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hurrengoa
FERMIN MUGURUZA, In-komunikazioa: bitter, black and white aritz sound system   I  galder izagirre Fermin Muguruza has just released a new reord: In-Komunikazioa. He's come up with the record after some inner thought. There are more people than ever guesting on the album. It's basically a reflection on lack of communication. A couple is the fundemantal element here and what happens to the couple is later broadened to rerflect what goes on in society. Galder Izagirre did the sleeve. These are the steps he followed to reach the final result. In your latest project you’ve worked with a wide spectrum of musicians. It can’t be easy to bring musicians from totally different styles of music together, can it?
No, it isn’t. There’s also the fact they that don’t know each other personally. I’ve always liked to bring people of varied musical sensitiveness together. I’ve always liked creating new things with people from different cultural backgrounds. Gorka Benitez is an example of that. He’s from Bilbo but he went to New York to study and has been deeply involved in the Jazz scene over there since then. I asked him if he wanted to collaborate on the record and he said yes straight away. He really wanted to get out of the jazz scene for a while and mix jazz with other types of music.

You’ve called the record "In-Komunikazioa". What is it you want to communicate? What does the word "In" stand for here? Inner communication? Communication with the people you share a home with, perhaps?
There are a lot of things there. If you join the words, you get "inkomunikazioa" (no communication), but the words are separated by a dash, so you get "in communication". Mikel Laboa used it on his Lekeitio 5. Tapia played a solo at the end of the song, and he does the same here. The record is full of little nods to this and that, just like the one I’ve just mentioned. Nods of recognition to local and foreign music. There are samplers and scratch. You can hear Xabier Amuriza and Mike Dread, and so on. There-s a certain charm to it. The whole basically revolves around lack of communication. About the breakdown in communication between those who communicate and those who receive. The idea of a couple is a basic ingredient and that obviously reflects on society as a whole. Here or anywhere else in the world for that matter. You can read into it in many more ways that one.

Your last record was subject to a lot of reviews; some of them favourable and others not. One thing that is clear is that what Fermin Muguruza does demands attention. The sleeve on the new record will undoubtedly cause controversy. We’ve already heard some people say you are an opportunist because the sleeve seems to centred around battered wives and this happens to be all over the news at the moment. They say this is why you’ve chosen the sleeve you have.
It’s the type of interpretations that some people can come up with. I mean, those of us involved in the design of the sleeve never even thought about that aspect of it. What is clear to be seen is that as you become known people will either be for or against you. I’ve been involved in music for twenty years now, and I know where I’m going. I’ve always been independent. I’ve always decided for myself and that means there will always be somebody out there waiting to jump down my throat. If they want me to play a gig and I can’t go or decide not to, I’m a selfish bastard. If I do go, it’s because I love to hog the lime-light. Whatever is decide will be criticised by detractors and their ilk. I just say to myself; "If their barking and snarling, we must be doing something right". The sleeve on the new record isn’t going to increase sales. There not even gonna put the thing on display in some places! All this is, is an artistic proposal, that’s all. Take it whichever way you want. The nakedness of the people on the sleeve is the same nakedness I like to try and find in a song. I sing things as they are. You need to be really tough to bear up under constant pressure. You can’t just throw in the towel. Fortunately for me, there’s a big bunch of people behind me and what I do.

What about the aesthetics you’ve chosen? Your other records were much more colourful. This time round it’s mainly black and white.
You’re not wrong there. If you compare the design on this records to the others, it’s easy to see the change. There was more colour before and the music was much livelier, too. The songs are more bitter on this one and that’s why we’ve used black and white.