Celtas Cortos came together in Spain's Castile and León region in 1986, as a project by a gang of friends entering a folk music contest. But the band soon became much more—by 1989, they'd released their first official album Salida de Emergencia, a collection of instrumentals. Singer Jesús H. Cifuentes (or Cifu) bolstered the music of Celtas Cortos with his impassioned vocals on their follow-up album. Though Celtas Cortos' sound is anchored in sweeping, melodic Celtic rock, they've experimented with flamenco, electronic and reggae, releasing over a dozen albums.