The world press celebrates him as charismatic and brilliant. His CD sales have achieved gold or even platinum status in Spain, reaching 1 million worldwide. He became a honorary member of the Chieftains in their Grammy award wining album ‘Santiago’ and he had a No.1 hit in the Spanish Radio charts. Carlos Nunez is a star. Seeing him perform live, one is gripped by his sensitivity, energy and virtuosity. Carlos says: ‘In Galicia we play Celtic music as the Irish, Scottish and Bretons do, but we add Spanish passion and temperament, that’s our trademark’. This Spanish -Celtic spark spreads worldwide like wildfire and generates a flame of enthusiasm.
This great showmanship would be however quite shallow if it was not imbedded in a deep knowledge of his cultural roots. Galicia is a Celtic enclave far north in the Iberian Peninsula and sea voyages have a very significant importance. All those daring sea voyages are reflected in the traditional music. This music navigates between Ireland and Brittany in the North, to Portugal and North Africa in the South, to the West even to the other side of the Atlantic to Cuba and Argentina. The greatest significance for Carlos Nunez in the revival of Galician folk music lies in his musical journey of discovery following the trail of his predecessors who left Galicia so many years ago. He is like a pathfinder following those long forgotten cultural journeys and infuses them with new life. He builds musical bridges between different regions and musical styles. His CDs are grounded in well researched and exciting stories and backgrounds.
He is responsible for keeping the ‘Brotherhood of Celts’ alive and kicking by initiating collaborations with artists and bands such as The Chieftains, Alan Stivell, Altan , Dan Ar Braz, Donal Lunny, Sharon Shannon, Liam O’Flynn, Mike Scott from the Waterboys or Liam O’Maonlai from the Hothouse Flowers, and inspiring them to put something special together. For someone who did so much to strengthen the pan-Celtic bonds, it is no surprise that the biggest Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’ calls Carlos ‘The new king of the Celts’, a title that is well justified.
However, he does not remain anchored within the Celtic bondaries : In his albums he has also invited artists like Jackson Browne or Ry Cooder, Montserrat Caballé or Jordi Savall, Roger Hodgson from Supertramp, Noa, Dulce Pontes, Teresa Salgueiro from Madredeus, a Moroccan Sufi Choir, flamenco guitarists or singers, a Rumanian gipsy brass band… but always remaining faithful to the open way in he sees Galician musical roots.
Lately he has participated in some movie soundtracks, notably in that of the Oscar winning The Sea Inside or in Miyasaki’s Japanese animation blockbuster Gedo Senki. He has also collaborated in several of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s soundtracks, being the last one Silk with Keira Knightley. Nonetheless he had first recorded with the Chieftains in 1989 for the Treasure Island OST.
Carlos began to play the Gaita or Galician bagpipes when he was eight years old. He also studied the recorder and Baroque music with distinction in the Royal Conservatory in Madrid. At the age of 12 he performed as the soloist with an orchestra at the Festival Interceltique in Brittany. This gave him an opportunity to hear the Chieftains for the first time and his musical direction in life was influenced profoundly on that occasion. A few years later, he was invited to tour world wide with the Chieftains as their special guest for many years and features on their recordings, The Long Black Veil and Santiago. He even initiated that second album, where the grand masters are in search of the Irish-Galician connections, that earned him the title the seventh chieftain.
