My father once asked me what I would do if I were stranded on a desert island without my musical instruments. I answered that I would find a way to make noise out of logs and stones. Music and culture are my lifelong passions—I can hardly conceive of life without them.

Music & My Instruments

Music is my main hobby, and I dedicate precious moments each week to studying it.

  • Guitars: I play electric guitar. My primary instrument is a sunburst 1996 Fender Strat Plus, alongside a custom black Les Paul (equipped with a Roland MIDI pickup), a jazz-styled Washburn J9, and a sweet parlor acoustic guitar. I also enjoy playing my Hofner Beatles Ignition bass.
  • Woodwinds: I am currently learning the clarinet (both Bb and alto Eb) under the guidance of Alejandro Castillo, dreaming of masterfully playing Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet. I also explore early music on a tenor chalumeau—an exact replica of a J.D. Denner original.

What I Listen To

My record collection is a rich mixture of genres:

  • Rock & Jazz: Deeply influenced by The Beatles, I am a fan of Pink Floyd, Rory Gallagher, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane.
  • Regional & Roots: I frequently revisit Lau teilatu by Itoiz, Ruper Ordorika, Miguel Poveda, and the inspiring Maria del Mar Bonet, as well as Brazilian samba-canção.

(Take a listen to my curated Spotify playlists on this page)

 Literature & Cinema

Reading is another cornerstone of my personal life. My favorite authors span several languages:

  • English & Spanish: William Shakespeare, John Donne, Paul Auster, Francisco de Quevedo, and Jorge Luis Borges.
  • Portuguese & Italian: Fernando Pessoa, Lima Barreto (whose works I have translated), Cesare Pavese, and Italo Calvino.
  • Basque, Catalan & French: Bernardo Atxaga, Pello Lizarralde, Sergi Pàmies, and Michel de Montaigne.
  • Cinema & Art: My favorite movie is Blade Runner. In art, while I admire Botticelli and Turner, my absolute favorite masterpieces are the early paintings done by my daughters, Aina and Irati.

Irati's Watercolor

Languages & Family

My family is deeply multilingual and intercultural. Born in the Basque Country to Castilian roots, and currently living in Barcelona, multiple languages echo through our home daily. Spanish is our mother tongue, I speak Basque to my daughters, and we regularly practice and read in English.

Let me refer to a couple of quotations about that. The first one is a sentence I found in one of my ancestors' documents from the eighteenth century, referring to Martin Uzuriaga, who came from Biscay to La Rioja around 1650; since he was a Basque-only speaker and tried to learn some Spanish, 'por ser su lengua preciosa, y hablar solo Basquenze, que movía a risa, le hacian conversación, que es la verdad' (his language was so beloved for him, and spoke nothing but Basque, he tried and make us laugh and we make some conversation, which is true). The second one is out of an unpublished work by Joannes Etcheverry: 'Jaincoac guiçonari eman cioen gauçaric premiazcoena eta beharrezcoena içan cen mintçoa, ceren haren bidez adiarazten baititu bere gogoan estaliric eta gorderic daduzcan gauzac' ('The most precious and necessary thing that God gave to mankind was language, because using it explains the things which are in their souls'). This is the motto of my ex libris.