Inter-Celtic

Is Galician piper Carlos Núñez the most enthusiastic, optimistic, energetic musician on earth? From the first blow on this 16-track album, his ninth to date, he is in total dance mode, with his familiar spiralling scales and arpeggios coming thick and fast. Each track is like a postcard, with a single motif and strident melody. Sea shanties and jigs predominate, some with a definite Irish lilt, others paying homage to Brittany – the album title alludes to a Breton orchestra that brings together performers from seven Celtic countries. Núñez is known for his gaita (bagpipe) playing, but he also plays a mean recorder, ocarina, whistles, Scottish and Irish pipes and a bombarde, a kind of Breton oboe. These instruments – not to mention the fiddles, harps, tubas, flugelhorns, bodhráns and other instruments wielded by his guests – mean there are many layers as well as changes in tempo and mood.

The production throughout is bold and daring. Ry Cooder's meditative guitar guests on ‘Two Shores’, accordionist Sharon Shannon is superb on ‘Jota do Porto do Cabo’ and long-time collaborators The Chieftains help out on three tracks. As he gets bigger, Núñez gets more anthemic: you get the impression he could have made even the penny whistle a stadium-filler.