in 1967) is a Basque musician renowned as a player of the alboka

Alboka

The alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country.Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic "al-bûq"...

. His 1996 debut release was a joint record with Kepa Junkera

Kepa Junkera

Kepa Junkera is a Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums...

, entitled Leonen Orroak (the roarings of Leon, a homage to the great albokalari Leon Bilbao).

He was educated in a Jesuit school in Bilbao where he was known for his expertise playing chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 and his anarchist

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 tendencies. He graduated in Basque

Basque language

Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...

 philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 in the University of Deusto

University of Deusto

The University of Deusto is a Spanish Jesuit University, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, Spain.-History:The University of Deusto first opened in 1886, having been founded because of the Basque Country's desire to have its own university and the Society of Jesus's wish to move its School...

.

His career as musician started after he studied alboka and dultzaina in 1987-88 and became a teacher of these instruments himself. In the early 1990s, forming a duo with his brother, he started playing, often for free, as an accompanist to numerous popular acts, notably in support of the Conscientious Objection Movement, which was then waging a popular disobedience campaign against conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 and the army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

 itself.

He has published many articles on the alboka and is developing a multimedia method to learn to play this unique instrument.

In 2004 he released a second record entitled Airea (the air), produced by Kepa Junkera, his newest album its "Nik mutilak gustoko ditut" In colaboration with Boris Izaguirre.

He has also collaborated with other musicians, including Gilles Chavenat, Soledonna and Faltriqueira, Heikki Syrjänen, Andrea Pisu and Roston Kuchichian.

He leads a band that includes the following musicians:

• Iñaki Plaza – percussions, txalaparta
  Txalaparta
  The txalaparta is a specialized Basque music device of wood or stone, similar to Romanian toacă. In Basque, zalaparta means "racket", while in the nearby areas of Navarre "txalaparta" has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the...
  
  , trikitixa
  Trikitixa
  The trikiti , trikitixa or eskusoinu txiki is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons...
  
  
• Ion Garmendia – percussions, txalaparta, xirula
  Xirula
  The xirula xülüla in Zuberoan Basque; Gascon: flabuta; French: galoubet) is a small three hole flute usually made of wood akin to the Basque txistu or three-hole pipe, but more high pitched and strident, tuned to C and an octave higher than the silbote. The sound that flows from the flute has often...
  
  
• Belen Fernandez – cello, voice
• Unai Frantsesena – keys, percussions, txalaparta
• Ibon Koteron – alboka, flute, voice

External links

• Brief biography