XABIER DÍAZ

It’s been 30 years since Xabier first blew into a bagpipe until Coplas para Icía (2007). His curiosity enabled new experiences with pop(ular) music always on the horizon: Xacarandaina, Rumbadeira, his first field researches, a constant teaching activity, associations, contests, festivals, etc.

He then became a part of Nova Galega de Danza performing in the shows Alento, Engado and Tradicción between 2005 and 2009

On early 2008 Berrogüetto knocked on Xabier's door and the trip last till 2014, when the band announced its dissolution. During that time they released the albums Kosmogonías (2010) and O pulso da terra (2011). Consequently, they were awarded by the Music Academy with Best Song in Galician Language (2011) and Best Folk Music Band in the first edition of Martin Codax Galician Music Awards (2013), as well as Best Soundtrack Mestre Mateo Award for the film Inevitable (2014).

Great music partners and friends such as Guadi Galego, Guillermo Fernández and Xosé Lois Romero took part in the aCadaCanto project and released the albums aCadaCanto (2012) and A Rosa D'Adina (2014).

He collaborated in many albums and concerts with different artists through the years: Carmen París, Xosé Manuel Budiño, Kepa Junquera, Guadi Galego and Os Cempés, among others. Moreover, he took his music to many places such as Mexico, Zimbabwe, Germany, Uruguay, Italy, Peru, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Argentina, Norway, Belgium, Cuba, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

In 2015 he released the album The Tambourine man with Adufeiras de Salitre. This album was awarded for Best Album in Galician Language at the Independent Music Awards (2016), Best Album of Traditional Music at the Martin Codax Galician Music Awards (2016), Best Song in Galician Language at the first edition of aRitmar Awards. Furthermore, The Tambourine man has remained at the top ten of the World Music Charts Europe during February and March 2016.

Since the release of The Tambourine Man and after more than 70 live shows in barely two years, he visited Algeria, Oslo, Lorient, Le Chatre, Glasgow, Lisbon, Madrid and Brussels.

Now it is the time for Noró (Algunhas músicas do norte) (Musics from the north) Músicas de Salitre 2018 ©, a new album with Adufeiras de Salitre that highlights the musics from the Peninsular northwest.

NORÓ

Nurtha, Nord, Norte… Noró

The north is almost a state of mind for me. I like its coldness, the water, the humidity and the music. There is music everywhere in the north. It is solid, ancestral and serene music.

This album reflects my recent timeline, like the need to make the grade and improve the method, like the persistence of the Tambourine, as if I wanted to have the map of our last trips tattoed to permanently leave my confussion before I desorientate myself again. This album also celebrates the balance of this little and organized square tambourine republic in which I learn so many things without having anyone specify them to me.

In this north, the mountains are full of old melodies and sometimes the wind pulls them out of the walls to take them far away, to the city for example. It was there where I heard them for the first time, a long time ago, when my curiosity made me go on a hunt after them as if I was an explorer, with no royal support or divine approval. When the first melody reached me, I was certain I would need to go on pilgrimage to perpetuity. On the way there I left loves, a building engineer and many other things, however it never mattered to me as I always felt lucky for having such a soundtrack for my life.

My north begins when I pass the bleak uplands and get to see Sanabria. My north smells of lemon cookies from the old bakery in Cerdido and is shaped as a cave, carved by the sea in the most whimsical way with the pulse of an eternal ribeirana. My north has the elegance of a quick dancer drawing impossible moves in the middle of the road.