Reflets

Reflets was Stivell's debut full-length solo album, although he had done some obscure singles and EPs in France in the late 1960s and had recorded under his original name, Alan Cochevelou, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sometimes, when you find the first recording of a folk-rock-aligned artist dating from this era, you'll be surprised to hear rock or even psychedelic elements that would be ironed out or disappear by the time the performer reached a wide audience. This, however, is not the case on Reflets, on which the format and vision that has sustained Stivell throughout his lengthy career are largely in place. His harp, by turns energetic and effervescent, is the focal point of arrangements that bow to contemporary but folk-based electric influences. True, there are touches of electric organ, electric bass, 12-string guitar, banjo, fiddle, and electric guitar. Yet the mood is very much pensive Celtic folk, all but two of the songs being folk standards adapted and arranged by Stivell; only one, "Sally Free and Easy," is sung in English. "Broceliande," one of just two Stivell originals on the LP, is the most adventurous (if atypical) track, with its "Exodus"-like melody and eerie female backup vocals. Although this was issued in the U.K. under the title Reflections in the early 1970s, it apparently never came out in the U.S., where it remains very hard to find. ~ Richie Unterberger