The internet has opened up all sorts of possibilities for musicians. Many have found new fans and new markets for their recordings through the world wide web, and festival programmers are now able to access previously unheard bands and players without the expense and inconvenience of foreign travel.

Bringing together musicians from Scotland and Bulgaria, the latest Scottish Arts Council Tune Up tour came about through the musician's equivalent of internet dating.

Piper and saxophonist Fraser Fifield wanted to record with a kaval player. The sound of this ancient end-blown flute, which is central to the traditional music of Bulgaria and Macedonia, had been in Fifield's head since he first encountered its sound while touring in California with the Scottish folk band Old Blind Dogs in the mid 1990s, when he heard it being used by a Spanish group.

On researching the instrument, Fifield learned about Nedyalko Nedyalkov, one of Bulgaria's leading musicians and a kaval player of astonishing ability. Would Nedyalkov fancy working with a Scottish band that mixes themes rooted in the Scottish tradition with jazz-derived improvisation? There was only one way to find out. Fifield sent an e-mail and Nedyalkov, as they say, bit his hand off.

"He was very enthusiastic from the start," says Fifield, "and it quickly became clear that we share similar philosophies about music. Nedyalko is one of the most respected traditional musicians in Bulgaria and is in charge of the state-run Radio Folk Orchestra in Sofia. But he also improvises like a madman. So I was pretty sure, just from speaking to him on the phone and through e-mails, that we'd be compatible and what we worked on would turn out well."

A trip to Sofia, where Fifield played with Nedyalkov and Georgi Petrov, who plays the gadulka, an eastern European cousin of the violin, reinforced his belief that he was on the right track. The line-up for the CD grew to include both Nedyalkov and Petrov alongside Fifield's group. Then the CD grew into a tour featuring both Fifield and Nedyalkov's groups and before the Scottish tour even starts, the collaboration has grown legs, in the shape of more dates in England during May.

The two groups have already shared the stage at Celtic Connections as a trailer for the Tune-up tour. And between trips to Sofia for Fifield and trips to Scotland for Nedyalkov and Petrov to record and then play, there have been quite a lot of travel arrangements to organise as well as musical ones.

So what was it about the kaval, the instrument that's led to all these air miles, that attracted Fifield in the first place?

"Initially it was the sound, particularly in the lower register," he says. "Then the more I looked into it and started listening to records, especially by Theodosii Spassov, who's another amazing player and a national hero in Bulgaria, I realised that you can get a huge variety of sounds from what is actually a very simple instrument. It's really just a hollow wooden tube but it's so expressive."

Fifield carried the sound of that first kaval encounter in his mind for some 10 years before he finally made a trip to Bulgaria in 2005, bought several kavals and began to study the instrument seriously.

"It's not as if there are hundreds of books on how to play the kaval, like there are with the guitar or other western instruments," he says. "There's a page on the internet that shows you how to shape the embouchure, and that's about it," says Fifield, referring to the shape the player makes with his mouth and jaw. "The embouchure is really important, though, because it's such a simple instrument, and it took me months to get a sound I was happy with."

He's now at the point where he feels comfortable playing the kaval at his own gigs - though not in Nedyalkov's company - and puts part of his progress down to his training on the bagpipes.

"After playing the saxophone and tin whistles it was really good to get back to playing on wood. It's a different feeling altogether," he says. "Although there are obvious differences between the kaval and the bagpipe chanter - the kaval is chromatic - they both have the same number of holes. You use the flats of your fingers with both instruments and in both cases the music uses a lot of grace notes. So piping has helped."

When Fifield and Nedyalkov's groups got together at Celtic Connections they quickly made connections of their own. Angel Dimitrov, who plays tambura, the Bulgarian lute, turned out to be quite a jazz guitar talent. He has hit it off with Fifield's guitarist, Graeme Stephen, and Georgi Petrov featured in the Riverdance band for some time, so has proved a useful interpreter as well as taking to Fifield's music with ease. On the tour, the plan is for each group to do its own set and then all eight musicians play together.

"The thing about all four Bulgarian musicians is that they are simply outstanding and deserve to be heard," says Fifield. "Nedyalko's wife, Stoimenka, who sings with his group, is an amazing singer, and although we're all open to whatever musical permutations that result on the tour, it's one of those situations where you're happy to get the chance just to listen to the other band every night."