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Artist
SINGER SONGWRITER FROM THE BASQUE COUNTRY. Towards 1970 there began to materialise the Basque City. Never before had the noun and the adjective joined together. One spoke of the Mountain, the Earth, the Nation, all of them Basque; but the privileged space where the world became truly wide seemed forbidden to those who wished to express themselves in the language that sustains the adjective, the Basque tongue. It was as if someone, the Spirit of the Time, for example, might have hurled out an order: "Either change your language, or change your place". Which in the case of RO, meant: "Dear friend, either devote yourself to romantic music or to patriotic music. And if not, give it up". The message was clear. It meant solitude. And it was a curse. A snare. RO put up with the solitude, and against the long road he opposed his will and his intelligence. RO forgot the curse: from his first records, his material was diverse, general, non-religious: he could do with the laundry, a van, or a visit from a woman. RO eluded the snare: instead of crossing to the other side of the border, he remained close to it and took on its history. He didn¹t become the chameleon of the storybook tale, neither in a branch of the General Bank of Music, nor in the International Basque Singer for Tourists. He remained a personal creator, with committed lyrics and music towards his loved, hated, distant, close Basque City. Bernardo Atxaga RUPER ORDORIKA Recordings: “HAUTSI DA ANPHORA”