Rockfort Presents: Stranded Horse

Event information

Rockfort presents a night of French music

STRANDED HORSE live

with LISBONNE and PARTIAL GATHERING

and ROCKFORT DJs

8pm, 9th June 2011 at The Windmill, 22 Blenheim Gardens, Brixton, SW2 5BZ

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

PARTIAL GATHERING

Avant-garde cello and electronics duo of composer, Ruaidhri Mannion, and cellist, Corentin Chassard. They formed in late 2009 and, after a first performance at London’s National Portrait Gallery, they began to further develop their fusion of electronic beats and volatile string textures.

www.myspace.com/partialgathering


ROCKFORT DJs

Playing a selection of French music from 50s to contemporary.

About Rockfort (www.rockfort.info)

Rockfort started life as a French music radio show on Resonance 104.4FM, London. The Rockfort French music programme began in 2005, presented by Ludovic Merle (FR) and David McKenna (GB), with the aim of highlighting the flowering of talent in France since the 90s French Touch explosion, while also looking back at classics from the 50s onwards.

Since the inception of the show, Rockfort has also been running and promoting live nights in London featuring the cream of up-and-coming French acts, first at The Social in Little Portland Street, and then at The Windmill in Brixton and Rich Mix in Shoreditch.
 
The Rockfort website provides a home for news, reviews and interviews relating to contemporary French music. There is also now a monthly Rockfort column on highly regarded music website The Quietus (http://thequietus.com)