Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell – Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique (Remastered) (1971/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:17 minutes | 376 MB | Genre: Folk, Celtic, New Age, Classical, World Fusion
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © [PIAS] Recordings Catalogue

A master and champion of the instrument (as well as one for his native Celtic and Breton hinterlands), Alan Stivell pioneered a new wave of fondness for the Celtic harp, and Celtic rock as a whole subsequently. His second album Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique, described as “one of the most beautiful and haunting records ever made” by music journalist Bruce Elder, was Stivell’s first and strongest statement on the power of the Celtic harp. The album also began the Breton musician’s development of traditional Celtic and contemporary rock styles, a combination which earned the 1971 LP praise from both French and English critics, as well as awarding Stivell the Prix de l’Académie Charles-Cros.

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Alan Stivell – Reflets (Remastered) (1970/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:42 minutes | 357 MB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PIAS Recordings

Reflets is the debut album from Brittany musician Alan Stivell, a staunch champion of the Celtic harp, and the Celtic and Breton cultures. This cross-cultural endeavour is well flexed here on the multi-instrumentalist’s 1970 debut, beginning his reputation as a progenitor of world music, with banjo, electric organ, a choir, a fiddle and more detailing the broad spectrum of Stivell’s arrangements, and how they blended his Celtic roots and later foray into rock styles.

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Alan Stivell – E Langonned (Remastered) (1974/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:24 minutes | 418 MB | Genre: Folk, Celtic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © [PIAS] Recordings Catalogue

Following the critical and commercial success of his third album Chemins De Terre, Brittany musician Alan Stivell reconnected with his paternal roots by moving to the scenic French commune of Langonnet, where he produced 1974’s E Langonned. The album sees a return to an acoustic foundation, due to Stivell’s desire to revisit the traditional Breton music forms he championed so emphatically, and then integrate this beloved tradition back into modernism.

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Alan Stivell – Chemins de Terre (Remastered) (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:46 minutes | 451 MB | Genre: Folk Rock, Celtic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © [PIAS] Recordings Catalogue

Alan Stivell’s third album, originally released in 1973, built upon the critical adoration that predecessor Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique generated, garnered commercial love when it quickly became a Gold record, and also grew the Breton musician’s artistic ambition. Chemins de Terre, retitled from Celtic Rock in Germany, features Stivell on Celtic harp, Scottish bagpipes and more, musicians like Marie Yacoub on spoons and vocals, and Breton pipe band Bagad Bleimor.

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