With four EPs and twenty albums, as well as more than three hundred concerts across the Iberian Peninsula and a similar number in England, France and Italy under his belt, Joseba Irazoki (Bashoan, Onddo, On Benito, Atom Rhumba) releases a new EP with Noël Akchoté, a distinguished Parisian figure on the current free improvisation scene. His career also spans jazz, electronics, contemporary music and early music, and his recordings and collaborations include none other than David Grubbs, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Luc Ferrari, Mary Halvorson and Sam Rivers.
Recorded by the musicians themselves in their respective studios and mixed by Iñigo Irazoki at Atala (Bera) , the guitar duo in question belongs to the highest form of dialogue between bakers or carpenters, blessed as it is by a nature that requires no technical orthodoxy —nor does it adhere to genres—, which became electric in the warmth of the industrial comfort of the 1950s and which, ever since, has remained a pure tool. For, as we read these words, a girl or a boy is walking into a music shop and walking out with a guitar: some will form garage bands, others will study jazz, others will write songs to sing while they play. An instrument that is popular par excellence, Akchoté himself uses the guitar as his starting point when explaining this album:
—Although Joseba and I have different backgrounds, paths or practices, during this encounter the instrument has opened up a very fertile creative field for us in which to experiment, triggering and illuminating each other’s subconscious. Because music is its own language, music speaks to us mainly (if not exclusively) about music and, in our case, there have been no limits. Before setting any kind of stylistic markers, our appetite for the unknown and our mutual preference for the musical fact have kept us free (…). Enjoy.
