The concept behind this digibook originated with Kepa, who invited Luis Antonio Pedraza to develop a joint project after previously crossing paths on another collaboration. Recorded in the spring of 2018 at Oliene, Kepa’s house-studio, De mano en mano is built upon Pedraza’s repertoire and research as a musician specialising in the three-hole flute, its variants, and the tamboril. Although born in Blanes, his roots lie in Zamora, a territory he has explored extensively through field research in order to preserve and renew traditional melodies that, despite the advance of globalisation, have maintained their identity. His aim, as he himself explains, is to give them a “universal vocation”.

This third album by Pedraza, directed and produced by Kepa, brings together thirteen pieces from the regions of Aliste and Sayago, as well as from the Raya borderlands between Zamora and Portugal. As a closing piece, the Bilbao-born musician contributes the composition “3amora”, inspired by the Passion rituals of Zamora’s Holy Week and the only track featuring the trikitixa. According to Pedraza himself, the collaboration unfolded with remarkable ease: Kepa’s experience and external perspective proved decisive in guiding the project and drawing out its essence beyond its traditional context.

The album also serves as a tribute to the tamborileros who have performed and transmitted this music through generations. To achieve this, Pedraza used historical instruments once belonging to those musicians: original flutes, a vulture-wing flute, a washboard, cowbells and a shepherd’s wooden cane known as cacha, all part of his extensive collection.

The final repertoire stems from an exhaustive study of traditional songbooks: “La loba parda”, collected by Joaquín Díaz in Toro; the “Pinariega” jota from Agapito Marazuela’s songbook; the “Pasacalles de Boda” from Cibanal, included in the Cancionero de Folklore de Zamora (Zamoran Folklore Songbook); and the “Pasacalles de Mayordomías” from Villanueva del Conde, gathered in Ángel Carril’s anthology.

Pedraza began his musical studies at the age of seven in Zamora, first as a trumpeter before specialising in the three-hole flute, tamboril and traditional percussion at schools in Zamora and Salamanca. He currently directs the Zamoran Tamboril Player’s Association and descends from the Ciudad Rodrigo region, with family roots in Campillo de Azaba and Peñaparda, known for their square frame drums. In 2019 he joined La Musgaña, a touchstone in Castilian folk music, alongside Jaime Muñoz and Carlos Beceiro, a close collaborator of Kepa’s for many years.

Record label: Infernuko Auspoa. Production: Kepa Junkera and Luis Antonio Pedraza.