Kepa Junkera

Kepa Junkera launched his professional career early after the band Oskorri spotted his exceptional command of the trikitixa, the Basque diatonic accordion whose name translates roughly as “bellows from hell.” Childhood exposure came through his mother, who performed as dance partner to the flamboyant Spanish dancer Txilibrin while his grandfather supplied tambourine accompaniment. The diatonic accordion quickly became his instrument of choice, and he displayed an uncommon gift for it, shaping a personal approach long before most players master basic fingering. From 1983 onward he maintained an intensive partnership with Oskorri, appearing on every album the group issued and joining its concert tours as a guest musician.

A composer as well as an instrumentalist, he placed his first original scores on the 1988 recording Kepa, Zabaleta eta Mutriku. Releases under his own name in the early 1990s merged jazz with the traditional dance repertoire linked to the trikitixa, establishing his reputation as an innovator and earning him Madrid’s 1990 prize for best young contemporary folk artist. In 1992 he assembled Trans-Europe Diatonic, a trio project with John Kirkpatrick and Riccardo Tesi that enabled accordionists from across Europe to meet and combine their contrasting styles. Later projects explored folk-rock textures in depth and included a duo with alboka virtuoso Ibon Koteron; their 1996 album examined the music of the Basque homeland. Junkera has collaborated on tour and in the studio with leading international folk figures, among them the Irish ensemble the Chieftains and the German accordion player and composer Andreas Vollenweider. In the late 1990s he fulfilled a longstanding goal by pairing his instrument with a symphony orchestra, resulting in an elaborate and warmly received collaboration with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. The retrospective collection Tricky gathers many highlights from his extensive recorded output.