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Kora values with folk song and blues
By Nie Xin |
September 3, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FRENCH songwriter and kora player Yann Tambour plays at Yuyintang live house on Wednesday night as the Shanghai stop of his 2012 China tour.
Tambour first rose to fame in France with recordings under the name Encre. This electronic rock project released four albums between 1999 to 2005.
Wednesday's show goes under Tambour's latest guise, Stranded Horse - more intimate and raw than the loop and sample-heavy Encre but just as smooth and sophisticated. He released his first album, "Churning Strides," under this name in 2007.
Tambour is one of the few Western musicians who have been able to master the art of the kora, a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively by people in West Africa and built from a large calabash gourd cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator.
He invested much time and effort into learning the Malian instrument, and the result was a combination of folk music and Mandingo horizon harmonies. Tambour's playing and compositional style has been influenced by work with one of the modern greats of the kora, Mali's Ballaké Sissoko.
Recorded in Tambour's native Cotentin in Normandy, his latest album, "Humbling Tides," brings to mind calm environments and the sometimes wild shores of the English Channel. Built around repetitive melodies, sometimes adorned by Tambour's soft voice, the songs in this album seamlessly weave together medieval folk song, French chanson, Delta blues and light touches of the Mandinka tradition of West Africa. Tambour's compositions on the album are enhanced by cello and violin arrangements.
Date: September 5, 8pm
Venue: Yuyintang, 851 Kaixuan Rd
Tickets: 50 yuan; 70 yuan (including new album "Humbling Tides")
Tel: 5237-8662
Tambour first rose to fame in France with recordings under the name Encre. This electronic rock project released four albums between 1999 to 2005.
Wednesday's show goes under Tambour's latest guise, Stranded Horse - more intimate and raw than the loop and sample-heavy Encre but just as smooth and sophisticated. He released his first album, "Churning Strides," under this name in 2007.
Tambour is one of the few Western musicians who have been able to master the art of the kora, a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively by people in West Africa and built from a large calabash gourd cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator.
He invested much time and effort into learning the Malian instrument, and the result was a combination of folk music and Mandingo horizon harmonies. Tambour's playing and compositional style has been influenced by work with one of the modern greats of the kora, Mali's Ballaké Sissoko.
Recorded in Tambour's native Cotentin in Normandy, his latest album, "Humbling Tides," brings to mind calm environments and the sometimes wild shores of the English Channel. Built around repetitive melodies, sometimes adorned by Tambour's soft voice, the songs in this album seamlessly weave together medieval folk song, French chanson, Delta blues and light touches of the Mandinka tradition of West Africa. Tambour's compositions on the album are enhanced by cello and violin arrangements.
Date: September 5, 8pm
Venue: Yuyintang, 851 Kaixuan Rd
Tickets: 50 yuan; 70 yuan (including new album "Humbling Tides")
Tel: 5237-8662
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