euskalkultura.eus

While rehearsing its new themes added to its repertoire of traditional Basque folklore music, the group will present “Bagare” in August an audiovisual project directed by Majo Staffolani de Amoriza and filmed at the Laurak Bat headquarters.  The video shows the musicians playing the well-known song by the same name by Gontzal Mendibil.  Among their upcoming projects, the ensemble, led by albokari Ignacio Esquiroz, anticipates its first album by mid-2018

Buenos Aires, Argentina.   Less than a year since its creation, the group comprised of Ignacio Esquiroz on the alboka and vocals; Nicolas Iribarren, on the guitar, piano and backup vocals; Anabel Jaureguiberry on the pander and percussion; and Francisco Gandara, on the bombo legüero, percussion and backup vocals, are involved in different projects, some more internal, and others more open, in hopes of cultivating and maintaining contact and communication with their audience.

Among the latest, Zutarriak will present “Bagare” next month.  The group decided to call this an audiovisual project and not a video clip. “We carried it out without any profit motive, and for us it carries a strong symbolic meaning; its only purpose is to spread the Basque culture,” group leader, Ignacio Esquiroz explained.

The material will debut in Buenos Aires in the middle of August at an event considered the debut of the video, even before uploading it on social media; a presentation by audiovisual director Majo Staffolani de Amoriza, who will explain the evolution of this experience of making this production; a toast and a musical show by the group to entertain their guests.  Basque-Argentine authorities will also be invited to the event, along with representatives from cultural institutions, and the group’s friends and collaborators, as well as the project’s sponsors.

Among Zutarriak’s future plans, they home to launch their first album by mid-2018.  The album will include traditional Basque music, much like the bank plays at their live shows, interpreted from the sound idiosyncrasies of national and international folklore.”

Today the group is practicing their new songs, “not to replace those they already play, but to add them to the repertoire and incorporate new instruments and explore our interpretive skills,” Esquiroz explained to EuskalKultura.com.

During their first short year of life the band has not only grown artificially but also on the media thanks to virtual media. “Through Facebook or Instagram or because of our own website: www.zutarriak.com you can access information and exclusive material about the group, dates of our upcoming concerts, songs, videos, photos as well as how to book them for events,” the albokari explained.

When asked about how 2017 has gone, members of the group are very satisfied with their participation in “Buenos Aires Celebrates the Basque Country.” “We are very thankful to the Laurak Bat Basque Club for allowing us to be part of their 140^th anniversary. Also happy for the invitation to the 6^th Triki-Poteo organized by Euskaltzaleak, iIt is a honor for us to be a part of the entertainment of the Basques from Argentina, and most of all thanks to artists like Mauro Telletxea, Joaquin Baña Barquin and Ignacio Baña Barquin.”

Euskal Sustraiak Radio Program

In regards to the spread of the music of Euskal Herria, Igancio Esquiroz also told us that one Monday a month, in his role as a music professor at the Superior School of Music, he will present a column on traditional Basque musical instruments on the Euskal Sustraiak, radio program that is broadcast by Radio Alta Voz, and led by Lelio Sánchez and Andoni Echeverry from the Euzko Etxea in La Plata.