Reviews and Interviews for ‘Water Street’
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"Water Street pulls many strands together to form an impressive tapestry: top class flute-playing, pieces from several traditions, Tom’s own compositions, and accompaniment on a trusty Greek bouzouki. If I didn’t have to write about it, I’d say Water Street was indescribable - but here goes!"
— Irish Music Magazine
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"the presentation throughout displays an urgency which suggests a greater emphasis on the playing itself than the structural sensibilities of the Western tradition, again taking a subtle but notable page from the jazz playbook. This is most evident on cuts like ‘The Ace and the Deuce’ and ‘The Fastest Zebra’ which assert the flute’s capabilities as a lead instrument with the emotional depth of a saxophone or piano when trusted in the hands of the right musician"
— Folking.com
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“You know what I love about traditional music? The fact that it can shape-change into the avant-garde and back into a rip-roarer without losing its fluidity or breaking its stride.”
— The Irish News
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"Where most people viewed the first Covid lockdown as an inconvenient necessity, Scottish flute player Tom Oakes also saw it as an opportunity. Having recently returned from Switzerland, where he'd played his final pre-lockdown gig, he was living with his family in a 17th-century merchant's house in Leith, Edinburgh and, having the place largely to himself he set about recording several solo flute pieces in various parts of the building, exploring the differing acoustic properties of the building's very fabric"
**** - Rock n Reel - Dave Haslam
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"It's a very personal recording, often naked and exposed but with an honesty enhanced by the wood and stone of Oakes' surroundings and the feeling that his breathy endeavours are creating direct conversations between musician and listener"
SONGLINES - Rob Adams