Ilhargi-min
ILHARGI-MIN (moon sickness) is Josetxo Goia-Aribe’s
4th album. The compilation involves the collaboration of the Xiberoa (Atlantic
Pyrenees) singer Maddi Oihenart, in herself a reference point in traditional
Basque song. Maddi is regarded by different critics, commentators and experts
as one of the fullest, most sincere and least “sweetened” voices
on the current traditional Basque music scene, someone who has inherited a form
of singing which never ceases to amaze and tempt newer generations.
The exquisitely sensitive Guipuzcoan pianist Juantxo Zeberio has without a shadow
of a doubt been elemental in the realisation of this musical idea, as has the
double-bass player Marc Buronfosse, Josetxo Goia-Aribe’s travelling companion
over many a tortuous road.
Texts from Basque poets and writers such as Lizardi, Itxaro Borda, Josetxo Azkona,
Jon Mirande, Julio Villar and Etxahun, and passages from folk literature comprise
the literary content of this record. A sense of complicity between voice, sax,
piano and double bass seeks out a fulcrum where stories of birds, frogs, spiders
and fish cross paths with reflections upon the social reality of the Basque
Country.
