TELENN GELTIEK - HARPE CELTIQUE

Without examining timelines and, indeed Celtic and Breton music and harp history, venerated ALAN STIVELL's debut album doesn't tickle my synthetic Gaelic feathers much more than his smarmy mid 1980s flop "Harpes du Nouvel Age". On even the most superficial cross examination, this comparison is, to understate the case, utterly asinine.

"Telenn Geltiek" appeared in 1964, 6 years before "Reflets", which many understandably see as his first, so it shouldn't be at all surprising that, even in the absence of transitional albums, the two should be so radically different. The first was, "can I do this", the second was, "What shall I do with this". His father built Celtic harps and he blazed a related path, designing and promoting them. The disc offers brief, deliberate, tranquil solos that are interpretations of now well known standards that were anything but in their day. It was truly an album without an audience; however, when the folk revival ignited in the following half decade, Stivell was well positioned to enter into a mutually beneficial exchange with listeners near and far, and has done so for 5 or 6 decades since.

So, there is nothing remotely prog about "Telenn Geltiek", though it is most progressive. To ears tuned to the Stivell of the 1970s, it's not even all that interesting, since much of what is here has been improved by Stivell and others in Brittany and beyond many times since. It is thus for fans only, while the aforementioned new age concession that appeared 2 decades later, similar though it may sound and be rated, is 24 carat travesty. Such is the range of the 2 star album.