Angel Katarain by Angel Katarain

"Oddball electronic / studio experiments halfway between a deserted dance floor and a cinematic experience. Distant voices and distorted electric guitars depict the influence of early coldwave, post-punk and German electronic experimentalists. For fans of Tuxedomoon, Algebra Suicide, Pascal Comelade or the elusive side of Patrick Cowley"

Hegoa Records starts its venture with a compilation of works by an essential figure in the small but prolific Basque folk and rock scene. Angel Katarain (1961 Ordizia, Spain), alongside Jean Phocas and Kaki Arkarazo, is one of the few sound engineers who captured and produced most of the music that came out of the Basque Country in the 70s and 80s, during his years as an in-house studio engineer for IZ label.

Having never officially released his own music, this compilation puts together a selection of works from four different albums that Angel previously made available digitally and in a very limited run of CDs distributed in tin cans for friends and family. Spanning his years as a studio engineer, Angel recorded these albums between 1983-1993 after working hours at Studios IZ in San Sebastian. As he states, his music was made with no commercial purposes, just for himself. It was only around 2001, after friends kept asking for it, that he decided to make his music available to the public. Remastered from the original tapes by Angel himself, it is now available for the first time on vinyl in a limited edition of 300 copies.

Over the last few years, the London based imprint, Hegoa, has taken great strides toward illuminating the shadowy world of contemporary music emerging from the Basque region, an autonomous community in northern Spain with its own distinct cultural traditions and language.