Syntorama has been exclusively representing great musicians from all over the world since 1992, mainly in the fields of World Music and New Music. All of them are great artists who, in their richness and variety, have in common an internationally proven quality and an excellent live performance.
Artists
Arima Soul
Is the new Soul music project («Arima» means «Soul» in Basque) created by Mikel Makala (bass) and Lidia Insausti (vocals), later joined by Paul San Martin (keyboards) and Gorka Gaztanbide (drums). With a clear influence of Rhythm & Blues, Soul, Funk, Jazz-Groove of the 60’s & 70’s, but also with an eye on the contemporary Neo-Soul style.
Arima Soul
Is the new Soul music project («Arima» means «Soul» in Basque) created by Mikel Makala (bass) and Lidia Insausti (vocals), later joined by Paul San Martin (keyboards) and Gorka Gaztanbide (drums). With a clear influence of Rhythm & Blues, Soul, Funk, Jazz-Groove of the 60’s & 70’s, but also with an eye on the contemporary Neo-Soul style.
In their live shows, in addition to playing their own songs sung in Basque, they perform covers of some exponents of the genre such as Etta James, Gil Scott-Heron, Marie «Queenie» Lyons, …
In the summer of 2020 they recorded an EP with 5 original songs at Fredi Peláez’s Pottoko studio. At the beginning of 2021, they are nominated as «Best New Group» in the «Enlace Funk Awards 2020». And in the summer of 2021, they released a 7′ vinyl single, on Enlace Funk Discos label in Madrid, getting good reviews.
They have offered multiple concerts in some venues through the Basque Country and surroundings such as Dabadaba (Donosti), Altxerri Jazz Klub (Donosti), Kafe Antzokia (Bilbao), Modelo Aretoa (Zarautz), Balenciaga Museum (Guetaria), Arizkunenea (Elizondo-Baztán),… and festivals such as Musikaire (Elorrio), Tolosandblues (Tolosa), Jazz Herrian (Agurain), Atlantikaldia Festival (Renteria), Midnight Boogie Festival (Vitoria-Gasteiz), Itsas-Festibala (Pasaia), Berumuga (Bergara), Jazzez-Blai (Deba), Adarretatik Music Festival (Zarautz), Uztakale (Legazpi), Durangoko Azoka: Book & Record Fair (Durango),… and highlighting in the 57th Jazzaldia (Txikijazz), International Jazz Festival of Donostia-San Sebastián.
In the spring of 2022, they goes to Elkar studios in Donostia-San Sebastian to record the project’s first album, by the hand of sound engineer Víctor Sánchez, album that is released in the fall of that same year on the prestigious Basque label Elkar Musika.
At the end of 2022, they’re selected to be part of the «Girando por Salas – GPS#13» initiative, which in the first months of 2023 will take them to offer concerts, presenting their project in different Spanish cities.
Juan Mari Beltrán
His career reveals him to be a researcher, promoter and one of the most important figures of Basque folk music. From a young age, he was immersed in music, first playing the clarinet and the txistu and then picking up the baton from the last generation of folk musicians.
Juan Mari Beltrán
His career reveals him to be a researcher, promoter and one of the most important figures of Basque folk music.From a young age, he was immersed in music, first playing the clarinet and the txistu and then picking up the baton from the last generation of folk musicians. Together with his brother Bixente and the Artze brothers, he joined the Basque school of art set up by Jorge Oteiza in the 1960s as a txalaparta musician. This marked the beginning of a new era for the instrument, one based on the traditional txalaparta.
He has taken part in collectives such as the Contemporary Music Group, founded by the painter Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, and he created the groups Sustraiak, Azala and Txanbela. He also formed an artistic partnership with Joxan Goikoetxea. All this work has resulted in the release of several records.
Juan Mari Beltran has published numerous studies in the field of folk music and instruments and released the record and movie titled Euskal Herriko Soinu Tresnak, both considered among the most important documents in Basque folk organography.
He has taught alboka and txalaparta classes in the Hernani Music Conservatory since 1985, the same place where he created and directs the Txalaparta School. In recent years, he has given talks and led courses in different forums.
Juan Mari Beltran has also finally realised a project that he has been working on for many years: on 1st March 2002, Herri Musikaren Txokoa (Folk Music Corner) opened its doors to the public in Oiartzun. Both the exhibition space and archive have been in operation since then. http://www.herrimusika.org/
ARDITURRI, for sextet, was Juan Mari Beltran’s first solo work. Produced by Suso Sáiz, the other musicians were Maddi Oihenart (voice), Joseba Tapia (trikitixa), Miriam Atxaerandio (violin), Oihana Irastortza (tambourine) and Joxan Goikoetxea (accordions).
On Arditurri, Juan Mari Beltran takes a complete journey through Basque traditional music.
In 2006, as a continuation of this project, he released the highly interesting record ORHIKO XORIA with Elkar. He has been performing the album in the Basque Country and beyond since its release.
On Orhiko Xoria, Juan Mari Beltran shows us that he feels indebted to the land from which we have received folk music. He takes that music freely and lives it, feels it, manipulates it and adjusts it to the traditional and current modes and instruments that he and his band use. The work is a blend of all possible combinations of sounds, rhythms, melodies, and ancient and new texts.
The music is taken directly from the land but with new forms applied by Juan Mari Beltran, as folk musicians before him have always done. It is the only way to keep the music alive: to combine tradition and contribution.
In October 2009, among many things going on, Juan Mari Beltran released a new project: TXALAPARTA (Nerea editorial and Syntorama, 2009), his masterpiece. It comprises a luxurious book rich in text, illustrations, sheet music and photographs, alongside a CD with 18 original pieces recorded exclusively for this project and produced by Suso Saiz, not to mention a DVD with footage from the recording sessions and unique interviews with various figures from the history of the txalaparta. The work is the result of a lengthy investigation that facilitates comprehensive knowledge of this music, with a focus on the journey and on the musical and social transformation of the txalaparta over the last forty years in terms of both old music and new trends.
Ttakun Ttan Ttakun is the logical outcome of this written piece set to music and uniquely brought to the stage. It is a journey through the sounds of the txalaparta that not only transports us to theatres and stages where we know this percussion instrument today, but in the blink of an eye takes us back to the kitchens of the country houses of old, or to a river where we once played, or to harvest season, where the sounds arose from agricultural tools.
Juan Mari Beltrán is currently promoting the album Hots-Larretan. Along this magical journey, Juan Mari Beltran and his team take us from the work rhythms of our forebears to txalaparta music as we know it today, using a fantastic show of lights and sounds, images, dance, rural settings and, of course, txalaparta beats in different formats.
On Kostaldeko soinuak, released in 2019, Juan Mari Beltran takes us on a voyage along our coast with songs that tell stories of the sea: boats setting sail, the lives of the sailors and their families, whaling, and many other stories of traditional life on the Basque coast.
The album comprises 16 songs compiled from the folk songbooks of Lapurdi, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia.
Some, such as Batelarien Zortzikoa from Pasaia, Kaskatore dantza from Lapurdi, Mariñalen polka and Kaixarranka from Lekeitio, are dance songs without lyrics.
The rest tackle all manner of themes: hunger on the boats, storms, tragedies, whaling, events in seafaring towns, the life of Christopher Columbus, emigration, the fears of the sailors who crossed the sea to Newfoundland, and more.
Most of these songs are lifted from the Basque Folk Songbook, published in the early 20th century by R.M. Azkue, and from the Basque Songbook by Padre Donostia. Some songs are more modern, including the melody of Pasaiako Batelarien Zortzikoa, arranged by Pablo Sorazabal, and Partida tristea Ternuara, by Oskorri, and a melody created by Juan Mari Beltran for 18th-century verses.
Sonakay
Sonakay debuted its first line-up in 2009, performing in the Jazz Altxerri gallery in Donostia/San Sebastián as part of International Romani Day. This Basque group with strong Romani roots comprises musicians with vast experience in other ensembles.
Sonakay
Sonakay debuted its first line-up in 2009, performing in the Jazz Altxerri gallery in Donostia/San Sebastián as part of International Romani Day.
This Basque group with strong Romani roots comprises musicians with vast experience in other ensembles. In 2015, it started to create its own arrangements of true gems from the Basque musical canon, fusing two cultures in the process: flamenco, and Basque.
Jonatan Camacho “Yony” (voice), David Escudero (first guitar), Ramón Velez (second guitar), José Luis Jiménez “Beltza” (bass) and David Bernárdez (percussion) are the current members of the group from Donostia/San Sebastián. The original line-up took part in Mediaset’s Got Talent España 2018, where their successful version of Mikel Laboa’s Txoria txori, among other things, had the audience and the judges on their feet. Sonakay reached the final 10 from among the 40,000 entries that took part in the talent show.
Since then, Sonakay hasn’t stopped performing, both with its current line-up and with a larger membership that brings dance and txalaparta into their show. They have just made their first record, in the AME studios in Mutriku, comprising a total of seven songs including their famous version of Txoria txori by Mikel Laboa as well as their own compositions.
Flamenco folk music in Basque has been a hit with a variety of audiences. Hence, the title of this first album: Sonakay denontzat (roughly translated as Sonakay for Everyone).
Sonakay released their first single, Izarrak, in 2019. The record was composed with Iker Lauroba and was the first Basque-language song from this Basque flamenco group. In fact, the Basque language has led the group to its biggest successes, with covers of famous pieces from Basque musical history.
Basque singer-songwriter Iker Lauroba describes the song he has written for Sonakay as “half-time flamenco that sings nostalgically in the hope of a small halo of light”. It is a song written with feeling and which unites the two cultures to which it belongs: Romani, and Basque.
In February 2020, Sonakay returned with Rumba txikitita, a fresh piece that makes us want to dance. It gets back to the essence of Sonakay, “a little flamenco in Basque”, but this time as a “rumba”. It has a Latin feel, thanks in part to Cuban musician Omar González.
After than came Oye, Esta No Es Manera de Decir Adiós, a cover of a Leonard Cohen song in which the voices of Yoni Camacho and María Berasarte intertwine, accompanied by the characteristic Sonakay sound that lends a unique flamenco feel to the song, cloaked with the elegant piano playing of Iñaki Salvador.
A month later, Sonakay returned with Ketama and a single that marked a before and after in the career of these Basque flamenco musicians: Se Dejaba Llevar por Ti, by Antonio Vega. Both groups have brought the song to their home turf in a bilingual version sung by Yoni Camacho and Antonio Carmona, and the piece has been played thousands of times on platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube.
These four singles now make up Sonakay Guztiekin, confirming that success knows no bounds. Amid the de-escalation of the State of Emergency, Sonakay has re-emerged like a phoenix from the flames, ready to release the cultural handbrake and get things back on track. First, they took to the stage in Convent Garden in Donostia/San Sebastián to unveil their new record. Hundreds of people followed this live debut through Sonakay and Syntorama’s social networks.
The title of this latest album reflects its content: a project resulting from friendship and art that sees Sonakay collaborate with no less than 14 big names on 8 of the 11 works that make up this special record.
Ketama, María Berasarte, Iñaki Salvador, Iker Lauroba, Urko, Golden Apple Quartet, Omar González, José de Pasaia and Paco Suárez are the reason this record is Sonakay Guztiekin. The experience was unforgettable for Sonakay. In the words of their singer, Yoni Camacho, “being able to record with this group of stars has been a real gift”.
Iñaki Diéguez Akustik Trio
Three old acquaintances from the Basque music scene, each with a solid career as solo musicians or as accompanists for various artists, have joined forces to form the Iñaki Dieguez Akustik Trio, a new modern folk group that will bring us a new show in 2022.
Iñaki Diéguez Akustik Trio
Three old acquaintances from the Basque music scene, each with a solid career as solo musicians or as accompanists for various artists, have joined forces to form the Iñaki Dieguez Akustik Trio, a new modern folk group that will bring us a new show in 2022.
Iñaki Diéguez (accordion), Angel Unzu (guitar/bouzouki) and Iker Telleria (percussion), all experienced musicians, come together for a modern and fresh folk concert with a repertoire of compositions by Diéguez that blends traditional Basque music with jazz and techno.
This latest project is “a journey through the music” that has accompanied Iñaki Diéguez in recent years, from French music, tango or folk-like beats to improvised music or jazz. As the accordionist explains, after sharing the stage with big names for many years, “now is the time to express myself more intimately with a humbler instrument that nonetheless has great expressive capacity, and allows me to share my compositions in a more exposed way”.
The rich heterodox education of the three members of the group brings a different perspective to their Basque folk music. In addition to the new pieces, audiences – whether in concert halls or on the street – can also enjoy the dancers of Oinkari Dantza Taldea from Villabona.
- Iñaki Diéguez is an accordionist, composer and arranger. He was won important awards at national and international contests and has performed throughout Europe, the USA and elsewhere. He has received tuition from Max Bonnay, Viatseslav Semionov and Mogens Ellegard, among others. After an intense career in classical music, he now focusses on modern music and performs diligently with artists from the Basque music scene, including Pantxoa eta Peio, Gontzal Mendibil, Urko, Amaia Zubiria and others. He has collaborated on some forty records by diverse artists and recorded on the soundtracks for The Olive Tree, Dantza and The Lighthouse of the Whales. He has released a total of five records bearing his name.
- Angel Unzu is a guitarist, composer and performer with seven albums (jazz, classical, contemporary), starting in 1994 with his solo guitar performances (his most representative format). He is currently performing with his jazz quartet. He balances this more personal work with collaborations as a guitarist, bouzouki player and percussionist in diverse ensembles in the Basque Country, having taken part in recording sessions with Benito Lertxundi, Gontzal Mendibil, Iñaki Salvador, Amaia Zubiria, Anje Duhalde, Oreka TX, Jabier Muguruza, Alaitz eta Maider, Alex Ubago, Mikel Laboa, Kepa Junkera, and others.
- Percussionist Iker Telleria studied music in the Conservatory of San Sebastián and has vast experience as a TV musician. He has played with a variety of orchestras and groups (Julia León, Samar, Iban Nikolai, Aupa Quartet, Egan, Izotz, Amaia Zubiria and more). He has combined recording sessions with teaching in various music schools, among them the school of dance and music in Donostia/San Sebastián, the Zurriola music school, Txori Txiki in Zumaia, the Elkano school in Getaria, and the Jesus Guridi Conservatory in Gasteiz, among others. In recent years he has been teaching percussion in the Francisco Escudero Conservatory.
Anne Etchegoyen
Anne Etchegoyen started singing in the Saint-Palais children’s choir at age eight. At age 16 she entered the Bayonne Conservatory before starting in the Bordeaux Conservatory two years later, where she studied the basic principles of classical singing.
Anne Etchegoyen
Anne Etchegoyen started singing in the Saint-Palais children’s choir at age eight. At age 16 she entered the Bayonne Conservatory before starting in the Bordeaux Conservatory two years later, where she studied the basic principles of classical singing. Anne Etchegoyen is now considered a leading figure in the female Basque singing world and is known for her soft, pure and breezy voice that has its own distinct power.
In the largely male world of Basque song, over her 13-year career Anne Etchegoyen has brought her musical universe to the fore and helped make Basque-language music more accessible to more people day by day.
She is now an essential singer in her region and one of the few Basque artists to promote her culture beyond the Basque Country. She has performed all over France and elsewhere: the Olympia, the Casino in Paris, the Alhambra, concerts on Corsica, in Brittany and in Vendée, in churches and chapels, in Biarritz, Bordeaux, Périgueux, Anglet, Cap Ferret and Montpellier, as well as tours in Argentina and the USA, thus bringing Basque culture to the whole world.
Les Voix Basques, released in 2013 on Smart/Sony, sold more than 80,000 copies and the associated video has had more than two million hits (a record for a song in Basque). As a result, she performed in prestigious venues all across Spain but primarily in the Basque Country, including the Kursaal and Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, and the Guggenheim esplanade, BBK hall and Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao.
Her previous album, Compostelle, Du Pays Basque à Saint-Jacques, was inspired by her pilgrimage from the family house in Saint-Jacques to Santiago de Compostela. The record was made in 2015 and released in 2017 on Crédo/Universal. Through music, she shared her pilgrimage and allowed us to experience her introspection in the landscapes and along the kilometres she walked, brought to us via traditional and folk tones. The album sold more than 10,000 copies.
In 2020, author, composer, performer and producer Anne Etchegoyen presented a new album on DECCA/UNIVERSAL that pays tribute to women. Anne celebrates 40 years through 10 songs in harmony with the reality of our times. Her folk universe of acoustic – sometimes electric – guitars blends current and traditional sounds (traditional Basque percussion, txalaparta), enriched by the warm, dynamic and subtle voices of the Basque Voices Choir.
Bixente Martínez
Guitarist Bixente Martinez released his first solo record in Autumn 2021. Inspired by the mythical music of Oskorri, the record Txoria buruan eta ibili munduan (Bird-Brained and Walking through the World) was released on Elkar last October.
Bixente Martínez
Guitarist Bixente Martinez released his first solo record in Autumn 2021. Inspired by the mythical music of Oskorri, the record Txoria buruan eta ibili munduan (Bird-Brained and Walking through the World) was released on Elkar last October. The record was mixed by Jean Phocas and mastered by Victor Sánchez.
The musician explains that “the idea arose during the tough days of the 2020 lockdown. I started playing around with my guitar, trying different sounds and melodies, and these songs were the natural result. It was like a coincidence.”
The songs from the Oskorri repertoire have been stripped back to their essence, then arranged and revised in a new and free way. In these instrumental versions, Martínez has used different types of electric and acoustic guitars in addition to various loops and effects.
With the release of the new record, Martínez will take to the stage to breathe new life into the songs of Oskorri from a different perspective. The concerts will also involve the dancers of Haatik Dantza Konpainia.
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