Ibon Errazkin

2006

On November the 14th comes out "Pío Pío", the debut album by SINGLE, produced by Ibon. Along with Teresa Iturrioz, Errazkin has reinvented pop music's language by choosing the best from the most diverse origins: reggae and country-pop, R&B, synth-pop and hip-hop, picking up the thread (and going much further beyond) where LE MANS had left it in their infamous farewell trilogy.
The album reaches the highest peaks in all the end-of-year lists ("Pío Pío" is also considered best song of the year in Rockdelux magazine, and "Tu perrito librepensador" has the same consideration on the listeners polls of the nationwide radio show "Disco Grande" on Radio 3).
 

2007

In June 2007 Ibon starts his next job as a producer, with the preproduction of the material to be included on the second album by CORAZÓN.
 

2017

IBON ERRAZKIN: Releases “Foto Aérea” [Advance Digital Single from his third album]. This Double Single comprising the songs “Foto Aérea” and “Las Descripciones” (dedicated to Josetxo Anitua, the singer from CANCER MOON) takes us to a peculiar place that is almost unexplored by Ibon: music without defined rhythmic patterns, composed of melodies that appear and disappear, repeating themselves even in different songs, the same way you can find in the dub world, and above all, in music for movies. But you can also find this in art, like when a painter decides to use the same theme over and over again, maybe at different times of the day or of the year. That is what is so peculiar about what this Single is doing, and what it is revealing about what will come with his next album, also called “Foto Aérea”, to be released in February 2018. Here, the music inspires the filmmaker, the dreamer, the creator of images and stories; this is the music that moves the world. Ibon plays with layers and melodies – on “Foto Aérea” with a Mediterranean air, more summery and rooted, and “Las Descripciones” is more dreamlike and ethereal – without ever betraying them, letting emotion take precedence over experimentation.   And the first proof of this inspiring ability is the video that Gabe Ibáñez filmed for the title song. It is exemplary visual inspiration, with Bressonian echoes where the images play with the melodies, and an interaction built on tremendously emotional and suggestive loops. Gabe Ibáñez, in addition to being the director of two movies, “Hierro” and “Autómata”, was also the director of LE MANS’ only video (“Canción De Todo Va Mal”, 1998), of two videos for SINGLE (“Su Recuerdo” in 2005 and “Pío Pío” in 2008), and Ibon Errazkin wrote the soundtrack for his first short, “Máquina”. This chemistry makes us think that probably, this marvelous and stimulating video is a necessary part of de Ibon Errazkin’s sonic project, closing a circle that we forced open again, waiting to see how the full-length fits into this suggestive offering. This is emotion in its purest form.  

2018

9-3-2018

Releases “Foto Aérea” LP/Digital. Ibon’s career has always mixed that touch of personality with a certain level of experimentation. That isn’t too far off from this new album, in a way, but the general air of the album is more classic. Why? Because melody is king here, roaming freely through the various songs on the album, transforming, appearing and disappearing, following its own wishes and whims. Melody that tastes like the sea and the breeze. This is where the breaking point comes. Among all the instruments, there is a song being sung – the first one that Ibon sings in his entire career. What’s more, it’s a cover, a delicacy with touches of Broadway and lounge, written by Jerome Moross for the musical “The Golden Apple” in 1954: “Lazy Afternoon”.  

The people who accompany Ibon on this journey are temporary, but important. Obviously, his band-mate from SINGLE, Teresa Iturrioz, named all the songs and lent her voice to “El Objeto” and “Paradox” (two closely related songs). Xavier Alarcón mastered the album and Javier Aramburu has made another of his unbelievable covers. And everything else, as per usual, was concocted and consumed by our friend Errazkin.

2024

06/11/2024
IBON ERRAZKIN "Nubes/Lamento" Digital single

We are celebrating the arrival of a new album with this advance single that includes two songs from the upcoming new release. “Nubes” and “Lamento” confirm everything we have just said: songs that meander between costumbrism and inspiration, minimalism and classicism, Mediterranean and lyric, between Nino Rota and Erik Satie. These songs caress and excite us using the purest songwriting design: textures, melodies, harmonies, mixed and managed with the magic of a genius who doesn’t need to lean on any crutches.

29/11/2024
IBON ERRAZKIN "Claros Del Bosque" LP

The music videos that come with the release, directed by Antonio Morales, filmed by Dani Lisón and edited by Dani Aránega, are a delicacy. There is a series of music videos (for all the songs on the album and for the grand finale that will come later) filmed in Tangier and inspired by the work of the Malaysian director Tsai Ming-Liang. It is a walking meditation in which we can see Ibon in different places in Tangier, showing us that silence can say so much, and that, from an expressionistic perspective, less is more.

This is how Errazkin explains “Claros Del Bosque”, as if it were a personal letter:

“The forest clearing is a center that it is not always possible to enter; from the edge, you can see inside it and the appearance of some animal tracks does not help us take that first step. It is a separate kingdom guarded and inhabited by a spirit. A bird warns and calls to follow his voice. And you obey; then you find nothing; nothing other than an intact space that seems to be open in that single moment and that will never be like this again”.

María Zambrano (excerpt from “Claros Del Bosque”,1977)

Two years ago, when I started to think about recording a new album, the idea that motivated me the most was to write a longer piece, a format that would allow me to distribute sounds almost like elements in space; something more like walking through a garden – or letting your eyes move around a vertical garden – than listening to a straightforward piece of music from beginning to end.

I was also interested in writing something that felt like a digression, a bit rambling. I didn’t want to write something with a structure that led to a specific place; I wanted to write a simple succession of musical moments, vaguely interconnected and without a greater purpose. I felt pulled by the idea of doing something more extensive, just because, using the length as an essential quality of the piece. Maybe it was inspired by the hypnotic effect that comes with certain experiences – a La Monte Young composition, a Jacques Rivettefilm – just because they are long. I decided on approximately an hour and, with that, I started working.

When the project was already pretty far along, I got an idea: why not take some moments from this piece and turn them into songs? That way, the project could have two parts – one would be an extended, uninterrupted piece, and the other would be a 10-song album.

The 10-song album is what you have now, and it’s called “Claros Del Bosque”.

The uninterrupted piece will be released a few months later, and it will be called “Nubes Y Claros”.

CLAROS DEL BOSQUE

The title of this 10-song album comes from a book by the same name by María Zambrano. It’s a small book that’s somewhere between mystical and philosophical, that I read while I was making the album and that somehow seemed to be related to what I was doing. I recommend anyone who listens to the album to check it out.

The album’s instrumentation is simple: guitars, piano, bass, melodica, banjo and some synthesizers. There is no percussion at all, like on “Hola” (2020), SINGLE’s last album (my project with Teresa Iturrioz), and there had barely been any on my last solo album, “Foto Aérea”. On that last album the sounds were acoustic, but in a lot of cases I sampled what I had played and manipulated it in on the keyboard. On “Claros Del Bosque” I didn’t use this technique, and the recording process was more traditional or “natural”.

As they are fragments pulled out of a larger block, the songs don’t have a normal verse-chorus-etc structure. The melodies appear and disappear without the whole “coming together”. For me, this is the most defining element of the album. Music without a definitive meaning, that doesn’t lead anywhere, that simply just is there.

There are two exceptions to this: “El Río” and “La Vía Láctea”, songs that didn’t come from that uninterrupted block and that I wrote specifically for the album. They are also the only two songs I recorded with a clapperboard (steady rhythmic accompaniment) and, because of that, are the most pop moments on the album. I like to think the first song would fit in well on a western, and the second is inspired by the starry skies of the Balearic islands.

The cover art was made, as usual, by Javier Aramburu. For “Foto Aérea” he put a mountain range in my head, and this time he has turned me into a grove of trees. With the artistry he brings to everything he does.

I hope you like the album.

Ibon Errazkin, September 2024