BASA AHAIDE …
In the Basque mountains of the Soule region, and more specifically in the Arbailles massif, our herding ancestors were already singing these songs linked to nature, to the untamed world: the beautiful Basa Ahaide. Without lyrics, these remarkable sound calligraphies give voice to the flight of the eagle or the Alpine chough… but they also convey man’s wonder and humility in the presence of nature’s immensity.
Basa Ahaide call for breath, calm and profound force, and audacity to reach the mountain peaks… so that the prettiest melodies of these “long songs” come to life.
… HARATAGO, “beyond”
They have always been sung solo and a capella. But Julen has, throughout his travels, met and exchanged with Turkish and Azerbaijani musicians who practise “long singing” with no boundaries when it comes to instruments and rhythm. In this project, thanks to unprecedented orchestration alongside Jordi Cassagne, Nicolas Nageotte and Bastien Fontanille, he sets the Basa Ahaide in motion and, while never losing them from sight, gives them a magnificent poetically- and musically-inclined space that gives free rein to their expressive modes, their shape and melodic subtleties, to send us soaring on our own internal flights of fancy.
Haratago combines the rhythmic dynamics of the Basa Ahaide to our ageless dances, awakened by these flights. Indeed, it must not be forgotten that, while singing, our ancestors danced on Mother Earth.
And so, the voice, violone, clarinet, duduk, amboesa (traditional oboe from Quercy), hurdy-gurdy and banjo intricately criss-cross and intertwine, each in turn becoming the Eagle or its elusive shadow, on earth, in bright or dark areas of the mountain valleys and forests.
