Being both an artist and an interface programmer with a doctorate from the University of the Basque Country, Enrike Hurtado’s career spans a wide spectrum, ranging from experimental algorithmic music to the ancient Basque percussive tradition of the txalaparta. His journey extends from experimental music and live improvisation to conceptual recordings and sound installations. Now, to his extensive discography he adds ‘20.20’, this fresh new album.
Emerging from the post-hardcore scene of the Basque Country, Hurtado began repurposing certain punk and noise rock paradigms, such as feedback and textured distortion, redirecting their use through the lens of experimental software, improvisation, avant-garde music, and conceptual art. In the early 2000s, Hurtado began creating computer music as part of the Ixi-Audio collective. Upon returning to the Basque Country, he became involved in the growing experimental music scene. Since then, the Bilbao-based musician has released countless works under his own name, as well as under aliases like Bazterrak and Azunak, on labels such as Crystal Mine, Eclectic Reactions, Pan y Rosas, Antena, Larraskito, and Ixi-Audio. He has also collaborated with artists such as Miguel A. García, Ibon RG, Thor Magnusson, Mattin, and experimental filmmaker Jorge Núñez. Specifically with IbonRG, Hurtado is currently engaged in a project that blends free improvisation, drone, and noise with traditional Basque music. Their recent debut not only pays homage to visual poet Joxan Artze (1939-2018) but also presents a contemporary reevaluation of his legacy.
Now, two years after ‘oMOrruMU baMAt’ (2021), Enrike Hurtado returns with a new studio work titled ‘20.20’, which was created while he developed a digital feedback system during the months of confinement. In ‘20.20’, each track is a minimalist improvisation of warm and evocative textures. It explores various setups of the aforementioned software, resulting in our sublimation to a state of hypnosis. Sometimes, the system enters an unstable equilibrium, generating bursts of distortion, clicks, and clouds of noise in an apparently repetitive atmosphere. Other times, when fed with pop material, it produces equally abstract forms but with quasi-concluded structures instead, resembling song ghosts… In such cases, the concept of feedback takes on a dual meaning, referring also to the reuse of pre-existing musical material.
