Search - Malicorne :: En Public

Nice live album of this French folk rock band

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 08/23/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I just got started with Malicorne, from judging on the music of En Public, which was recorded live in Montreal in 1978 and released the following year, sounds like France's answer to such well-known English acts as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and even Gryphon. Gabriel Yacoub had previously played for Alan Stivell, from Brittany, simply one of the greatest Celtic artists I ever heard, Stivell not only touched on Breton music, but also Irish, Scottish and Welsh music, as well as the occasional self-penned composition, as singing in the languages appropriate (Breton, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh). If you're not familiar with Alan Stivell, you can't go wrong with Renaissance of the Celtic Harp (1971, aka Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique), Chemins de Terre (1973) or even Journee a la Maison (1978) (there's others but I hadn't heard them all). As for Malicorne, they sing entirely in French, making it more difficult to know the origins of these songs, simply because there's such a strong English/Celtic feel throughout the whole album, with only the French vocals revealing this isn't a British Isles folk/rock band. It's hard not to compare Malicorne to their famous English counterparts, there are both male and female vocals, there are some a-cappela singing that wouldn't be out of place on a Steeleye Span album, like "Le Prince d'Orange", there's some jigs and reels on fiddle. But there's the occasional use of krummhorn on this album bringing to mind Gryphon. If I'm not mistakened Brian Gulland of Gryphon actually appears on this album, playing bassoon and krummhorn, so the Gyphon comparisons are totally valid here. Although this album does have its flaw, some of the music tends to go on a bit longer than they have to, such as some of the jigs, which start sounding more like an American hoedown sounds a bit tedious to me. "L'Ecolier Assassin" sound a bit like how their countrymen Pulsar might sound like if their music was more folk-based. I am not familiar with their catalog, although like Peter Gabriel's solo stuff, they had a habit of releasing a bunch of self-entitled albums. If you like folk rock like Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span with some prog rock tendencies but with a French touch, this a nice album to get."