Errobi -

Errobi was a Spanish folk-rock band that released four studio albums and a live disc between 1975 and 1985 on Elkar and Xoxoa.

Members: Mixel Ducau (vocals, guitar, keyboards, saxophone), Anje Duhalde (vocals, guitar), Jean Phocas (bass, 1973-77), Robert Suhas (keyboards, 1975-77), Beñat Amorena (drums, vocals, 1975-79), Mixel Halty (bass, 1978), Jean-Paul Gilles (bass, 1979), Alain Mouisset (keyboards, 1985)

Background

Errobi formed in 1973 in Bayonne when singer/guitarist Anje Duhalde teamed with singer/guitarist Mixel Ducau. The pair named the group for the Nive River, known in Basque as Errobi.

Duhalde, born in 1950 in Arrangoitze, Lapurdi, left formal studies at sixteen and began public performance on drums with the dance band El Fuego.

Ducau, born in 1951 in Bayonne, entered the Bayonne Conservatory at seven on saxophone. At thirteen, he formed a rock group with two schoolmates and took up guitar within the trio. I nhis later teens, he joined a paid dance band.

Duhalde and Ducau first knew one another at the Lycée de Bayonne, where they studied in separate classes. They met again at a Bayonne record shop on completion of military service. Duhalde played since in El Fuego and worked on original melodies with texts by writer Daniel Landart. Ducau heard home recordings of the material and joined El Fuego on guitar and vocals. Jean Phocas played bass in the same lineup. The pair developed Errobi as an acoustic vocal-guitar duo and expanded the concert lineup with Phocas and drummer Beñat Amorena.

Errobi played one of the first concerts at Lauga in Bayonne in 1974 on a multi-act Elkar program organized by Gexan Alfaro. Duhalde recorded “Goizero” and “Beste batekilan” for Elkar with Ducau among the musicians, while Landart wrote both texts. Duhalde and Ducau expanded the Landart material into roughly a dozen songs. The pair took ten songs to a Saint-Jean-de-Luz studio in 1975 with bassist/engineer Jean Phocas and keyboardist Robert Suhas for the eponymous Errobi album.

Discography: