You had to file this album on May 24 at the Berlin Philharmonic, but because of the situation caused by COVID-19, you had to stream it. What host is the album having with these conditioners?

The truth is, I've had a big surprise -- but it's being great. It's a very personal record. Gather my best-known pieces in the adaptations for string and accordion orchestras. It's not mainstream, not much less -- but my music reaches more people than it has come. I'm very amazed. We were made a report in the TVE1 Newsroom and in Canal 24H TVE; we have also been in the “Critical Eye” of RNE1 and in the Magacín of the morning of Pepa Fernández; in Catalunya Musica and in a lot of radios of Euskal Herria (Euskadi Irratia, Basque Radio. Most newspapers in Euskal Herria have also published a page on our album (Berria, El Diario Vasco, Gara, Deia, El Correo, Noticias de Gipuzkoa...), as well as Diario Montañés, El Norte de Castilla... I did not imagine, by any chance, such a welcome. We have received very nice criticisms and words. We have also closed some concerts for the autumn, and the Berlin Philharmonic will be able to do so in March. In this COVID-19 situation -- it was really hard to imagine a lot more before I took the record out.

I guess the lockdown for musicians is being quite tough. Are you already with a big withdrawal syndrome to act live?

A lot of it. In addition to the intention to play, it is also suffering a major economic blow... But well, you always have to take the good side out and I'm leveraging to compose. I think in these weeks I have written very nice things. I had to present a new piece for accordion and orchestra (which I have just finished) in Berlin and, faced with the impossibility of presenting it, I presented to the PIF compositions contest in Castelfidardo and they gave me the first prize just last weekend. It's the world's largest and most prestigious accordion festival and receiving such a prize -- a lot of surprise and joy. I am also finishing the extensive work (40 minutes) for choir, string orchestra and Urretxu accordion to Mundura Iparragirre. We had to release it in June in Urretxu, but this has also been delayed. The good thing is, I'm having a little more time to compose. I have never written such a “big” piece: by length, by instrumentation and by feeling – I was born 200 meters from the house of Iparragirre and I have always felt that I owed such a tribute to him.

One of the bases of the disc is the rich dialogue between the rope instruments and the accordion. What have you tried to bring the two together?

I come from the classical music world and I am still a professor of the Conservatory today. Until I was twenty-two, I played almost just that: classical music. Then, playing with rock musicians, techno, tango, fado, celtic music, flamenco, jazz and other worlds, I have opened my eyes a lot and I think my music has also enriched a lot, but now, surrounded by string instruments, I wanted to give a more classic air to my compositions. It has been, to a large extent, a return to “home” (classical music).

You opened the album with the song Gernika 26/4/1937. Before we knew the recorded version with Jon Maia and Pitti of the album Ele, Lauaxeta - Lorca, with different versions. In 1994, I composed this song based on Picasso's painting and Gernika's bombardment. What will the listener find in this new version?

I composed it at the age of 17, and maybe it's one of my most well-known works worldwide. I've made a thousand arrangements with this work. My music is not designed for concrete instrumentation and I can easily fix it for different instrumentations. On this occasion, I have searched for a more “noble” version, with that “class” that gives it the string.

The album has very vivid and exciting pieces, such as Galiano in Santiago. I get the impression that when we talk about cultured music, we often think of it as something very cerebral. Are there too many biases in a broad sense about anything other than music we call pop?

Prejudice is free. We each have the ones we have, because we have chosen them or, in most cases, because the media or environments we listen to have transmitted them to us. I've always tried to break prejudices in every part of my life and more in the world of accordion. I have always tried to do what is not expected of the accordion, touching with this instrument styles that normally do not touch. And classical music -- well, I understand that "prejudice" that you have largely mentioned. Because many composers (and performers) who often make contemporary music forget (often intentionally) the listener. They often write for an elite (not always), an elite contemporary music that runs the world of classical music. I was a young man and I've always tried to keep it. The devil is prejudice, the elites! I want to think that my music is “classical music”, but it is outside the canons of “contemporary music”, it is more open, than “anyone” (even if it is not a musical formation) can listen and enjoy.

By the way, what is the point of that classification that now separates cultured music from pop?

No. It's music, it's music. It is becoming more and more difficult to set limits. All styles of “modern” music (jazz, folk, pop...) come from intuition and the musicians who once worked that style did not have any learning, but today it is very different. In addition to the studies, in all these music styles you can find artists who perform highly developed and studied music. Setting limits is very difficult. Listening to my music, the “purists” of all styles say that folk is jazz, that jazz is classical music and that classical music is folk. But I play at festivals of all those styles, because I'm among those three styles, I think. I have as a model what Astor Piazzolla did in his day by mixing Argentine, jazz and classical music. Of course, I am not Piazzolla and I will never reach its level, but, to a large extent, its eclectic and open style is my direction.

What is it for Gorka Hermosa Richard Galliano?

He has been a disciple of Galliano Piazzolla, he is doing with French music what he did with the Argentinean Piazzolla... and also playing my instrument. It's an idol for me. I've learned a lot to listen to their albums and I've been very excited (chickener and often even crying) every time I've gone to their concerts. It's certainly a source of inspiration for me.

It seemed to me to be a song that goes down completely unpredictable paths, full of nuances, long development. And the cultured/popular music we talked about earlier might teach us something about that distribution. They worked on the Got Talent programme in Poland. What was that story like?

Yes -- a young man playing that piece, Lukas Gogol, won that show in Poland. It's a "weird" piece, and I was really surprised when he chose that piece for that moment -- and more when I knew he won it. I've always thought that my music is for "few people," but that moment broke many of the mentalities that I had inside me and yes, in one way or another, it made me realize that my music could reach more people.

The song Milonga del vent seemed luminous to me. Do we have to understand it as a variation of the Milonga of Jorge Morel's wind?

This is a piece between Milonga and Bossa nova, very open. It has a point of innocence between melancholy and joy. I've never heard Jorge Morel, but as I answer this conversation I'm listening -- and it can have an air. Like many milongas for guitar. Perhaps the most noble is the fusion that we do with my Bossa in Milonga and mixed with the harmonies that Richard Galliano often uses, the dark air that we get in the stanzas and then becomes clear in the choruses.

Is it a tribute to Enrike Zelaia...? Piece?

Henry’s work has a great merit. Between 1950 and 1980 he was a star, perhaps the first musician to play Basque music in a virtuous way. And he sold thousands of records. Picking up some of the melodies that he played and others of mine, I wrote this piece wanting to reclaim it. I recorded it on the album Flamenco Etxea at the rhythm of the flamenco bulería and played at The Concerts of Radio 3, in TVE. She saw him and called me, made him an illusion of all heart. Then I had the opportunity to play with her this piece with the Haize Berriak band from Altsasu and now I have made an adaptation for string orchestra, giving it a more classic air.

You are also a historian of the accordion, just as the readers of ARGIA have recently seen when reading the article about Juan Bautista Seeks. The instrument had great popularity in our towns and cities in the last century; today, how do you see the future of its work tool?

Yes, I have written 4 books and many articles on the history of accordion and have given lectures around the world (China, South America, Europe...) on this subject. I love the story and much more the story of our instrument. Since its foundation in 1829, it has spread rapidly around the world: In 1830 he arrived in Russia, in 1836 in Kabul, in 1839 in New Zealand... He immediately entered the heart of all the people of the world and their folks. In the first half of the twentieth century it was a “fashion” instrument. In 1950, in Italy (where most of the accordions are produced), the accordion industry became the second industry in Italy, behind the car industry (FIAT). Then came The Beatles, the fashion instrument was the electric guitar, and a big descent of the accordion occurred until the late 20th century. Since then it has remained quite stable in quantity, but I think it has risen a lot in quality, entering other areas: conservatories, classical music, jazz... and of course, keeping popular music. Today there are more accordionists than ever in every field and in China, which is the future, it is very widespread: there are more accordionists in China than in the rest of the world at once. I've been playing three times and the number of accordionists and above all the level there is is impressive. I therefore believe that the instrument has a promising future.

In your musical trajectory you can see that you've done everything: You've been the first accordionist to play with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, you've played around the world, but without forgetting your home, as a sign of it you did with Jon Plazaola a popular opera in Urretxu-Zumarraga. In this continuous search, what is the next stop?

I've been very lucky to play with great teachers of very different styles and to learn directly from them. At the same time, I've always tried to stay very close to Urretxu, and yes, the Herri Opera you're talking about was huge. With Jon Plazaola as the protagonist, we were over 700 local artists, mixing music, theater and other arts. Correcting this show was one of the nicest things I've ever done. Maybe the nicest one. Especially for doing with people in the village. About the next stops... I have several projects underway: we have recently released the album Atlantia Ë Ria mixing flamenco, Basque music and African music; with the jazz fusion trio Malandro Club we have many concerts around the world; with Hezurbeltz (with Jon Maia and guitarist Pitti) we are giving many concerts in Euskal Herria; finally we are preparing different albums. So I get bored, I don't get very bored (laughed). I come for very nice months, if this disgusting COVID-19 allows us (laughs).