Basa Ahaide in the Basque Country: where the mountains sing

Basa Ahaide in the Basque Country where the mountains sing

Sound transhumance in Soule, the wildest of the seven provinces of the Basque Country. In search of a song that celebrates the wild and that only a few shepherds continue to make resonate in the mountains.

In the heights of the Atlantic Pyrenees, on the French side of the Basque Country, the province of Soule or Xiberoa is known for being home to a song that is as fascinating as it is confidential: the basa ahaide. This ancestral song, without words, was transmitted orally and it translates the emotion of the shepherd-singer faced with the splendor, the grandeur of the elements at altitude, when he finds himself alone, up there in his hut or cayolar after having transhumed on foot with his animals. This song then celebrates these reunions but also an intimate relationship between man and his environment, living, with which he is one. Traditionally, it is said that the basa ahaide is sung alone, outdoors; because the mountain, with its powerful echo, sings the rest.

Intrigued by these songs of the wild, Jeanne Lacaille went to meet shepherds and shepherdesses who continue to leave with their flocks for the summer pastures in the summer; but also Souletin artists who maintain and share this repertoire of basa ahaideIn a land of forests, steep gorges and mountains, where the liveliness of the pastoral culture is the pride of its 13,000 inhabitants who never fail to celebrate their language, their identity and their mountains in song.

A sound journey by Jeanne Lacaille.

Learn more :

– On The Souleone of the wildest provinces of the Basque Country

– On Julen Achiary, Basa Ahaide artist and member of the quartet Haratago

– About the festival Errobiko Festibala which will be held in Itxassou from July 18 to 21, 2024.



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