Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

26th May 2006

Number 95 - The Addition of a Genius Bagpiper

In producing "Tales from Earthsea" we have really been blessed with a whole lot of good fortune. One of these was meeting with Carlos Funies.

The cinema soundtrack involves bagpipes, but there are not so many bagpipers in Japan. When I heard from someone that a genius bagpiper would be visiting Japan, I went straight to ask. This person, who cheerfully accepted was Carlos.

He is from the region of Galicia in Spain.
When I think about bagpipes, I get a kind of Irish feeling[1], but the region of Galicia is a place where the culture of the celts has lingered. So a kind of bagpipes called "Gaita" are played there.

The other day, in the space between concerts he was carrying out a sound test, but as soon as everyone in the place heard the sound he was producing, they were speechless with surprise. That was how rich in expression, beautiful, attractive a tone it was.

As well as the bagpipes, he also played the whistle, the recorder and the ocarina. That was really amazing. My image of the recorder and ocarina underwent a 180 degree turn.

When asked the reason he accepted our request, he said it was because he felt the attraction of Tamiya Terashima's music, which contained the feeling of the Celts and the Galicians at the same time as being Japanese.

Actually we found out later that he is a popular artist in his own country of Spain who attracts tens of thousands of people to his concerts, and is in popular demand around the world. We were really fortunate to be able to approach someone like that. Thanks to his pipes, an extra dimension of attractiveness was added to our music.

Translator's Notes

[1]: The director is Japanese so the association of bagpipes and Scotland is probably not so obvious to him as for people from English speaking countries. Also, the Irish do have their own bagpipes as well.