Artist Bio:
In the world of Basque trikitixa diatonic accordion, one name stands head and shoulders above all the others: Kepa Junkera, a man who's taken his music to the world with a remarkable degree of success. Beginning the instrument at a very young age, he was encouraged by his grandfather, a pandeira (tambourine player), and his mother, a dancer. Junkera quickly developed his own style as he advanced by leaps and bounds. By 1983, still in his teens, he began playing with Oskorri, the leading Basque folk band of the day, performing and recording with them. It was an intense but rewarding musical education for the young man, and gave him a strong foundation in Basque traditional music that's been pivotal throughout his career.
Yet he was already looking beyond his homeland, and devouring music of all kinds, popular and otherwise, as was apparent on his 1987 debut, Kepa, Zabaleta eta Mutriku. The disc saw him working in trikitixa, but expanding the style out more toward pop music, a surprising direction that worked well. However, he quickly abandoned that approach, with jazz influences rearing their heads on Triki Up (1990) and Trikitixa Zoom (1991), which garnered him the award for Spain's best young folk artist—quite an achievement for a Basque musician. His journey was just beginning, though, and in 1992 he founded Trans-Europe Diatonic with John Kirkpatrick from England and Riccardo Tesi, bringing together three accordion players from very different backgrounds who found some fascinating common musical ground. After the band's Trans-Europe Diatonique record, it expanded to a quartet with the addition of Portugal's Julio Pereira, documented on Lau Eskutera. By now Junkera was just beginning to find his musical stride, and ready to experiment wildly, as he showed in Kalejira Al-Buk, his 1994 release that intertwined accordion with electronica.
Yet he hadn't turned his back on his roots, by any means. Two years later he was back in the studio for Leonen Orroak, a duo album with Ibon Koteron, another Basque who was a virtuoso on the alboka, a local instrument made from a pair of rams' horns. Together they explored Basque music at its barest on an exciting and raw disc. Having made music at its sparest, in typically contrary fashion his next record employed a very full cast, as a host of international guests contributed to Bilbao 00:00h. Named for the Basque capital, it was his first real international release, and a very ambitious statement that mixed Basque music with the sounds of three continents, including Malagasy valiha player Justin Vali on some of the double CD's most successful collaborations. Junkera himself was the thread that connected everything on the record, but the adventure was musical, not egotistical. Accessible and often beautiful, it's still seen as his masterwork.
From there, where could he go? 2000's Tricky was a greatest hits compilation of sorts, some of his favourite pieces, and a way of buying time as he worked on his next opus. Maren (named for his daughter) was inspired by the Urdabai nature reserve on the Bay of Biscay, and saw Junkera once again working with musicians from around the globe on a release that was the equal of its predecessor, going gold in Spain and winning a Latin Grammy nomination.
Something he'd never yet done was release a live album, but he remedied that in 2003 with K. Recorded, of course, in Bilbao, it was a major event, with Junkera backed not only by his regular band, but also some of those who'd been on his last two discs, like La Bouttine Souriante and Bulgarka. Filled with Junkera's fiery, agile playing, it fully showed why trikitixa translates as "the devil's bellows," and finally brought him a Latin Grammy. Then, to show that his heart remained in the Basque country, he composed and recorded the music for Atletico Bihotez, a series of 13 songs celebrating the centennial of Atletico Bilbao, his local soccer club. Kepa Junkera remains very much the public face of Basque music on the global scene. —Chris Nickson
