We bring you the second solo album by the always unpredictable and brilliant Ibon Errazkin; "Escuela de arte" ("Art school") displays an exciting catalogue of instrumental pieces full of sounds, emotions and pop sensibility.
Ibon Errazkin is one of the most creative, influential and respected names in Spanish independent world. He’s an exquisite guitarist and songwriter, and he’s also worked as composer…
We bring you the second solo album by the always unpredictable and brilliant Ibon Errazkin; "Escuela de arte" ("Art school") displays an exciting catalogue of instrumental pieces full of sounds, emotions and pop sensibility.
Ibon Errazkin is one of the most creative, influential and respected names in Spanish independent world. He’s an exquisite guitarist and songwriter, and he’s also worked as composer and arranger. Though he’s mainly known for his work fronting one of the best Spanish acts of the nineties, the San Sebastian quintet LE MANS.
Ibonstarted his career in AVENTURAS DE KIRLIAN, a band that obtained a mythical status in Spanish indieland. Their eponymous album, released in 1989, turned out to be one of the most influent bands in the last decades: their trail can be still traced in many of the new Spanish pop outfits.
Afterwards the band would change their name for LE MANS, and they would start a long and fascinating career, releasing four sensational albums: “Le Mans” (1993), “Entresemana” (1994), “Saudade” (1996) and “Aquí vivía yo” (1998); all of them overflowing with coherence and good taste. In LE MANS’ music -mainly accoustic and relaxed- you could trace elements of jazz, Brazilian bossa-nova music and tons of elegance, in a moment when those ingredient were not as easy to find in pop music as today. But the real outstanding thing in LE MANS was their ability to create a new thing out of these influences, always avoiding to being a mere copycat of their idols. They were also the first in Spain to make dance remixes of their songs, as the 1995 mini-album “Zerbina” testifies. In any case, their music was most of the times based on the gently strummed moods of Ibon’s guitar.
Unfortunately the band split in 1998, just when their name was beginning to sound more than familiar to pop aficionados, not only in our country: their albums were released also in Japan and the States, obtaining enthusiastic reviews and becoming probably the best known Spanish band all over the world in the nineties.
Despite LE MANS was Ibon’s main project during the last decade, we shouldn’t forget to mention other of his many musical activities: between 1990 and 1996 he fronted DAILY PLANET, an instrumental outfit with many influences of bands with a fragile sound, such as FELT or ORANGE JUICE; they released an album (“Romance”) plus several singles. He’s also part of INSTRÜMENTAL, a project more oriented towards experimental dancey music. Besides, Ibon included a song (“Expo Tenerife”) in Mike Alway’s prestigious “Songs for the jetset” compilation, under the aka SOUTHAMERICAN GETAWAY.
With Javier Corcobado and Ana D he produced the debut album of the latter, “Satélite 99” (1997), in which he also took part as musician and composer; in fact, his guitar is more than present throughout the whole album. He accompanied Ana D as a guitarist in her first stateside tour in October 1999. We must also say Ibon has also produced the new album of Carlos Berlanga, one of the most respected and popular pop composers in Spain.
In May 2000 Elefant Records releases Ibon Errazkin’s first solo album, in which he gets far away from the sound we were used to expecting from him in LE MANS. Instead he offers us a completely instrumental album featuring a lushy cocktail of influences, as varied as attractive: reggae, New Orleans music, country, rock or even hip-hop, though all these styles are only starting points from which Ibon creates new and original music.
A vinyl single including two new songs (“Ikastola” and “Sequía”) is out on March 2001. The sleeve features Ibon accompanied by Teresa Iturrioz, author of LE MANS’ lyrics. Meanwhile, Ibon is busy writing the score for a film called “Gente pez”, directed by Jorge Iglesias. He visited Buenos Aires in October 00 (accompanied by Teresa) in order to promote the release of “1993-1998”, a LE MANS compilation put out by Argentinian label Indice Virgen.
In the summer of 2001 a film called “Gente Pez”, directed by Jorge Iglesias, is premiered. The original score of the film has been written by Ibon. This music is released in CD by Pias Spain in November 2001. The album is formed by a collection of very short pieces moving in very different directions, quite apart from the ones shown in “Ibon Errazkin”.
Also in November, Ibon collaborates in an album by FANGORIA, a Spanish band led by Alaska, very famous singer and media star. In this album Ibon plays guitar in “Déjame llorar”, a song composed by himself and Teresa Iturrioz.
Ibonspends December 2001 writing songs for his second album and producing the new album by Spanish band NOSOTRÄSH; meanwhile Elefant releases a compilation of AVENTURAS DE KIRLIAN, Ibon’s first band.
On September 2002 Ibon starts recording his second album. Again with Murky, Guillermo and Olaf as musical partners.
Ibon Errazkin's unmatching wide musical culture, imagination and sensibility are present in this record; all the tracks have been written by Ibon except "I come stand at every door", created by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, which was recorded by THE BYRDS for their "Fifth Dimension" album; we must also mention the track "Up against the wall", inspired by the eponymous song that DAVID PEEL AND THE LOWER EAST SIDE included in their album "Have a Marijuana". Ibon notably progresses in his research for new contexts, creating a very personal and distinctive sound-world that allows him to insert "traditional" song formats in his music, without losing its experimental edge. This album confirms all that was suggested in his debut, but going beyond; here we can find brilliant pop moments and a far more careful and full-detailed production; His songs are so full of displays of exquisite good taste, so crammed with ravishingly beautiful tunes and chords, that they don‚t need any vocals; songs that surprise you in the first listening, to enrapture in the subsequent ones.
In order to turn Ibon's interesting ideas into the exciting reality which "Escuela de arte" is, Sergio Delgado (sound engineer) turned to be a perfect and helpful match to make all Ibon's purposes end up fully developed. The resulting sound is truly personal and full of details, which places his author in the frontline of the riskiest and most daring pop of today. "Escuela de arte" bears a coherence that reveals that this record was meticulously conceived down to the last detail; months of hard work and very clear ideas hide under the disguise of simple "jams". The album was recorded in different sessions, between September 2002 and January 2003; The contributors to the recording are: Murky (guitar), Guillermo Monje (drums), Olaf Ladousse (bass and doo-rag pedals) and Antonio Galvañ (piano and synthesizer).
The front picture and the sleeve design are by Javier Aramburu, who has designed all his works since AVENTURAS DE KIRLIAN.
TEXT written by Sergio Delgado (Sound engineer during the recording and mixing of "Escuela de arte"):
After a pretty hard season of work, during which I hadn‚t bought any record, I called my friend Rocky to ask him about new releases. He recommended me the first solo album by Ibon Errazkin. I never had LE MANS as a reference band, so I was slightly wary when buying the album; but when I listened to it I was pleasantly surprised. I found out a new sound that I had been searching for a long time, and above all, some fresh air came to my ears. I listened to it many times, and I found new sonic textures in every new listening. No doubt I really liked that album.
I first met Ibon on 2001 while working at Eurosonic, when I was assigned the recording of the soundtrack of "Gente pez" film. Throughout three weeks of intense night work I had the chance of getting closer to Ibon‚s particular musical universe: quiet and gentle, but also intense and complex. When this work was over Ibon offered me the recording of his new album. I obviously agreed and that‚s how I got involved in Ibon Errazki’s second album, which is what I was wishing somehow.
When you start working on the sketches of the songs for any album you always have a certain idea of how it will end up sounding like. That‚s not the case for Ibon. Each track comes to life and escapes to any external control except Ibon's. l wonder how he manages to organize so many elements in his mind, elements that apparently has no relationship among them. The truth is, when the mix is over everything makes sense. As an example: one of my favourite tracks, "City Vips", contains so many different things that it can surprise you in every new listening, and I‚m saying this after having listened to it for more than a hundred times, no kidding. When we were giving the mix its final touches I kept on finding something new, and I perfectly knew all that was into the song.
"Los Pasatiempos" is another personal favourite, minimal pieces full of sense. "Rock de las Aves del Paraíso" takes me to the North of Africa without using absolutely no African instrument. I could tell thousands of different sensations drawn from each track but I think this work will reveal very different sensations in every listener, and this can‚t be said of too many albums, my friends. To sum up, I‚m really proud of taking part in this album, and I hope this can be appreciated in the final result. Sergio Delgado.
