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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something to Harp on about,
By Chris "The Tallone" (Edinburgh, Midlothian United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Concert (Audio CD)
Recorded in the early seventies, this is Alan Stivell at his best. The first few songs are accoustic, with Alan, singing and playing the harp accompanied by accoustic guitars. However, on what was side two on the original vinyl, things are ramped up with a full rock band joining in - peaking with the stunning Tri Martolod, which is apparently a Breton fishing song.
If you like Songs from the Wood era Jethro Tull you should try this.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a l'Olympia - THE essential Stivell album,
By
This review is from: Concert (Audio CD)
This was everyone's favourite Alan Stivell album in the 70s. It was originally called a l'Olympia (that's 'a' with an accent over in it as in French - I could probably figure out how to do that with my keyboard but I can't be bothered). In the 90s a lot of the material on this was revisited on the 'Again' album with a star guest list including Shane MacGowan. 'Again' is quite a good album but this is a great one. I don't know anything about the band on 'Again'- whether they played with him regularly or were session musicians brought together for the album - but on the Olympia concert he's with the band that was his regular outfit for years, including wonderful guitarist Dan ar Bras (sometimes spelled Braz), and it's got the feel of musicians who've played together a lot, and are well on top of it and into it. This is up with Fairport Convention's 'Liege and Lief' as one of THE essential folk-rock albums. Stivell is a Breton (from Brittany in France for those who don't know)and he plays a variety of Breton, Scots and Irish tunes and songs, sings and plays the celtic harp sometimes with full rock band and a piper and fiddler. Quite ethereal, haunting music. Brittany is like Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland one of the places that was a last outpost of the Celtic peoples who were subdued by the Romans and then replaced elsewhere by the Germanic tribes in the dark ages, and like Cape Breton in Newfoundland and the Appalachian mountains in the USA (both settled by emigre Scots) Brittany has a musical tradition recognisably related to Scots and Irish music. And for those English who might feel excluded by this, I have to say that I'm not entirely convinced that the Celtic connection has a lot to do with it. I read John Cowper Powys 1940s novel 'Owen Glendower ' recently, about the Welsh prince who led the last rebellion against the English state. He tells of the suppression of the travelling bards and the harpers - as carriers of seditious messages, and as remnants of allegiance to older Celtic or Anglo-saxon identities that threatened the unity of the Norman state. So too in Scotland after Bonnie Prince Charlie's '45 a lot of the Celtic identity(which anyway was not a factor in most of Scotland by this time)was neutered by absorbing it into the military tradition - it's said that the music of Cape Breton is the true heritage of Scottish music. The Irish 'beyond the Pale' may have been more oppressed but they were never culturally colonised and homogenised to the same extent, so their tradition is more lively and free of stultifying bourgeois pretention. But whatever, there is some recognisable thread in these musics ( and non-Celtic Northumbria -next door to Scotland, though), but I suspect it could be as much to do with these peoples being geographically remote from the centres of state power as to 'Celticness'. It's something to ponder on, and there are probably no answers. Great album anyway! Buy it!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it then......... and love it now,
By
This review is from: Concert (Audio CD)
This album has been with me for years. I bought it recently as it was now on Cd and I was worried my cassette might be getting worn.....
This is why people rated Stivell. The sound quality is a bit iffy by today's stqandards but the performance more than makes up for it. I had the privilege of seeing Stivell play most of this set again a few years ago in St Malo castle - memorable to say the least.
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