I just had a first good listen. This is very fine playing. The Seery is surely a good flute, maybe underrated here, but this collection is one more reminder that the real magic is in the player. Very inspiring.
I’ve listened to a few of the tracks so far. I re-arranged the order to listen to “Kiss The Maid…” - a personal favourite, -and immediately after listened to the “Little Katy Taylor” set. I find it very hard to believe that those 2 particular tracks are by the same player. Maybe there are 3 players, but who plays what ? Anyone else like to listen to those 2 tracks back-to-back and venture an opinion ?
I’ve been listening to this more and more and really loving it. I went to bed last night listening to it on my iPod after consuming a generous portion of Vodka from the 1.5L bottle o’er yonder in the liquor cabinet. I drifted off and my playlist progressed through several great albums including Matt Molloy, The Bothy Band, Planxty, Kevin Burke and Mícheál O’Domhnaill and Sharon Shannon just to name a few.
I came about at around 3:30 am hearing a strange sound coming from my headphones. It sounded like someone saying, “Oh Grandma bring my hair machine, my hair machine, my hair machine.” As it turns out, I was in the Middle of De Danann’s “Mist covered Morning” listening to “Seamaisin”. I really gotta cut back on the Vodka.
Cheers,
Kirk
Fitzpatrick’s playing is amazing (a bit too fast for time to time maybe) ! Great choice of tunes as well.
However I’m not convinced with the sound of its flute… I found it a bit poor. Am I the only one to think so ?
Are you talking about tone, tuning or something else?
about the tone, tuning seems ok to me. It sounds dry I think. Of course it’s a “pratten” kind, but I heard some pratten which sound richer…
Thanks, at this point I won’t comment as I’d like to see what others might have to say. I just wanted to check what you were referring to by 'sound’. I suppose ideally it would be someone with good tone production who has played these and other flutes, I’ve only had a brief ‘go’ on a Seery so can’t be specific.
I listened to this download on the bus in this morning, and am listening again right now.
Some of the tracks do sound “too dry” for my tastes, but others do not. I believe there are 3 players, yes? Also, it sounds like the microphone placement is different on some of the recordings. There are so many variables when recording a flute that change the sound you hear on a recording (reverb added…many people on this site do that when posting a recording, post production clean-up which is common on commercial recordings, etc.). These recordings seem pretty bare bones to me, and I like that.
So overall, I don’t think a Seery is too dry (caveat - I’ve owned one in the past). I do think they get lost in the discussion of good polymer flutes. Tom Doorley sure made it sound fine on the first 3 Danu recordings.
Eric
You’re right Eric, even if the tone sounds dry to me in some of these recordings, I would judge seery flute only with this recording. Nothing is better than a direct contact with the instrument, and as I have never had the opportunity to try a Seery Flute so far, I won’t opine on these flutes.
Anyway this free CD is pure joy, and I like its “bare bones” style too