Tola Custy: violin, viola
Tom Stearn: vocals, guitar, bouzouki
Michel Balatti: flutes
“We heard it first, coming in off the wind. Not a word, not a note; maybe, a notion all the way from a direction where air and light walk with joined emotion. Where land, sky and water sing in full calling. We endeavour to venture there.”
“The North Wind” is the new album, released in February 2025 by Visage Music, born from the collaboration of three outstanding musicians coming from different worlds: Italian flutist Michel Balatti, Irish fiddler Tola Custy, and Scottish singer and multi-instrumentalist Tom Stearn. An exquisite artistic partnership that gives life to a fascinating performance in which tradition blends with personal exploration, striking a refined balance between memory, emotion, and contemporaneity, with a repertoire that spans Ireland, Scotland, England, Brittany, Northern Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States. The trio works on the repertoire with great attention to arrangement, building a sound that is essential yet deep, rich in space and resonance. Their music alternates between intimate, almost whispered moments and intense, powerful passages, creating a dynamic flow that carries the listener into a universe dense with colors and nuances. At the heart of the project lies a profound dedication to traditional music, particularly Irish, approached with philological respect yet also with expressive freedom. Traditional music here is not seen as something to be guarded, static and immutable, but as a living, changing language, open to evolution and contamination. It is precisely in the dialogue between respect and interpretive freedom that the trio builds its musical identity. The three musicians share an approach that places melody and emotion at the center, tracing sonic paths capable of conveying the lyrical beauty and evocative power of their music. The result is a dynamic musical flow that views the past as a living language, in constant transformation.
Tola Custy comes from a well-known family of musicians from Toonagh, County Clare, Ireland — an area famous for its musical traditions. Tola has developed his own sound while remaining faithful to the traditional music of his homeland. His travels exposed him to the music of Brittany, Scandinavia, Asturias, and Galicia — musical worlds that helped shape a unique and highly recognizable musical identity. He released his acclaimed solo album Setting Free in 1993 and went on to form the influential groups Calico, The Bowhouse Quintet, and Guidewires. He has collaborated with Eddi Reader, Liam O’Maonlai, Heidi Talbot, Lúnasa, Laoise Kelly, and Arty McGlynn, among others. He has already performed on FolkClub stage in February 2020, as a guest of Birkin Tree for a memorable Irish folk concert.
Michel Balatti is an Italian flutist who has dedicated himself to Irish traditional music for over twenty years. In 1999 he joined Birkin Tree, the most important and recognized Italian band in this field, with whom he recorded three albums and performed in thousands of concerts in Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Spain, and France. Over his career he has collaborated with some of the most important folk artists from the Emerald Isle, including Martin Hayes, Mick O’Brien, Aoife Ní Bhriain, Caitlín Nic Gabhann, Nuala Kennedy, and many others. In 2016 he released his solo album "The Northern Breeze", which received unanimous acclaim from international critics. He is also a founding member of I Liguriani, a group dedicated to traditional music from Northern Italy, with whom he has successfully performed throughout Europe over the last 15 years.
Tom Stearn, a Scottish singer, bouzouki player, and guitarist, began his career in the lively Glasgow music scene, where deep cultural roots intersect with new trends in international music. He has performed extensively throughout the UK with several bands tied to Scottish traditional music. He is guitarist and vocalist in Alistair Ogilvy’s Scottish folk project for the Greentrax label, a finalist for the BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2012, and nominated for the BBC ALBA MG Alba Trad Awards 2012. Moving to Italy in 2012, he founded Kettle of Kites, an alternative/folk/rock band with several albums and tours across the UK, Italy, and Europe. He has also produced several recordings and projects for BBC Radio, BBC Scotland, and Rai 3. Since 2022 he has been a permanent member of Birkin Tree, with whom he recorded the album "4.0" (Felmay, 2022).
