- Stranded Horse
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- Stranded Horse
Biography
Originating from Normandy, France and now based in Marseille having lived for spells in Brighton, Bristol and Brussels, Yann Tambour began recording in 2001 under the name Encre, a project combining samples of strings, piano and voice. Following a series of album and EP releases under that name and having returned to his original instrument, the classical guitar, Yann started to experiment with the kora (the lute-bridge-harp made from calabash gourd and cowhide commonly played in West Africa), gradually developing his own playing technique and soon building his own lighter, more compact versions of the instrument. Marrying this with his singular approach to the singer/songwriter mode, Stranded Horse (formerly Thee, Stranded Horse) came into being in the mid-noughties.
‘Luxe’ is the third Stranded Horse album after ‘Humbling Tides’ (2012) and ‘Churning Strides’ (2007), with material from the latter reinterpreted on a 2008 EP and tour with feted Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko. Meanwhile, Yann’s instrument-building endeavours continue – his most recent creation being a chromatic kora with harp levers, made out of keno wood, maple and formica christened the ‘formikora’.
Discography
Written and recorded in Western Normandy, where Yann Tambour grew up and moved back just under a decade ago after spells in various cites such as Paris, Bristol, Brussels or Marseilles, this new album marks a return to spellbinding simplicity. While Boubacar Cissokho’s contributions were previously scattered across their recordings, a decade of live performances has given him a prominent role in the music. This evolution shines through on all nine tracks, where their string instruments intertwine in perfect harmony.
The album’s title track, The Warmth You Deserve, speaks to finding comfort in turbulent times. Throughout the stripped-back arrangements, a newfound serenity emerges in Tambour’s compositions, while Cissokho’s distinctive kora is the golden thread weaving its way through the album.
Stranded Horse “The Warmth You Deserve” with Boubacar Cissokho: 1. The Warmth You Deserve – 2. A Sigh by Your Side Rings Hollow – 3. Right No Wrongs with No Arms – 4. From Down Below – 5. Long Is the Line – 6. Le Feu qui nous rend las – 7. So High – 8. Blushing Rivers Overflow* – 9. Sous pied d’camélias
All songs written by Yann Tambour, except Sous pied d’camélias, written by Maxime Laope. Arranged by Boubacar Cissokho & Yann Tambour, except * arranged by Yann Tambour
Recorded to tape by Emmanuel Laffeach & mixed by Emmanuel Laffeach & Yann Tambour at Studio Chaudelande, Cherbourg.
Mastered by Uwe Teichert at Elektropolis, Brussels.
Yann Tambour: Kora/Guitar/Vocals
Boubacar Cissokho: Kora
Photographs: Jasmine Bannister
Artwork: Amélie Boutry
- The Warmth You Deserve
- Album , CD, VINYL, Digital
- TAL135 — 2025
- Luxe
- Album , CD - LP / VINYL + MP3
- TAL-085 — 2016
- Transmission / A Faint Light
- Single , 45 tours
- Tal-071 — 2012
- Humbling Tides
- Album , CD, LP / VINYL + MP3
- TAL060 — 2011
- Thee Stranded Horse And Ballaké Sissoko
- Mini album , EP Vinyl
- Tal-045 — 2008
- Churning Strides
- Album , CD
- Tal-031 — 2007
Press
« Tambour has played alongside Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko, and “Humbling Tides” marks a clear improvement in aptitude and scope. “Shields” and “Jolting Moon” put the instrument in the service of gentle, haunted songs, but he’s now more aware of its formal properties, embarking on wonderfully intricate melodic tangents. »
L. Pattisson, Uncut ****
« Yann Tambour’s unique kora / guitar / vocal songwriting idiom was written largely in Bristol and recorded in Normandy, nort-west France. Bringing subtle but significant musical modes and cultures together, he’s a bold and graceful artist »
Songlines
« He plucks cascades of twinkling notes from a 21-string kora, and his studiously subdued vocals, in French and English, now suggest the timeless tunes of some travelling medieval troubadour, rather than the prenatal blues of West Africa, a move north newly supported by suitably sparse string accompaniment. The Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko throws a fluttering coda over Shields, raising a bar that Tambour almost reaches himself in the extended closer, Halos, all visionary declamations and potent silences »
SL, The Sunday Times
Tours
Le Caire / EG
La Grüne - Fête de la Musique
Chabeuil (26) / FR
Ribamboule
Slavonski Brod / HR
Gallery of Fine Arts
Zagreb / HR
Močvara club
Ljubljana / SI
Pinelina dnevna soba
Arras (62) / FR
Festival les Inouïes
Angoulême (16) / FR
L’Alpha
La Chapelle-au-Riboul (53) / FR
Family Cinéma
Albi (81) / FR
Centre d’Art le Lait
video