Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell, born Alain Cochevelou on January 6, 1944 in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme), is a French singer-songwriter and musician of Breton origin.

A multi-instrumentalist, he plays mainly Celtic harp, but also piano, synthesizer, Irish flute, bombarde, Scottish bagpipes and percussion. He is also a singer and songwriter (in several languages).

He advocates for the recognition of Breton language and culture.

From the 1950s onwards, Alan Stivell participated in the renaissance of the Celtic harp of Brittany through the work of his father Georges Cochevelou in manufacturing the instrument. From 1966, Alan Stivell was the first professional Breton singer singing primarily in the Breton language (brezhoneg). Heir to the first Breton musical renewal (which had seen the creation of bagadoù), inspired by Anglo-Saxon rock and folk-song, he contributed to the French folk and folk-rock movements and Celtic music of the 1960s and 1970s.

Alan Stivell revolutionized Breton music by incorporating mainly Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon influences, but also influences from classical music of yesterday and today and that of other continents. He also brought the technical innovations of the late 20th century. At the time, other Breton performers were already expressing themselves, but with the exception of Glenmor, they did not enter professionalism and their modernism did not venture beyond classical guitar (with one exception). He was the first to truly electrify Celtic music. In terms of both technology, music and form, he shows a certain eclecticism: in addition to the genres already mentioned, he adds to Breton music electronic touches (from 1979) or hip-hop (in 1993) and opens himself to Japanese culture by performing (in 2015) haikus from the 17th to 19th centuries. He imagines, designs and has his own projects realized of electroacoustic and electric Celtic harps.

He popularized Brittany and its music, through his artistic work and international tours, through communication but also through the snowball effect created by his followers. At the origin of the upturn experienced by the Breton language and the pride of the Breton people, he will have opened the way for various artists.

His musical work is linked to a struggle for recognition of Breton and Celtic cultures. He does not conceive it without transmission, beyond borders, of messages imbued with humanism and brotherhood. This spirit of openness is expressed from the start by cultural mixing and musical fusions, making him one of the precursors of world music which he already defines clearly on his first album Reflets released in 1970. It is both the pursuit of a 'global music' in space and time and the affirmation of a pan-Celtism at the same time as an egalitarian vision of the human person (Human~Kelt).