Jose-Angel HEVIA is a recognised young master "gaiteru": a traditional bagpiper from the North Spanish region of Asturias (or Asturies, as the Asturians call it in their local language called Bable). Five years ago, he combined the traditional and folk sounds of his Asturian gaita bagpipe, with modern pop and techno beats on his first CD "Tierra de Nadie / No-man's land" (EMI, 1998), published in more tha 40 countries, selling over 2 million copies.

To even more defy the criticism from the trad music purists, in that record Hevia also played a "MIDI gaita", a modern digital electronic version of a bagpipe, which can be programmed to reproduce the sounds of diverse wind instruments, such as: gaitas, uilleann pipes, flutes,.... That instrument was developed by Hevia together with the electronic engineers Alberto Arias and Miguel Dopico.

Jose-Angel Hevia is now back with a third album, called "Etnico Ma Non Troppo" (EMI, 2003), ready for distribution on the international music market like the two previous ones: "Tierra de Nadie" and "Al otro lado / Al Otru Llao / The other side" (EMI, 2000).

However since, 2001 this enthusiastic personality of the north Spanish folk music, is also involved in another challenging project. He has joined PARRADO & ARAGON, a team of young wind instrument makers from the city of Cordoba (Andalusian region, south of Spain). Parrado & Aragon started seven years ago, the research, development, design and manufacturing of many kinds of traditional music woodwinds, such as: traverse flutes, gaitas, uilleann pipes, bombardes, etc.... The high quality of their instruments is enjoyed by folk musicians from Spain and abroad, such as Paddy Maloney (The Chieftains), Josh Groban, Javier Paxariño, La Musgaña and of course Jose Angel Hevia.

HEVIA, PARRADO & ARAGON (company acronym: ArHPa)have established now a factory by the mountains of Sierra de Guadarrama (Madrid, central Spain), where they work on the design and manufacturing of top quality traditional wind instruments, such as: Irish flute, baroque flutes, baroque oboes, Irish uilleann pipes, Asturian and Galician gaita bagpipes, and MIDI gaitas. They also manufacture and sell special spare supplies (pipe reeds), and distribute traditional instruments from other top Spanish makers, such as bohdrans and other percussions from Victor BARRAL.

These tenacious young group are also working now on the design and soon manufacturing of Scottish great Highland bagpipes, developed in co-operation with Fred MORRISON, the Scottish piper who has played with Karen MATHIESON´s band CAPERCAILLIE.

For anyone interested on fine traditional music instruments, or want to know more about what HEVIA, PARRADO & ARAGON are producing, it is highly recommended to enjoy visiting their web page: www.arhpa.com.

Photos:
(1) Cover of the latest CD from Jose Angel HEVIA: Etnico Ma Non Troppo
(2) Jose Angel HEVIA and the rest of the ArHPa team showing one of their Asturian gaitas and an Irish uilleann pipes set
(3) Carlos Parrado and Chieftain´s Paddy Maloney holding the ArHPa uilleann pipes chanter now used by Paddy on his set

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