Malicorne and Gabriel Yacoub, 1

The "folk revival" and the rise of folk-rock in the 1950s-1970s created a worldwide platform for hundreds of Irish and Scottish folk and rock musicians. Opportunities were less plentiful for Celtic musicians from non-English speaking areas like Brittany, Normandy and Galicia. One musician who did break through internationally was the Breton harpist Alan Stivell, with his masterpiece "The Renaissance of the Celtic Harp" in 1971.

Gabriel Yacoub, who was a guitarist and singer in Stivell's touring band, soon left to start the band Malicorne. Malicorne's first four albums from the 1970s contain mainly arrangements of French and Bretan fok songs, with a few originals by Yacoub. Some of my favorite folk-rock recordings, they feature beautiful melodies, unusual harmonies, and some tough rock arrangements. Often compared to Steeleye Span, the band really has a very special character of its own. You can hear ten (!) selections from those early albums at the official Malicorne MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/malicorneofficiel

With L'Extraordinaire Tour de France d'Adelard Rousseau (1978), Yacoub fully emerged as a songwriter. A concept album about a guild craftsman's journeys through France, and his accompanying spiritual explorations, Adelard Rousseau was a high point. Like the first four albums, it's on iTunes and eMusic. This homemade YouTube video is a haunting accompaniment to the album track "L'Conduit":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8BO1ayFLc

and will give you a good idea of their special singing style and (in the last minute) their instrumental flavor.

Malicorne later moved in a pop/rock direction that wasn't always successful, either commercially or artistically. But their last studio album Les Cathédrales de L'Industrie (1986) is amazing. Sounding like a bizarre French cross between Peter Gabriel and Laurie Anderson, they create sounds that far transcend that time and space. This recording never was easy to find, and it seems available only via expensive used copies now. But try to hear it if you can!

When Les Cathédrales flopped commercially, Malicorne released a live album and then split up. Yacoub went on to make a series of wonderful solo albums. More about those another time....