“One foot in Brittany, one foot in the rest of the world”: The eternal youth of Alan Stivell

He sang with Kate Bush ; Hugo Pratt drew him with his harp in a comic strip by Corto Maltese…; an asteroid even bears his name since the year 2000.  An honor and a joy : At 8… years old, I was already fascinated by interstellar travel… confides Alan Stivell, whose star continues to shine on the music planet after sixty years of a career begun with Telenn Geltiek – Celtic Harp, a pioneering album which would restore its letters of nobility to this ancestral instrument which had fallen dormant and was resurrected at the start of the 1950s by his cabinetmaker father Far from resting on his laurels, the Breton bard chose to celebrate this anniversary on stage with his Liberté tour, most recently launched with escapades in Spain and Portugal.

After three sold-out evenings last week in Ireland, Alan Stivell returns to the Olympia today. A room he knows well. In 1957, the child prodigy gave his first concert there as the opening act for Line Renaud. “ I was 13…and I didn’t look up at the audience because I was so impressed,” the person remembers. The stage seems much smaller today. »

He also has a clear memory of his performance given twenty years later, on February 28, 1972, still at the Olympia.  It was the key moment, totally improbable for everyone, including me : my meeting with the general French public after decades or even centuries of ostracism against the Breton language, culture and music… analyzes Alan Stivell, still inhabited at 82 spring by  the eagerness to improve and clear the way .

He proves it brilliantly on stage, always armed with his vibrant singing and his high-tech harp designed by him.  Thanks to the Midi system, I can control other sounds directly, like on a keyboard Â, underlines this technology and science fiction enthusiast. Supported by a group of ten musicians, he pertinently revisits his classics, from Tri Martolod to Ar Voraerion via Pop Plinn, considered the founding act of “Celtic rock”. He will also play his latest single, The First Time I Ever Saw Your Facea song by Ewan MacColl performed by Marianne Faithfull in 1966.  Her album North Country Maid moved me to the core. A sensual beauty that exuded from her voice, and her physique spoiled nothing. »

Also on the menu for his singing tour are excerpts from his Celtic Symphony (subtitled Tir na nig, “land of eternal youth” in Gaelic) composed in 1979.  I started an embryo at 14… Then my dream was to bring together in a work, keeping Celtic at the center, the rest of the world around. I have never heard of a similar project : around ten languages, most of them minority, influences ranging from classical to jazz-rock through Indian, African, Asian music, with even a touch of electronics. »

His tour completed, he intends to finalize his “symphony 2.0” for 2027. Without forgetting a documentary on the Celtic archipelago which will be broadcast, he specifies, on French, Italian, Spanish and Irish channels… Always faithful to his mantra:  One foot in Brittany, one foot in the rest of the world. »