Carlos Nunez

On his recent album, Os Amores Libres (RCA Victor), Spanish piper Carlos Nunez has more than 81 guest players, ranging from singer Jackson Browne and ex-Waterboy Mike Scott to flamenco star J.M. Canizares. And he insists he needed every one of them.

"The album is more than just music," he said. "It's a whole research project, putting together so many connections in music. I couldn't do it all by myself."

Those connections have taken Nunez, a leading figure in the music of Galicia (the Northern coastal area of Spain), south, to the heart of flamenco country, to North Africa, and even to Central Europe.

"Half of the Galician repertoire sounds very Irish," he explained. " But there's another part with different modes and rhythms that sound very flamenco, these new - well, very old, connections to the South. And no one played that. There are also elements of Andalusian music from the North of Morocco, as well as things in common with gypsy music."

"When the album came out, people in Galicia were insulted, perhaps because the Celtic movement is so strong."

Going back to the 14th century, Spain was very much a cultural crossroads, where Spaniards, Jews, and Arabs and lived and mingled - "like a medieval New York," laughed Nunez. Then the Arabs were expelled, followed by the Jews.

In the 20th Century, when the dictator Franco ruled Spain, things became very centralized in the country, and "the different cultures of Spain were ignored. The only tradition pushed was flamenco; he saw it as the exportable music of Spain."

Other traditions remained little more than glowing folkloric embers in the various regions. It was only after Franco's death in the mid-‘70s that they were able to reassert their own identities.

"In Galicia, our Celtic connections came out, and we looked North," Nunez said. In fact, trained in Baroque music at the Madrid Conservatory, Nunez was the person largely responsible for reconstructing the Galician piping tradition, listening to Scots and Irish players, and applying the lessons to his native music; for a while he was almost an extra member of The Chieftains, accompanying them on tour and learning the nuances of their music.

Following that, he looked beyond the traditional Celtic countries to find links between Galician and Cuban music - a number of Galicians emigrated to Cuba and took their music, including the pipes, with them. His 1997 album, A Irmandade Das Estrellas (Brotherhood of Stars), featured Cuba's Vieja Trova Santiguera as well as The Chieftains.

Now he's become the first to explore the bonds between Galician music and flamenco rhythms, North African and Gypsy modes, first pondered by the Spanish poet Lorca. It proved to be an long effort of scholarship and persuasion.

"I spent three years research and recording," he recalled. But in Morocco he found the theories of a connection completely vindicated.. "When we played Galician traditional music for them, they recognized the different modes and how they functioned in their musical systems. They have this music through religious music cult music, people like the Gnawas. They have names for every little variation."

It was vital, he believes, to have people from these linked traditions on the record. "I had to convince people from these other cultures, like the Sufi Andalousi Choir of Tangiers to appear on "Danza da Lua en Santiago," a tribute to the inspirational Lorca. It was important to have all these artists and the music they represented."

So Os Amores Libres is far more than another album trotting out the glittering names from different styles, but a genuine quest, and one that wasn't initially well-received at home.

"When the album came out, people in Galicia were insulted, perhaps because the Celtic movement is so strong. Now they seem to understand it, and they're accepting it."

As if to underline the seriousness of the project, there's very little of Nunez's flamboyant piping on the album; instead he takes more of a background role, often sticking to whistle, and letting the music speak for itself, as on "O Cabalo Azul."

Only on the flamenco-styled "Jigs & Bulls" does he really let fly with his devastating technique and speed.

"The pipes are very strong. They're the fire. So you have reserve them for special moments. That track was a new sensation for me. I played like a flamenco guitarist, very fast. I had to work hard!"

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com