Rockfort Presents: Stranded Horse

Event information

Rockfort and the Alliance Française de Cambridge present a night of French music

STRANDED HORSE live

with guests LISBONNE

and ROCKFORT DJs

Tickets: £5 adv/£7

STRANDED HORSE

“Never before has anyone taken the kora and done such stylish and effortlessly cool things with it.”
Songlines

“Slyly funny, subtly odd stuff.”
Uncut

“Modern folk near its zenith point – captivating with its simplicity yet possessing an indescribable charm that only the true greats, from Drake onwards, have exuded .”
Drowned in Sound

Yann Tambour was previously behind the frequently excellent post-rock of Encre and he's still experimenting on his second album under this current guise, Humbling Tides, just with a far more limited palette than he allowed himself in that previous incarnation. Specifically, Stranded Horse appears to be an attempt to master a particular instrument, the kora, on his own terms, while still taking cues from living masters like Malian player Ballaké Sissoko, who makes an appearance on 'Shields'. He's even built two 'travel' koras of his own to make touring easier.

Previously Thee, Stranded Horse, this time round Tambour has dropped the 'Thee' as well as the more markedly mannered vocal style he employed on his debut Churning Strides, under the influence of Marc Bolan, apparently; he's closer to Nick Drake now. Humbling Tides is about as spare an album as can be, mostly just Tambour's still fey but more naturalistic voice, and kora. It's one of those albums that paradoxically, in spite of its sonic sameness – so that any track heard in isolation would give you a flavour of the album – only works when heard over its full length, and preferably many times over.

Humbling Tides ends up feeling like the pretty full expression of his particular vision. It is an album that warrants, and amply repays, the close attention it asks for.

Stranded Horse has been touring extensively around the world, including China, winning plaudits for his intimate and powerful live performances.

http://www.myspace.com/theestrandedhorse

LISBONNE

A sweetly seductive vehicle for Marie Merlet from Monade – her band with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab – which allows her dulcet tones and delicate, bossa nova-tinged sensibility to come to the fore through songs delivered in English, French and Portuguese.

http://www.myspace.com/lisbonne