"Why is my new album called 'Emerald'?" asks Alan Stivell, "Because I'm celebrating the 40th anniversary of my career and emerald is a stone associated with 40th wedding anniversaries!" In fact, the Breton singer released his debut album, Reflets, back in 1970 so he is slightly ahead of schedule here, but there is nothing like striking while inspiration is hot. "I also chose Emerald because I like the greenish-blue colour of the stone," he admits, stroking his goatee beard, "The colour suits me and there's obviously a nod to green standing for ecology, too."

Emerald also serves as a timely reminder to Stivell fans as to just how far their Celtic music hero has come. "An anniversary's often a time when people pause and take stock of where they're at," Stivell says, "It's a time when you take a tour of your property, going from the basement up to the attic and looking at everything you've got. And that's more or less what I'm trying to do on the new album. I'm trying to show different sides to my musical personality, sides that are sometimes quite far apart, but all of which are representative of who I am."

Questions of identity

Musings on identity lie at the heart of Stivell's new album, but the singer admits that his own persona is definitively split in two. "Alan Stivell is a stage name I invented for myself," he explains, "I needed something to mark the divide between my private life and my life in the public eye." Stivell has no doubts about his cultural identity, however, claiming that if you divide the world into landlocked and coastal folk he falls firmly into the second category. "Only people who lead totally landlocked lives could conceive of the sea as a dividing line whereas we coastal folk know that the sea is at the centre of everything. Take the Mediterranean basin, for instance, that's been Europe's centre of gravity for centuries!" Stivell asserts his sea legs right from the opening track on his new album, (Brittany’s), singing that "for us the sea is our country, our true fatherland."

For Stivell, a diehard Breton activist committed to promoting his home culture on the seven seas, defending his native tongue is an essential part of the battle. "I'm OK with French being the official language of the Republic," he says, "It's a practical choice because everyone in France speaks French, but it makes me wonder whether all cultures are really equal no matter how many people they concern. When you're discussing matters like language you have to ask: does every individual carry the same weight? These are questions I've brought up since the beginning of my career and they remain every bit as relevant today. These are questions which concern Aborigines, Basques and Bretons as well as immigrant communities. The central question here is: how do we organise things so that we respect all individuals whoever they may be. How can we live in harmony without certain communities condemned to be prisoners of their identity?"

Reaching across the seas

Ever since his debut album, Reflets, Stivell has opened traditional Celtic music to contemporary sounds and 'world' influences and Emerald finds him pushing back the boundaries of experimentation further still. "Being attached to Brittany means being attached to the world," Stivell declares, "Open your ears and you can hear that in the music!" Lest fans should have any doubt about his revolutionary zeal, the Celtic bard kicks off Emerald with Brittany’s, a track whose vibrant bassline waves between new-wave and pop.

Whisking listeners through a rolling mix of sea ballads (Lusk, Marionig) and rock numbers (Gaels’ Call, Goadec Rock), Stivell manages to keep his material resolutely Celtic while reaching out across the sea to the shores of Africa and India. "It's funny but at times Breton music sounds almost un-European," he says, "And perhaps that's one of the reasons Breton music is so easily associated with music from other continents. I think generally people who live on the coast are more open to others. It's as if possessing a 'double culture' comes naturally to them."

Stivell, who possesses his own 'double culture', was raised on a diet of classical European music but has always embraced modern technology in his work. "I defy listeners to identify whether what they're hearing on my new album is acoustic bagpipes or MIDI*," he says, "And it's the same with the harps here, too. Technological advances have given me enormous freedom and I make full use of that. I can do the most amazing things like improvise duets on my own, taking great liberties with rhythm and tempo, which is something I could never do if there were two of us."

In January 2010, Stivell and his musicians will head off to Canada to kick off an extensive international tour then return to France in February. "We'll be spreading the tour out over a year or two," he says, "and putting in appearances at a number of big festivals next summer. Other highlights include a harp festival in Ireland in the spring and a trip to Vietnam where we'll be doing a residency with local musicians which will prepare for a concert at 'Les Tombées de la Nuit' in Rennes in July." Later in 2010, Stivell will fly out to Bamako to blend his Celtic harps with African koras. Another case of the Man from Brittany proving how open he is to the rest of the world!

*Musical Instrument Digital Interface