Cécile Corbel

"In celtic cosmogony, the power of a dream is as real as a footprint"
Hugo Pratt – Corto Maltese
- les celtiques -
Cécile Corbel "Imagine a red haired Celt from Brittany, just out of a Broceliande tale, with a voice that hovers somewhere between the high registers of Kate Bush, the purity of Sinead O Connor and the mysticism of Enya and you’ll have a good idea what this remarkable young harpist, arranger of traditional songs and original songwriter sounds like."
Singer and Harpist Cecile Corbel was born in Brittany, in the Finistère, at the very west of Europe…
As a child, she travels all over Brittany with her parents, who were puppeteers.
In her teens, after learning the guitar, she discovered the Celtic harp.
Aged 18, she then moves to Paris to study archeology, still dreaming of Music…
After a few years performing in Parisian streets, pubs and cafés, and on the roads of her native region Brittany, she self-produces her first album, distributed by the Celtic label Keltia Musique.
The young Breton composer and singer now shares her « pop folk Celtic » music with her musicians in France and abroad… From Estonia to Burma, from Australia to Germany, but also in Belgium, Switzerland, Italia, Netherlands, Czech republic, Poland, USA, Cecile’s harp and voice have already bewitched thousands of people…
Eternal vibrations, powerful culture, charismatic personality, Cecile sometimes becomes a storyteller, her harp transforms into a magician, for a trip out-of-time. This is beautiful, accessible, cutting-edge folk music.
Her second album “SongBook1” was released in 2006.
She also shared some great moments on stage with Celtic artists such as Altan, Alan Stivell, Carlos Nunez, or Dan ar Braz (…)
2008 is the start of new projects and collaborations for the young harpist–traveler: tour in Australia and in the USA, residence in Burma with local musicians, more than one hundred concerts across Europe…
Cecile is working on a new album to be released fall 2008.
She will also appear as the heroine in Alan Simon’s (Excalibur) new show entitled “Anne de Bretagne” in 2009.

Press Review
"The new princess of Celtic harp"
-review in "Muska" magazine march/April 2008 Slovenia
“Corbel belongs to this new generation of European folkies, - In the sense that she is happy to take crusty old folk standards and reinvent them for the 21st-century audience”.
- Sydney morning Herald – February 2007
"C.C. mirrors her singing, limpid, fragile, but confident. She draws her inspiration from the Breton tradition, from Breton laments and magic tales". -
Liberation – dec 14 2006
"Cecile is a citizen of the world, and her voice flows as she tells about exile, rough seas, lovers parted by life, migrations".....
CHORUS – les cahiers de la chanson N° 54 hiver 2005-06
"Cécile draws her inspiration from traditional melodies she renews with hints of « pop » and folk music (...) She sings with an exquisite grace"
- World MD
"Cécile Corbel sings like a nightingale"
Liberation – nov 18 2006
"She imposes an enchanting universe with a clever mix of traditional Irish songs and Breton tunes".
20 minutes – nov 2. 2006
"Sometimes an artist comes along with such a terrific style that they not only bring new life to a tradition and a new way of hearing or looking but leave an indelible mark that is deeper than the superficially skilled.
- Celtic beat review – dec 2007

Extracts of each album available on: "www.cecile-corbel.com"
Cécile Corbel “Harpe celtique et chants du monde” Keltia Musique RSCD270 A 6-track album and Cécile’s first recording released in 2005
Cécile Corbel “Songbook 1” Keltia Musique RSCD279 Cécile’s first full 12-track studio recording. Available from October 2006
CDs available on : cecile-corbel.com
delivery worldwide (CDs, posters...)

SONGBOOK1 – her new album
Cecile Corbel, Songbook (RSCD 279-Keltia Musique) - "Celtic Beat" review - december 2007
"Sometimes an artist comes along with such a terrific style that they not only bring new life to a tradition and a new way of hearing or looking but leave an indelible mark that is deeper than the superficially skilled.
So it is with Cecile Corbel in Songbook. And she does this not only with the music of her native Brittany, but also with time honored standards of Scottish and Irish Celtic music.Sometimes it is an "outsider" who brings a new vitality to the stage(but who says she is an "outsider," she's a Celt is she not?).
Throughout this CD there is an innovation with respect for the tradition that both rivals and surpasses many others.
The outstanding case in point here is what Cecile does with "Red Rose" that classic of Rabbie Burns.This is poetry on top of poetry.
For superb expositions, instrumentally and in song, of the range of the eerie to the horrible(the Bretons probably do eerie and horrible the best of all the Celts) you have first "She Moved Through The Fair" which skillfully creeps you out,as do "Three Ravens" that gory song of the Scots Borders.
Both are performed in an ironic upbeat approach that will get you. And for the just plain sanguine there is "Dellum Down." In the right context listening to any of these you won't want to go into the woods, or into an old deserted house.
In addition to the above I also found her "Stor mo chroi" wonderful, injecting a new modern energy into an Irish classic. From the Breton repertoire there is a beautiful "C'hoant dimein" and "Bemnoz."
The one strictly instrumental piece here is "Valse des ondines" and it makes for a perfect ending to the whole proceedings.
With her ethereal voice, at turns gentle, winsome, also subtly frightening, and superb harp, Cecile Corbel has advanced even further in the realm of an innovation in the tradition than when we last saw her several years ago in Virginia. "
Celtic Beat Review - dec 2007 - AK
… in which you will meet many birds, a raven capable of speech, trees, liberated witches, celtic heroines awaiting for love, lovers parted by life, a magical and secretful forest, a wild and child-eating boar, a lovesick scholar, a wounded knight, a white doe...
Endowed with a unique harp playing and a bewitching voice, this young composer and performer presents the first part of her song book, between traditional celtic tunes and modern arrangements.
The somewhat enigmatic lyrics of old Irish and welsh nursery rhymes, the melancholy or mischievousness of Breton songs and compositions inspired by ancient texts or poems make up the world of Song Book, thanks to these enchanting melodies and this attractive voice, Songbook mirrors...(...)
credits : Yohann Walter (book), David Monfort, Nat Gorry (portraits)