Alan Stivell - E Langonned (Fontana 6325 332) (FR 1974) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

Info:

Alan Stivell - E Langonned

Label: Fontana
Catalog#: 6325 332
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: France
Released: 1974
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Acoustic, Celtic, Folk

Tracklist:

A1 E Parrez Langonned 3:38
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A2 Gavotten Pourled 1:50
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A3 Planedenn 2:58
Words By - Yann Ber Piriou
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A4 Ne Bado Ket Atao 1:49
Words By - Yann Ber Piriou
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A5 Bwthyn Fy Nain 1:28
Written-By - Trad. Welsh
A6 Ffarwel I Aberystwyth 2:10
Written-By - Trad. Welsh
A7a Briste Leathair Pheadair 1:54
Written-By - Trad. Scottish
A7b Mairseal A' Chearc
Written-By - Trad. Scottish
A8a Dans Fisel 2:25
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A8b Gavotten Ar Menez
Written-By - Trad. Breton
A8c An Sagart Cheolnhar
Written-By - Trad. Irish


B1 Bal Fisel 1:13
Written-By - Trad. Breton
B2 Deus Ganin Me D'Am Bro 2:45
Written-By - Trad. Breton
B3 Jenovefa 2:52
Written-By - Trad. Breton
B4 Sagart O Donaill 1:31
Written-By - Trad. Irish
B5 Diougan Gwenc'hlan 2:37
Written-By - Trad. Breton
B6 Ar Voraerion 2:26
Written-By - Trad. Breton
B7 Faili Faili Oro 2:17
Written-By - Calum Kennedy
B8 Oye Vie 1:38
Written-By - Trad.


Credits:

Acoustic Guitar - Dan Ar Bras
Arranged By - Alan Stivell
Bodhrán - Liam Weldon
Bombarde - Youenn Sicard
Design - Mikael Klec'h
Drums [Scottish] - Loeiz Roujon , Yann-Fanch Ar Merdy , Yann-Lug Fauchon
Engineer [Enregistrement] - Gérard Trévignon , Joel Ar C'Hann
Fiddle - René Werneer
Flute, Pipe [Binioù-kozh], Bodhrán - Alan Kloatr
Photography - Claude Jarroir , Korentin Keo
Vocals - Yann-Jakez Hasold
Vocals, Harp [Celtic], Bombarde, Flute [Irish], Bagpipes [Cornemuse Écossaise] - Alan Stivell-Cochevelou

Discogs Url: http://www.discogs.com/Alan-Stivell-E-Langonned/release/1434500

Biography

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 Ms. D. Megevand, a concert harpist, freely mixing classical repertoire 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 used 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.

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 westernmost 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), yet 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 3,000 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. Alan 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. allmusicguide

Review

by Dave Thompson

Although it is frequently described as his most accessible album, E Langonned is more accurately thought of as Alan Stivell's most widely available, at least at the time. With 1972's Renaissance of the Celtic Harp having introduced him to an international audience by virtue of being his major-label debut, by the time of E Langonned, Stivell's name and music were well-established within Anglo-American folk circles, as one of the most eclectic, but simultaneously absorbing folk musicians of the day.

E Langonned is not a great departure from its predecessors, beyond his growing interest in ever wilder instrumentation. Eighteen short tracks are traditional compositions, drawn from the Celtic lands – Brittany, Scotland, Wales, Ireland; and the accompaniment remains sparse and, to ears better acquainted with the folk-rock movement, eccentric. Harp, bagpipes, and bombard all play their part, together with Stivell's so-distinctive voice – itself, at times, employed as an instrument – and harmonies. "Ne Bado Ket Atao" is a wild chant for multiple voices, which bleeds beautifully into the fragile, flute-led melody of "Bwthyn Fy Nain," which in turn slips into "Ffarwell I Aberystwyth," a Welsh lament sounded through mournful bagpipe. The result is a constantly shifting patchwork that nevertheless weaves itself perfectly together, long before the record is over.

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Alan Stivell - E Langonned (Fontana 6325 332) (FR 1974) (Vinyl 24-96 & 16-44.1)

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