In the early part of the new millennium, a pair of intrepid musicians who call themselves Oreka Tx (from the Basque word for “balance” and the initial letters of their chosen medium) took their txalaparta, a locally beloved but otherwise little-known instrument, and traveled to India, Lapland, Mongolia, and the Sahara in search of fresh collaborations, adventures and ideas. The result was an astounding documentary called Nömadak Tx (“Nomadic Txalaparta”) which won multiple awards at international film festivals and is coming soon to theaters worldwide. The new recording of the same name (Word Village 468085 -- street date March 10, 2009), offers a wealth of newly arranged material inspired by the music in the film. The txalaparta (pronounced roughly “tchala-parta”), nearly extinct as recently as the 1950s, is inextricably tied to Basque culture and currently enjoying a renaissance thanks in part to Oreka Tx. Related to the idiophone family, the txalaparta is made of wooden planks supported by insulated stands. Two players (txalapartaris) strike the instrument with a pair of thick, pestle-like wooden sticks. Acting at once in tandem and independently of one another, but always eerily in synch, the players create complex, lightning-fast, changeable rhythmic and melodic patterns, moving between the tenor range and bass notes so profound that they pummel the listener’s solar plexus. Follow these two musicians as they cross continents creating connections between people and cultures with their unique instrument, the txalaparta.