Another record we do have from Hazi Esporak!, the label in Bilbao run by Enrike Hurtado. Çucen henbilqueyen (e05/25) is credited to Ibonrg and Garazi Navas, and right from the start I’m facing similar obstacles to the oMOrruMU baMAt LP which we heard in 2023. That item, also featuring Ibonrg, was a tribute to the work of Joxan Artze, the Basque avant-garde poet and writer active in the 20th century, and in terms of language, geography, and culture, was all but unintelligible to any European outside of that region.
This time, the creators have reached back even further into history as part of their campaign to assert the primacy of the Basque language. The source is a book of poems written in the 16th century – published in 1545 to be exact – and penned by the obscure poet Bernat Etxepare. Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ (“First Fruits of the Basque Language”) was the very first printed book to appear in Basque; the contents are a mix of devotional religious songs, love poems, and discourses about his own life. As to the latter, little is known about this mysterious character, although scholars have made an effort to piece together some clues from historical context; he may have spent some time in jail due to his religious convictions. The creators of this record probably assume that Bernat was a bertsolari, a particular type of Basque poet who sung poetry in an improvised form; academics make this assumption from the style of his writing, the use of French spelling, and the fact that we can even detect a Lower Navarre “accent” in the text.
This brings us to an even more specific location; the Church of San Migel at Elexabeitia in Biscay, which was built just two hundred kilometres from where Bernat Etxepare lived. It’s within the “ancient walls” of this chapel or church (they use the archaic word “hermitage”) that today’s item was recorded, both Ibonrg and Garazi Navas evidently completing a compact of sorts as they cement this artistic statement into a very particular moment and location in history. Ibonrg sings and intones the adapted poems; Garazi Navas plays his accordion. There are also whistles, flutes, percussion and bells, but the main takeaway are these dirge-like songs and spartan minor-key melodies from the accordion. Even Nico solo records were less bleak! Not a single word sung in English – the duo remain 100% true to the all-Basque proposition – and while it may seem steeped in ancient history, there are attempts made to adapt the original source, and to bring some more contemporary elements to the project, including free improvisation.
A bracing listen; working within the constraints they have set themselves, both musicians throw themselves into the task, and there’s a lot of honesty and emotion in their strange performances as they reincarnate themselves as bertsolari. Highly singular, unique record. (09/09/2025).