01	Ys						08:50
	02	Marv Pontkalleg						03:32
	03	Ap Huv / Penllyn						02:56
	04	Eliz Iza						02:59
	05	Caitlin Triall						00:57
	06	Port UI Mhuirgheasa						01:41
	07	Airde Cuan						01:37
	08	Na Reubairean						00:39
	09	Melodie Manxoise						00:34
	10	Heman Dubh						02:13
	11	Gaelic Waltz						02:43
	12	Struan Robertson						00:52
	13	The Little Cascade						01:14
	14	Braigh Loch Lall						03:20
	15	Port An Deorai						02:55

Renaissance of the Celtic Harp
Artist Alan Stivell
Date of Release 1972


People who hear this record are never the same again. Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, one of the most beautiful and haunting records ever made by anybody, introduced the Celtic harp to many thousands of listeners around the world. To call this music gorgeous and ravishing would be the height of understatement-indeed, there aren't words in the English language to describe this record adequately. The opening work, "Ys," ais a piece inspired by the legend of the fifth century capital of the kingdom of Cornwall, which was engulfed by a flood as punishment for its sins. (Debussy wrote one of his finest works, "The Engulfed Cathedral," later adapted by the group Renaissance into "The Harbor" on Ashes Are Burning, based on the same legend). The reflective "Marv Pontkellec" is every bit as sublimely beautiful, but the highlight of this record is "Gaeltacht," a 19 minute musical journey by Stivell's harp across the Gaelic lands of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. - Bruce Eder

1. Ys (Stivell) - 8:40
2. Marv Pontkallec (Traditional) - 3:27
3. Ap Huw and Penllyn (Dolmetsch) - 2:56
4. Eliz Iza (Traditional) - 2:54
5. Gaeltacht - 18:54

Alan Stivell - Bagpipes, Flute, Arranger, Harp, Horn, Bombardes, Celtic Harp, Irish Flute
Mik AR Biz - Horn
Dan Ar Bras - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
Yann-Fanch AR Merdy - Drums, Liner Notes, Scottish Drums
Daniele Bartolletti - Vocals (bckgr)
Gabriel Beauvais - Viola
Jean-Claude Briodin - Vocals (bckgr)
Guy Cascales - Drums
Pierre Cheval - Viola
Henri Delagarde - Cello
Michel Delaporte - Percussion, Tabla
Jean-Marc Dollez - Double Bass
Anne Germain - Vocals (bckgr)
Claude Germain - Vocals (bckgr)
Paul Hadjaje - Viola
Jacques Hendrix - Vocals (bckgr)
Paul Houdebine - Engineer
Jean Huchot - Cello
Alan Kloater - Horn, Bombard
Gerard Levasseur - Guitar (Bass)
Manuel Recasens - Cello
Gerard Salkowsky - Guitar (Bass)
Gilles Tinayre - Organ
Francois Walle - Vocals (bckgr)
Stephane Wiener - Viola
David Gahr - Photography
Mel Green - Design
Susan Marsh - Design
Mig Biz - Bombard
Jord Cochevelou - Arranger, Liner Notes
Franck Giboni - Producer
Philippe Lerichomme - Assistant Engineer

1987 CD Rounder CD-3067
1983 LP Philips 51
CS Rounder C-3067
LP Rounder 3067



Alan Stivell
AKA born: Alan Cochevelou
Born 1944 in Gourin, Brittany, France

by Bruce Eder

If there is a single savior of Celtic music, Alan Stivell is probably it. Since the end of the 1960s, he has done more to revive interest in the Celtic (specifically Breton) harp than anyone in the world and, in the process, almost singlehandedly made the world aware of native Breton Celtic music. Since 1971, he has been recording albums of extraordinary beauty and diversity, ranging from ancient Breton and Irish material to modern folk-rock and progressive rock.
He was born Alan Cochevelou, the son of a harp maker. His father was the rediscoverer of the Breton harp, but he started his musical life on a somewhat more conventional instrument, taking up the piano at age five. He was given a harp by his father at age nine, and studied for the next several years under the direction of his father and Miss D. Megevand, a concert harpist, freely mixing classical repertory and arrangements of Breton, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk material.

Stivell was playing concerts at age 11, and he began taking up the more general study of traditional popular Celtic music, including the Scottish bagpipes, drum, Irish flute, and tin whistle, while in his teens. He ultimately became well versed in all of these and won honors in national piping competitions in Scotland, and chose the professional name of Stivell, the Breton word meaning fountain, spring, or source. By the age of 21, while studying for his degree in English, he became an established folk musician, recording songs to his own harp accompaniment. While his singing is less effective than his harp or bagpipe playing, his voice is expressive, and most of his albums feature a mix of vocal and instrumental music. In 1967, he formed a group consisting of himself on harp, bagpipes, and Irish flute and Dan Ar Bras on electric guitar, backed by bass and drums. He released several albums during this period, including Reflections (1971), A L'Olympia (1972), Chemins de Terre (1972), Celtic Rock (1972), and E. Lagonned (1976). He left the group in the mid-'70s to concentrate exclusively on a solo career - by this time, he had become a major influence on a multitude of folk-rock musicians with his interweaving of electric and traditional instruments.

During the early '70s, he acquired a popular following in France and England. By the mid-'70s Americans - and not only those of Irish or, more rarely, Scottish, Welsh, and Breton descent, but those interested in things Celtic - were discovering Stivell in growing numbers, prompting labels such as Rounder to begin releasing his work (until then, available only as expensive imports) in the United States. Stivell's first major solo album, Renaissance of the Celtic Harp (1972), remains a favorite among fans of the stringed instrument, while his later albums also display his abilities with bagpipes and as a singer. For a time during the mid-'70s, his success placed traditional Breton and Celtic music on the English charts on a regular basis.

Stivell's biggest accomplishment, however, involved the rebirth and rediscovery of an instrument and an entire cultural history. His career brought to fruition the revival of the Breton harp that his father had begun in the 1930s and '40s. The harp had a long and honored place in the history of the Celtic peoples, first embraced (and possibly invented) by the primordial Irish people, who carried it to Scotland and Wales, and later to Brittany and the rest of the European mainland. Although preserved as an image in numerous works of art, the Breton harp had receded from memory and use well before the 20th century. Alan Stivell played his father's first modern Breton harp for the first time in 1953, and within 20 years there were over 100 players where there had been none. Stivell has also uses harps from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in his recordings and performances.

More recently, he has moved in two different directions simultaneously, into the realm of folk-rock with a band of Breton musicians, and serious music with his Celtic Symphony, a work for mixed ensemble of orchestra, Breton and Irish instruments, and voices. A somewhat enigmatic figure, given his focus on Breton culture, Stivell is one of the most compelling of folk musicians, and has achieved stature outside the folk music world, such that musicians like Kate Bush have appeared on his recent albums.

Alan Stivell's music has found an audience among people who have never been anywhere near Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales. The Celtic peoples were among the western-most settlers of Europe, and occupied some of the bleakest yet most starkly beautiful land in Europe - the Romans, in particular, couldn't understand why any sane race would want to live in those places; but, of course, the Romans are gone, buried, and seldom discussed save for their language and a handful of literary works and historical figures; by contrast, hardly anybody born outside of Scotland or Wales can speak those native languages (or would want to - and the last native speaker of Manx died some years ago), but their music is still played, and their culture exerts a pull on people the world over. Celtic music has always had an element of loneliness, of the single harpist, piper, or drummer looking out across the vastness to the West (all that lay west was, of course, the Atlantic Ocean and America some three thousand miles away), and Stivell, more than any other single musician, captures the inherent joy, wistfulness, and loneliness in this music.

Additionally, some of the more recent developments in music and audiences have expanded his audience even further. His harp recordings, with their enveloping lyricism and tightly interwoven patterns of variations, can appeal to more serious listeners of new age music. Stivell's main audience, however, lies with fans of Celtic music and culture, and English folk music. Embracing ancient and modern elements, but (apart from his folk-rock work) making no compromises to modern melodic sensibilities, his music captures the mystery and strangeness of Breton, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish landscapes that are both ageless and timeless. It is haunting, mysterious, and beautiful, with no equivalent in modern popular music and few peers in the realm of commercial folk music.



1970 Reflets Fontana
1972 Alan Stivell [Fontanta] Fontana
1972 Renaissance of the Celtic Harp Rounder
1972 A l'Olympia Fontana
1972 Celtic Rock Vertigo
1974 From Celtic Roots Fontana
1975 In Dublin Fontana
1976 E Langonned Fontana
1977 Before Landing Fontana
1978 Suzi Macguire Impact
1978 Journee a La Maison Rounder
1979 3rd International Tour Metronome
1979 Celtic Symphony Rounder
1980 Symphonie Celtique CBS
1982 Chemins de Terre Fontana
1982 Alan Stivell [Impact] Impact
1986 Harpes Du Nouvel Age Rounder
1991 The Mist of Avalon Dreyfus
1994 Again Dreyfus
1994 Live in Dublin Dreyfus
1995 Legende Dreyfus
1995 Symphonie Celtique: Tir Na N-Og Dreyfus
1995 Brian Boru Dreyfus
1998 1 Douar Dreyfus
1999 International Tour: Tro AR Bed Dreyfus
2000 Back to Breizh Dreyfus
2002 Beyond Words Dreyfus