In the age of MTV and digital domination, it's always wonderful to discover a style of traditional music that hasn't yet been swamped by the omnivorous monster of pop music.
Oreka TX are the duo of
Harkaitz Martinez and
Igor Otxoa. They were born and raised in Euskadi, a town in the Spanish Basque country. They play the txalaparta, a unique instrument that consists of wooden planks of various sizes laid over two wooden stands. The planks are struck with wooden mallets to produce a sound that's somewhere between a xylophone and a marimba. It takes two men to play the instrument because the planks are not tied down and it takes coordination and cooperation to play. The instrument almost became extinct in the 1960s; only two duos played the instrument then, but the txalaparta (TX) has made a slow comeback, thanks in large part to
Oreka TX. In 1997, they joined the band of
Kepa Junkera, who plays trikitixa, a Basque diatonic accordion.
Junkera's style of world music fusion won a Latin Grammy for his album
K, to which
Oreka TX contributed. To make
Nömadak TX,
Martinez and
Otxoa took their txalapartas and computer and traveled the world to record and collaborate with other musicians from traditions that remain largely unsullied by modern technology. They recorded in igloos in Samiland, a recording studio in India, on the steppes of Mongolia, and in the deserts of North Africa. They mixed and recorded as they went, adding final overdubs after they were back home. The journey was filmed for a documentary, also called Nömadak TX, for which this album provides the soundtrack.