Michel Balatti
"The Northern Breeze" – Irish flute music
Agata		
Agata (M.Balatti)
Adam and Eve (trad.)

Musicians:
Michel Balatti		whistle
Michael Bryan		guitar
Fabio Biale		piano

The Northern Breeze is the debut solo album of Italian flute and whistle player Michel Balatti.
Michel is a well known artist in the Italian and European folk scene, due to his career with the Birkin Tree (the most important Irish music band in Italy) and with the Italian traditional music band I Liguriani, with whom he had toured Europe extensively over the course of the last five years.
The album consists of an eclectic selection of music, which ranges from old and sometimes rather obscure Irish melodies to some newly composed tunes from Ireland and beyond, including  four titles penned by Balatti himself. Simple artistic production and minimalistic arrangements were chosen by the musicians to highlight at the best the tunes and the nuances of whistles and flutes.
The album features the playing of Scottish guitarist Michael Bryan (well known in UK and Ireland for his work with the Nuala Kennedy band and with the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards house band) and Italian multi instrumentalist Fabio Biale (who had been a long time partner of Balatti both with the Birkin Tree and with Liguriani) on most tracks.
Guest appearances by Irish flute player and singer Nuala Kennedy, Irish concertina player Caitlin Nic Gabhann and Italian harpist Elena Spotti complete the album’s line up.

Here's what Martin Hayes says about the album:
“I've had the great pleasure of performing on stage many times with Michel Balatti over the years.
He is a fine flute player with a thorough understanding of the style and repertoire in Irish music. His flute playing sounds as authentically Irish as the best playing you might expect to hear in co. Clare or Sligo. This is a beautifully arranged and produced recording”.

about the track:
I wrotethe first tune for my daughter Agata. I actually came up with it before she was born, soon after I discovered that I was going to become a father. That was definitely one of the most joyful moments of my entire life, and I sincerely hope you all can feel that happy “I’m going to be a dad” mood in the music! We follow up with a well known jig, “Adam and Eve”, and I must honestly tell you that the thought of the above mentioned Adam and Eve dancing a jig half naked in the garden of Eden almost makes me as happy as the idea of becoming a father!

11 Agata

Michel Balatti
"The Northern Breeze" – Irish flute music

The Cloon				
O'Connell's trip to parliament (trad.)
Splendid isolation (B. McGlinchey)
The cloon	 (trad.)			


Musicians:
Michel Balatti		flute
Michael Bryan		guitar
Fabio Biale		piano


The Northern Breeze is the debut solo album of Italian flute and whistle player Michel Balatti.
Michel is a well known artist in the Italian and European folk scene, due to his career with the Birkin Tree (the most important Irish music band in Italy) and with the Italian traditional music band I Liguriani, with whom he had toured Europe extensively over the course of the last five years.
The album consists of an eclectic selection of music, which ranges from old and sometimes rather obscure Irish melodies to some newly composed tunes from Ireland and beyond, including  four titles penned by Balatti himself. Simple artistic production and minimalistic arrangements were chosen by the musicians to highlight at the best the tunes and the nuances of whistles and flutes.
The album features the playing of Scottish guitarist Michael Bryan (well known in UK and Ireland for his work with the Nuala Kennedy band and with the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards house band) and Italian multi instrumentalist Fabio Biale (who had been a long time partner of Balatti both with the Birkin Tree and with Liguriani) on most tracks.
Guest appearances by Irish flute player and singer Nuala Kennedy, Irish concertina player Caitlin Nic Gabhann and Italian harpist Elena Spotti complete the album’s line up.

Here's what Martin Hayes says about the album:
“I've had the great pleasure of performing on stage many times with Michel Balatti over the years.
He is a fine flute player with a thorough understanding of the style and repertoire in Irish music. His flute playing sounds as authentically Irish as the best playing you might expect to hear in co. Clare or Sligo. This is a beautifully arranged and produced recording”.

about the track:
this is track number one on my album, I’ve been calling the “bamboozle set” - a selection of lively and fast reels to catch the attention of the audience - but don’t worry; the rest of the album will be full of sad, slow and rather depressing music for your fine listening pleasure!
I got the first tune from the playing of co. Cork flute player  Conal O’Grada, who recorded it on his guest appearence on Jackie Daly and Kevin Burke's classic album “The Eavesdropper”.  “Splendid isolation” is a well known reel composed by fiddle player Brendan McGlinchey, and one of my all time favourite tunes. I was given this version of “The cloon” (also known as “The humours of Toomagh”) by the Italian fiddle player Carlo Galantini.  Carlo is one of the pioneers of the Irish music scene in Italy and a man with a keen ear for tunes, from whom I've learnt lots of music over the years.

Michel Balatti

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