Mursego, a cello in the cinema

Interviews 23.11.2022

Mud, marmitako, the wet and green landscape of the Basque Country, Euskadi, traditional songs, hardcore and punk with touches of rock. All material inspires and feeds the eclectic spirit of Mursego. Behind this word is the cellist and composer Maite Arroitajauregi, one of the most restless artists of the current experimental scene in the Basque Country.

After releasing four albums under the name of Mursego, the Basque composer has been interested for some time in composing soundtracks, winning successes and awards, including a Goya award . A cello that merges experimentation and naturalness, recording and emotion. To listen to it is to unroll the soundtrack of a life.

What does "Mursego" mean? I'm intrigued!
It means "bat" in Portuguese. I like vampires, the afterlife and, of course, the sound of the word.

How did you get into music?
Music has always been in my family, since I was a child. My brother is even a violin maker. I studied at the music school, then at the conservatory, a bit without knowing why, until I finished my advanced cello training. Maybe at my age, I regret not having studied more and finished my studies, because I started working as soon as I finished.

What attracts you to this instrument?
It sounds like the human voice. It is a versatile instrument that offers resources, you can make chords or pizzicatos. Moreover, it is an instrument that you carry with you, whose vibrations you feel in your body, that you hold in your arms and that you put between your legs. I wanted to study it from a very young age.

How would you define your style?
A lot of my training is self-taught. My style, anyway, is pretty punk, and I understand punk as the ability to use any instrument, theme or resource to express something. My work is based on play, experimentation and research, I try to be as free as possible when I compose, and also when I play live. I try not to be afraid to improvise or do something different whenever my body asks me to. I try to create what fills me up and makes me happy. For example, although I'm not performing much right now because I'm very focused on the music of a film, in the few concerts I do, I incorporate more and more the performativity of the body, singing standing up, using my arms, gestures.

Would you say that what might be missing from teaching is a pinch of "punk"? And I mean punk as you define it.
In conservatory, they only teach you how to play an instrument, how to read sheet music and how to acquire the technique to play it. But they don't teach you to create your own music. I don't deny that, not at all. It's part of who I am today, but it's true that it's a bit of a closed environment. Fortunately, at that time, I had friends who played in hardcore bands and my vision was a bit broader! However, even though I don't know how the curriculum is today, I think it would be necessary to open up the studies and perspectives by adding knowledge about software, sound, composition and contemporary music.

You say you are now very focused on film music. Tell me about this work, because you are very successful in this field.
Yes, I do focus on it, although I also do concerts as Mursego, but not as much as before, it's true. Indeed, now, when I don't teach, I compose for the cinema. That's what I spend most of my time on. It wasn't something premeditated or researched, I got proposals and as you do it, you gain visibility; I guess it all fed on itself. Anyway, I don't have several projects in mind, I have one or two a year but that takes up most of my time. I don't feel like this is what I'm going to do forever either. One day, I guess, I'll run out of proposals and these projects will stop.

Your first album is Bat, in 2009. How did it happen?
I started with some songs I had composed, and in Bilbao they asked me to play them live, in a rather experimental setting. Then they called me back. I sketched a demo and they called me back. And then I continued, composed, and they called me back, and so on! It all came very naturally. I had played in bands, but I had never done anything by myself. And I liked that.

Then you published, Bi (2010), and the same year Hiru (2013) and Mursegoeriak (2013). Are these works related?
Yes, there has been an evolution of the sound, which was more intuitive in the beginning, there is an approach to the format of the songs, using more and more instruments and textures to surround the songs. What's true is that even though there are echoes of avant-garde, folk, classical or rock, it's still popular music from the here and now. Without a doubt, traditional music is what touches me the most when I try to write songs.

And then came the composition for the cinema. How did it start?
I started with short films, dance, audiovisual, theater, short plays. The big leap came in 2015 when the director Asier Altuna asked me to create the music for the feature film Amama with Javi Pez. This feature film premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival and later won the Best Music Award at the Montpellier Film Festival. Since then, other feature films have followed.

You got a Goya award for music, that's a huge success.
Yes, with the film Akelarre with Aranzazu Calleja, with whom I have also made documentaries. Last year, "Black is Beltza" was released with my music, an animated film by Fermin Muguruza and Irati, also with Aranzazu Calleja, which is probably the most powerful project I have worked on.

What is it about Mursego in your compositions for the soundtracks? Do you live it in another way?
I'm eclectic, and that influences what I listen to, what I follow, what I see. I move around a lot, I go to concerts, I watch a lot of movies and I soak everything up. Now I even have a son, which brings something new every day, and it reflects in my music, in my style. It seems to me that everything in this life can inspire you when you write a song; in fact, it has to be like that. When I am asked what sources my songs are inspired by, I answer that the list can only be a "drawer of catastrophe": the films of Kaurismaki, Mikel Laboa, old music, my father's marmitako(a pot of bonito, ed.), Louise Bourgeois, summers in Hondarribi, vampires, Los Za! It's life in general. As long as it affects you, the theme of the song can be anything.

And what place does rock'n roll have in your creation?
Indeed, I come from rock, from live music, even if my instrument was the cello. I played with rock and hardcore bands. I was crazy about Fugazi. I don't like labels, but I've always been attracted to that atmosphere. Also, English music, experimental musicians and improvisation, Eddie Prevost, Morton Feldman... Xavier Erkizia brought great people here to the Arteleku art center, who were a great inspiration in the 2000s.

How do you see the musical panorama of the Basque Country?
There are artists here who create very interesting works on the more experimental side. I think of Ibon Rg, Tzesne, Verde Prato.....And of course, there is also rock, there is a movement, yes, and excellent groups like Vulk or Inoren ero Ni, who make amazing live performances.

And what project are you currently working on?
We have just presented the film Irati at the Festival of Sitges. It's a fantasy film that takes place in the 8th century and is influenced by Basque mythology. The music was done by Aranzazu Calleja and myself. It will be released in theaters in February 2024. And at the moment I am also composing for a new project in which I will have carte blanche to experiment: it is Sobre todo, de noche by Victor Iriarte, with Ana Torrent and Lola Dueñas as actresses. An aesthetic film, of performances, with choreographies of hands, also very musical, which is created according to a certain rhythm, as if I were mixing a song. In the style of Bernard Herrmann, the musician of Hitchcock. I want to work like that, not only from the notes, but from the raw sound.

And what are your references when you compose, what do you listen to?
If I'm asked for a classic film noir theme, I start listening to film noir soundtracks all the time and look at the details. Why are those violins there, what is the reason for those pizzicatos, and so on. It's about understanding, analyzing with the ears. If the sound captivates me and moves me, then I take it and I keep it. It's been a long time since I created anything new as Mursego, although I still compose small pieces, but I haven't composed a large-scale work. At the moment I am following several different works. For example, the City Council of Vitoria asked me to do a work on equality around women artists: writers, artisans, poets, etc.. So, I read their creations again and I take their works, integrating them to my music. I love to create and play different versions of a work, even if they are different from the original.

One last question. Beyond the experimental side of your approach, there is always a flavor of traditional music...
Yes, I am very interested in traditional music, with its spicy and transgressive lyrics, without fear of political correctness. Traditional music has a deep impact on everyday life, and this is something that stimulates me a lot.

Interview by Txema Seglers

Photo © Dena Flows

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