Elkano Browning Cream is the brain child of Mikel Azpiroz, a musician from San Sebastian, Spain. Mikel has worked together with groups such as Lau Behi, Parafünk, the Matt Harding Project, and has colaborated with Negu Gorriak, Jabier Muguruza, Mikel Erentxun, Fermin Muguruza, Alex Ubago... The basic Elkano format is organ trio (organ, guitar, drums) a format Mikel learned from listening to the recordings of Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Larry Goldings and the like.
For this album Mikel contacted Matt Harding, a North American guitar player from Salt Lake City and Parisian drummer Franck Mantegari. Mikel and Matt have a long history of musical collaboration and friendship. They formed their first group, a rock 'n roll cover band, in 1988 while they were both in high school in Salt Lake City, USA. The two have continued to work together on Matt Harding albums and tours since then. Harding is a singer/songwriter with a voice that has impressed well known icons such as John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal.
Franck Mantegari has played drums for international reggae star, Alpha Blondy, for the past 8 years. Franck met Matt in New York City, where he moved from Paris in search of new musical adventures. His list of musical collaborations is very long and includes Saint Germain, Luther Allison, and Massive Attack. Mantegari's African influenced sense of rhythm created the contagiously danceable grooves of this album.
These three musicians have spent a lot of time on the road together in the past year promoting the latest album of Matt Harding. During these months they took advantage of their free time in between concerts to record the songs that make up the Elkano Browning Cream album. Recordings took place in locations both exotic and diverse: Shanghai, (China) Orem (Utah) and San Sebastian (Spain). All recordings were done using the Mamusik mobile studio.
This work is published by the record label Mamusik, a label created by Azpiroz to put out his own truly Independent music recordings. Border Dreams will distribute this album both in Spain and internationally.