Kalakan

Biography

Kalakan is a music band from northern Basque country composed by Thierry Biscary, Jamixel Bereau and Xan Errotabehere. It is characterized by minimalist arrangements (vocals, percussions) of basque traditional songs. After having collaborated and toured Europe with pianists Katia et Marielle Labèque, the trio become known to a larger audience when they collaborate with Madonna during her MDNA tour. In euskara, Kalakan means "Chatting". Actually, the band members loves their mother tongue and it...

Kalakan is a music band from northern Basque country composed by Thierry Biscary, Jamixel Bereau and Xan Errotabehere.
It is characterized by minimalist arrangements (vocals, percussions) of basque traditional songs.
After having collaborated and toured Europe with pianists Katia et Marielle Labèque, the trio become known to a larger audience when they collaborate with Madonna during her MDNA tour.

In euskara, Kalakan means "Chatting". Actually, the band members loves their mother tongue and its musicality.
They arranged basque traditional songs giving them a contemporary taste, using for example the verse-chorus structure used by pop and rock and roll musicians.
The percussions technics used by the trio are inspired by world music bands as : Dakha Brakha (Ukraine), Barbatuques (Brasil) or Berrogüetto (Galicia (Spain).
Kalakan plays basque percussions (pandereta, txalaparta, tobera, ttun-ttun, atabal), body percussions and handcrafted big drums.
Giving rhythm to old melodies or interpreting new songs a capella, they mark a break in the Basque song that grows in the Basque country since the 70's. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.