How these came to be
In 2016 and 2017 I made two trips to Bidarray, a small village in the French Basque Country (Pays Basque), in the lower foothills of the Pyrenees.
I was invited by Brigitte Crouzat, an MN Practitioner and a dear friend. The place got into me — mountains, billowing clouds, flocks of sheep on the hillsides, and a sense that people were genuinely connected to the land they lived on.
On my second visit, Brigitte organized an evening with local men singing in Basque — a traditional call-and-response choir, old themes. I was captivated. I recorded it on my phone.
Bidarray, 2017
That recording has stayed with me ever since — something I return to when I need to feel grounded.
Composing music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Reggae songs in college, Hindi songs in the 2000s, country, gospel, electronica, ambient along the way. Mostly for myself, performed occasionally. I've woven it into workshops I've run in France — it's one of the threads that runs through everything I do, quietly.
This year I came across Suno, an AI tool for generating music. I was genuinely stunned by what it could do. At some point I thought: what if I tried a Basque men's choir?
I did. These pieces were created out of love for what I'd heard and experienced.