March 8, 2002… Rupture of aneurysm… Bixente Iriart joined the stars at only 29 years old.
Bixente Iriart was a young man full of life, passionate about music. He had started with the bass, and wanting to develop the visibility of local groups, with his friends Txomin Larronde, Paxkal Indo and a few others, in 1988, they had created ZTK, a collective aiming to produce records, support artists, creation and publishing in the Basque language, an association that still exists in 2022.
– Marieder Iriart
Bixente played bass in several bands, Txingoma 2, He went through Txakun and King Mafrundi, accompanied established artists like Anje Duhalde, with a very particular class, a mixture of seriousness and relaxation.
In the early 1990s, he became interested in electronic music, and began to “tweak” on machines, computers, computer-assisted music, he created sounds, recorded instruments that he mixed with samples…
In the Basque Country, everything is to be done, and Bixente Iriart finds there a niche that suits it, which allows it to express itself in a different way.
BED, Basque Electronic Diaspora, a collective adventure
Having gone to Paris to develop his music, Bixente Iriart met a lot of artists living all over the world, and having roots in the Basque Country, in the nightlife and electro scene: they then set up the collective Basque Electronic Diaspora, BED, and 3 compilations will be released bringing together all these artists with varied universes, electro, between 1999 and 2002.
It is at this moment thathe chose his artist name, BXT.
– Marieder Iriart
“Communication Dub”, link between roots and future
Bixente Iriart created this piece that has become quite famous, “Communication Dub”, signed BXT, by mixing his local musical culture, committed, and electro rhythms, in dub mode.
The samples are remarkable, he had chosen artists for him essential: the Basques Benito Lertxundi and Mikel Laboa, and the Basque-Quechuan Atahualpa Yupanki.
BXT, Bixente Iriart left us 20 years ago already: he marked the minds of all those who met him one day, and his music remains eternal.