Carlos Núñez

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Carlos Núñez live at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany

Carlos Núñez (Vigo, 1971) is a musician from Galicia who plays the gaita, a Galician bagpipe. He has become an integral part of the Galician Celtic music, and has collaborated with Ry Cooder, Sinéad O'Connor, The Chieftains, Altan and La Vieja Trova Santiaguera. His most renowned album was 1996's A Irmandade Das Estrelas, which sold an unprecedented 100,000 copies, and included collaborations with Nightnoise, Luz Casal, Tino di Geraldo, Tríona Ní Domhnaill and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Kepa Junkera, Ry Cooder, The Chieftains, and Dulce Pontes. He has since moved on to including elements of Berber music and flamenco, as well as more pronounced Celtic, especially Breton, influences. He was a key collaborator in Tamiya Terashima's soundtrack of Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea), released in July 2006. He also released an additional album, titled "Melodies from Gedo Senki", which included new Gedo Senki OST tracks along with new tunes by Carlos himself.^[1]^[2]

Nuñez was born in 1971 in Vigo and began playing the bagpipe when he was eight years old. In his early teens, he was invited to play with the Lorient Festival Orchestra. He quickly gained stature as a young virtuoso, and met Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains. He performed with the band two years later, and has been referred to as the "7th member" of the band. He appeared on their Grammy-winning Santiago, which focused on Galician music and included Los Lobos and Linda Ronstadt.

On his 1999 album Os Amores Libres, he collaborated with French producer Hector Zazou.

He continues to tour the world playing in large and small venues.