Hugo SonDaRúa, among others.

After the concert of Santiago, Odolaren Mintzoa will offer a definitive greeting at home on the 25th in the Fronton of Usurbil, together with the groups of the people. Tickets to enjoy the concerts and the all-day program are on sale at the bar Aitzaga de Usurbil and on the web usurbilkultura.eus. The concert entrance is 10 euros and the popular food is 25 euros for concerts.