HAIZEA

The firstrecord of Basque group Haizea is really a full blown Folk Rock album with only very slight touches of psych or prog overtones. Neither is it overtly Basque-sounding (outside the obvious Basque speaking voice), meaning that it does not sound like the traditional village music either for festivities or or cultural events such as the Basque pelota or even the special dances or stilt competitions. No, it simply sounds like a calm and subdued Fairport Convention sung in another language.

This is especially true for the first side of the vinyl except the second track which sounds a bit like Andean folk music. The more interesting tracks are on the second side where there are slight touches of what is to come in their much better second al;bum. From the start Ura Ixuririk sounds slightly more adventuresome and this is confirmed by timid (but noticable) psych electric guitar lines . One finds the same same ambiances but slightly more outlined in the following track and the third track the 9 min Arrosa Xuriaren Azpian is also diverging slightly from the rest of the album and allows a few improvisation around the end.

Although not as exciting as their other one, the album (like its follow-up) is however quite short, and one wishes that the CD releases would've released both albums on one Cd especially that the succession of both album is musically quite an impressive evolution, the last track of the debut album making the perfect intro to the first tracks of the second album.

Haizea were a Basque folk quintet who produced two studio albums in their brief career. This one, the first, is the more placid of the two, all acoustic and with one male and one female vocalist who take turns singing rather than act as a duet.

This is pleasant enough folk music, although it isn’t really Basque and it isn’t actually very progressive. The songs have a sort of non-descript traditional folk feel to them, with the Basque influences detectably pretty much only in the vocals.

Except for the lengthy and closing “Arrosa Xuriaren Azpian” these are all rather short tracks of four or five minutes and are quite similar. The music consists mostly of a couple acoustic guitars (one picking and one strumming usually), a delicate oboe with contrabass setting the rhythm, and the two vocalists. There’s some flute but not as much as one would typically expect from Latin folk music, and occasional uncredited bits of percussion (again, not as much as is typically found in Latin music).

A couple tracks (“Loa Loa” and “Oreina Bila”) are almost all acoustic noodling with lullaby-like vocals, and “Goizeko Euri Artean” sounds like a Basque version of a John Denver tune.

The closing track and “Ura Ixuririk” introduce just a hint of psych guitar which would figure more prominently on the band’s second and final album, but that sound is only hinted at here.

There’s really not much else to say about this album, other than it has an agreeable enough sound, but probably won’t do much to appeal to most progressive music fans. Two stars for fans, but that’s about it.

peace

Never had so much troubles making a review of a band as in the case of HAIZEA, especially for the really complex language that has absolutely no connection with Spanish and to be honest, almost with none I heard before, hard to get into it, but when you find the charm, it adds a bit of mystery to the already oneiric atmosphere.

It's also important to notice that this Basque band has a clear Folk sound with a few Prog elements, mostly Psyche, not fully Progressive but extremely beautiful, so may be a bit bland for extreme purists.

Despite the discussion among experts of the importance of Celtic inheritance in the Basque Country, is evident at the first listen of the self titled album that it's more than casual, even when mixed with Spanish elements, the classical pastoral sound of Medieval Celt is present in HAIZEA.

The album is soft and calmed, perfect for relaxation but without falling in the extremes of that bland hybrid called New Age, what is natural and inherited in HAIZEA members, is forced and artificial in New Age, this is why the band keeps the interest of the listener from start to end.

All the tracks are instrumental or with female vocals by the extraordinary Amaia Zubiría except Goizeko Euri Artean which is sung apparently by Xabier Lasa. The album flows gently from start to end not without interesting mixtures of Basque Folk elements a strong Celtic influence and a few Psychedelic passages that add more interest to an already good album.

Every track brings a surprise, but the biggest one comes in the closer Arrosa Xuriaren Azpian the only epic of the album which is practically two songs, the first half clearly Folk and the conclusion full of jamming and captivating sounds but without loosing the soft and dreamy atmosphere.

A good album for fans of STEELEYE SPAN or FAIRPORT CONVENTION, bands in which the Prog element is present but clearly the weight of the composition and the transcendence of the album is in the ethnic component.

As my first experience with the band I rate it with 3 solid stars, that should be 3.5, but the system has it's limits.

In this first of 2 disks released during Basque group HAIZEA's attenuated existence, two founding members Txomin Artola and Amaia Zubiria actually share lead vocal duties, both solo and together. The largely acoustic arrangements project like a hybrid of slightly stoned Anglo and American folk rock (guitars and vocals) with a measured take on Latin American folk (flutes) and a dollop of campfire oriented Krautfolk (distorted, jammy guitars and bell-like percussion). Without your handy Basque English dictionary this could be derivative, albeit well played folk rock from anywhere. Not surprisingly, interest spikes on the closing 10 minute number where the group half senses that it's time for a bit of a breakout. But a bit is all you get. Pleasant but as ephemeral as the wind. 2.5 stars.