RIGENA

Bernard Benoit is a Breton folk/fingerstyle guitarist and composer whose career has been enormously long, from the early seventies to at least 2010's. This is my very first acquaintance to his music, which I became curious about when noticing that it's been compared to Malicorne and Mike Oldfield.

Rigena is his third solo album, dominated sovereignly by the acoustic guitar, as usual. The first vinyl side contains six pieces and the second side has a 20-minute title piece. 'Anterdro' has fascinating, slightly mystic melodies that somehow makes me think of Tubular Bells. Two (or more?) acoustic guitars create a soundscape that feels perfectly complete. On 'Le Cheval Boiteux' the basic melody in the beginning, and reoccuring later, is reminiscent of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. Otherwise I again sense some delightful similarities to the early, folky Mike Oldfield, especially on the mystic mood. Even a bit of Ommadawn. I'm not saying Benoit is a copycat of any kind, he does have a style of his own.

'Morte-Eau' is a really beautiful and serene acoustic guitar solo piece. If you're fond of acoustic guitar music of Anthony Phillips, you'll definitely enjoy this one. 'Reelodon' is a faster solo number and feels less emotional to me. Neither 'The Trip to Sligo' impresses me as a composition per se, but it contains nice accompanyment by bass guitar, percussion and recorder. For the atmosphere, the A side doesn't continue as strong as it began. 'Ki-Tan' is a fine if not emotionally impressive little piece for dual guitars.

Now the epic. Right from the start one feels this is something more special. The angelic vocalise of Jenika Gaelle (or Genica Gael, as it is written on the Youtube page where I'm listening this album from) is heard within the first minute, returning here and there along the way. The slowly developing melodic substance has again some reminiscence to the early epic works of Mike Oldfield. One just needs to remember this album has a bit narrower arrangement and stays more purely within the folk genre. Nevertheless, this lengthy composition is definitely progressive and moves elegantly from one movement to another. Somewhere along the way there's even some cello, and other uncredited instruments such as synthesizers and uillean pipes (if I'm not mistaken) have brief appearances, and also the drums appear notably for the first time. If the A side had very little besides guitars, 'Rigena' makes that up with awesome richness in musical ideas and dynamic variety in arrangement.

If the whole album was in the level of the epic, it would deserve a masterpiece status. Sadly the LP has never been reissued.