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Ibon Koteron
Airea
$16.99

The master of the Basque alboka a daring and unusual concept album that offers this simple yet powerful reed instrument in a wild array of presentations and settings. It focuses on reeds not only from Spain, but from around the world: the duduk of Armenia, the liru and mänkeri of Finland. the launeddas of Italy and la tsambouna (the skin of a goat with all the orifices and legs sealed except for two, similar to a bagpipe in sound). To this is added hurdy-gurdy, txalaparta, accordion, voices and much more. Ably produced by Kepa Junkera, it features a great supporting cast including Gilles Chabenat, ETXAK, Iñaki Plaza and Ruben Isasi, Kepa Junkera, Roston Kuchichian, Heikki Syrjänen and Pekka Westerholm (from Finland's World Mankeri Orchestra), Faltriqueira, Ruper Ordorika, Soledona and Andrea Pisu.

Listen:
Airea
Txili sauce (alboka solo)
Nabilela (w/ Faltriqueira)
Laurren nigarra

Press from the record label:
Collective memory is the cultural defence used to survive difficult times. Traditional instruments have inevitably been adapted with social, cultural and technological evolution over time. Traditional instruments with antique character such as the (txalaparta, alboka... exist today thanks to the important social function that they play, turning them into essential elements of the nation´s rituals. On the other hand musicians have also done everything to better the tone, tuning, definition, adaptation, and aesthetics in a time where everything is going digital. They still contribute their fundamental musical and emotional values and they still keep weaving the rich and smooth fabric of popular music.

La alboka, the double clarinet, one of the most important musical links of our cultural patrimony and its development. This adaptation and improvements of the same help this their transmission. Thanks to musicians of the likes of León Bilbao and Txilibrin, Ibon Koteron and Kepa Junkera are secure a future. Their first piece titled LEONEN ORROAK (Elkar-1996) illustrated good taste and a meted that is carried over to this album "AIREA", The disc is consequence of a laborious and passionate job of investigation, creation and production put together on this impacting album, exuberant in magical sounds and its explosive rhythmic combinations that mix to come together to run with the more contemporary side of world music. "AIREA" is a refreshing air of our memory.

Just like the alboka, "Airea" is a dialectical album. It is a rich dialogue of instruments that include the hurdy-gurdy, the duduk, the Liru (an the ancient Karelian heteroglothic clarinet, carved in wood with a number of finger-holes) the mänkeri, (a five-tone reed instruments a medieval clarinet that came to Finland in the 1500s from Germany). the launeddas (a polyphonic instrument made of 3 canes) la tsambouna ( it is the skin of a goat with all the orifices and legs sealed except for two, and similar to a bagpipe in sound). la txalaparta, and diverse ethnic percussion mixed in with electronic productions. A multitude of cultures are included in this project that has brings the primitive alboka sounds alive, without discarding the possibilities of up to date technology. Thanks to this it has been possible to experiment with the sounds and to record together being thousands of miles apart. "Airea", this air takes us on a journey to the remote past to unexplored territories, which for see a new future for the alboka.

The important collaborations include Gilles Chabenat, ETXAK, Iñaki Plaza and Ruben Isasi, Kepa Junkera, Roston Kuchichian, Heikki Syrjänen, Pekka Westerholm, Faltriqueira, Ruper Ordorika, Soledona and Andrea Pisu, makes this album into an extremely important reference of popular culture. "AIREA" flows with constant renovation. As well as being attractive music, which flourishes from the old tree of our memory, it is popular nature that lasts.