After the great success in his last presentation in Buenos Aires and his tours in Spain and the rest of Europe, Carlos Nunez returns to present his symphonic concert live accompanied by the Orquesta Única de Buenos Aires, with the special participation of Leon Gieco on the stage of Colon Theater of Buenos Aires, within the framework of the Unique concerts.
Considered one of the best bagpipers in the world and one of the main exponents of Celtic music, the Spanish artist will present his new album celebrating the twelfth-fifth anniversary of his first album “To the Brotherhood of the Stars”. The album will feature new collaborations with artists of all genres and will offer us, for the first time, some of the novelties that he will present this year in Paris, at the Saint Denis Cathedral.
One of the high points of the night will be the presence of León Gieco, who will make his reappearance on the Buenos Aires stages after a long period of absence. Together they will celebrate their years of friendship, taking a tour of their best collaborations, as well as those shared with the legendary Irish band The Chieftains.
As if he were a magician of the bagpipes and flutes, the musician invites each concert to a celebration of the roots, nature and the art of living that Celtic music represents. More than ever, the Celtic musical heritage is recovering all its value and, in this sense, the Galician artist has spent decades creating an authentic family that unites the public of all ages and artists of all genres around the great millennial legacy of the tradition.
Since her mentors, the legendary Irish The Chieftains, conveyed to her their idea of Celtic music as open and deep, Nuñez has collaborated with artists as varied and emblematic as Joan Manuel Serrat, Julio Iglesias, Amaral, Roger Hodgson from Supertramp, chamamé exponent Chango Spasiuk and the Oscar-winning Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaolalla.
His latest album includes special collaborations with artists from all kinds of genres, such as Rozalén, Andrés Suárez or Glen Hansard. From urban sounds to medieval music, going through Rock, Pop and electronic music, as well as samples of what is now called “folktronics” and more recently with the release of singles “Solstice” and “Sword dance”, produced together with young urban musicians.
The musical experience promises to take us sensorially to the different Celtic countries, enjoy the epic sound of all the bagpipes of the Atlantic arc and travel back in time through medieval music, the Celtic music of beethoven, movie soundtracks, even the most current music. The appointment will be exclusively on March 29, at 7:30 p.m., at the Teatro Colón. In dialogue with News, Carlos Nuñez anticipates his concert and his vision of music.
News Magazine: How have you changed, in your 25-year career, the reception of your interpretations of Celtic music by the public?
Carlos Nunez: When I first went to Argentina, 25 years ago, Celtic music was a fad and a cliché. It was one more cliché, like saying that flamenco is this and jazz is that. Today it has become a much broader genre and we have done it thanks to collaborations. In the concert that we are going to perform at the Colon, we are going to play from traditional music brought to a symphony orchestra, collaborations that we have made with the cinema, Beethoven, who fell in love with Celtic music and carried it with classical instruments, and more experiences current, like uniting the trap with the bagpipe. We have detected that the trap has a series of rhythms, which are the same as those in the muñeira and even in the chámame. That more open vision, those collaborations, has expanded our sounds and our way of understanding, and, in some way, Buenos Aires was a great accomplice with me. Buenos Aires is the Hispanic capital of Celtic music, as well as being the true capital of Europe. In Europe, a Spaniard to meet an Italian must change country, on the other hand, in Argentina you have them as neighbors. That is very Celtic, in the Celtic world we always make the effort to connect. This philosophy of connecting, from a Mediterranean Iberian with a Scottish, hunts with the spirit of Buenos Aires.
News: In today’s times with digital music productions, how is Celtic music being assembled?
Nunez: When I started 25 years ago, we were at the height of the analog world. We recorded the music in Dublin, where they did Van Morrison and The Chieftains, and there was as much technology as possible from the analog world. That sound that some say is second to none, even today. Now it’s another way to record and make music. It’s not like rock, where there’s muscle, or in classical music, with that virtuosity, the creators of electronic or urban music create it in a different way, you have to see it from different contexts. In the Colon concert, echoes of medieval music will sound, the sound as Beethoven understood it and the style of the seventies, by adding bass and drums. Our latest experiences with young 18-year-old producers, collaborators of C Tangana, uniting the rhythm of the trap with the bagpipes. You have a genre that has been around for over a thousand years and each century was understood in a different way. At a concert we take a trip back in time.
News: Some instruments survive over the centuries and others do not. What is in the bagpipe to establish itself today?
Nunez: The bagpipe has been around for a thousand years, as we know it today. They have existed in the Neolithic proto-bagpipes, but the bagpipe of Galicia and Scotland is a medieval instrument. It is an instrument with clear characteristics, the Scottish ones usually play in mixolydian scales, modes used in rock, and the Galician ones were in a Doric mode, like the medieval pieces. The trap, for example, most of its pieces are in Doric mode. The bagpipe has a very strong personality, it is the electric guitar of the Middle Ages.
News: From León Gieco to Chango Spaciuk, what did you find in Argentine music to develop your collaborations?
nunez: From the first time, I found something in Argentina that is missing in Spain, pride. Spain is very Americanized, Spanish rockers are not like Argentine rockers, for example, they have nods to chámame or folk music. At my first concert, León Gieco and Mercedes Sosa came, we ended up having dinner at Mercedes’ house all together. That, in Spain, does not work like that. Argentina reminds me of Ireland, at night the Chieftainspioneers of traditional Celtic music, were associated with the U2. I saw that wink between rock and traditional music here too.
News: What is the future of this style of music?
Nunez: You see the lists of Youtube, or Spotify, and you have everything. Young people today handle all kinds of music, they jump from one genre to another without any problem. We combine Celtic music with people from country music, people from electronic music, people from classical music to trap, with all genres. I think it is the way, they are all interesting contributions, there is no country better than another. The art is in uniting. It is a journey into the future and it is a journey to the roots as well.
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