Josu Okinena Xuxurlak CD

This new album, Xuxurlak (Murmur) features works by Basque composers including Aldave, Donostia, Garbizu, Lavilla, Lombide and Sostoa, where the pianist explores Basque musical creation from 18th and 20th centuries.

One of the highlights on the CD is a recently found work by Donostia —one of the most surprising music discoveries in the last few years which has remained unreleased as part of a private archive, and which establishes him as one of the most representative piano music composers in the 20th Century. There exist two versions for Donostia’s “El Andante Doloroso”: The original, unfinished, by the composer himself and the finished version by Okiñena. Both confirm the immeasurable dimension of Donostia’s work.    
 
Okiñena will be touring XUXURLAK around the world, the USA (Carnegie Hall in New York), Europe (Teatro Victoria Eugenia in San Sebastian, Spain), Japan and Latin America throughout 2018.
 
"Okiñena blossoms with every performance in spite knowing that it is impossible to keep those instants forever, and no matter how eagerly the performer would love to hold on to them, and deliver them to the listeners, they will unfailingly vanish.

Okiñena, through his performance, shows that he has entered into a kind of space-time dimension where only a selected few have had the chance to go through that experience; it’s the space-time dimension taking us back to the present and it is then when we realize that Okiñena’s performance is just as it needs to be: ephemeral and unrepeatable.”