The traditional years

Gabriel Yacoub

Gabriel Yacoub

Gabriel Yacoub was born in Paris, of a Lebanese father and a French mother. He was a guitarist and singer with the Alan Stivell group that toured France in 1971. Before he founded Malicorne, Gabriel and Marie Yacoub recorded Pierre de Grenoble . Indeed this was originally intended to be the name of...

 and Marie Yacoub formed Malicorne in 1974, naming it after the French town, Malicorne

Malicorne-sur-Sarthe

Malicorne-sur-Sarthe is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire in north-western France.-References:*...

, famous for its porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 and faience

Faience

Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...

. Since several of their albums are called simply Malicorne it had become the custom to refer to them by number, even though no number appears on the cover. Malicorne 1 consisted of the Yacoubs, Laurent Vercambre and Hughes de Courson

Hughes de Courson

-The Malicorne years:Hughes de Courson is best known for being on all of the albums by Malicorne. He played electric guitar, bass, crumhorn, percussion, recorder, positive organ, piano, elka, synthesiser, glockenspiel and Hammond organ. He was producer on some of the albums. His most original track...

. The combination of electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, dulcimer

Appalachian dulcimer

The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...

, bouzouki

Bouzouki

The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...

 and female vocalist immediately brings to mind Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....

, their English equivalent, thus placing them squarely in the electric folk

Electric folk

Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...

 genre. These four musicians were, between them, masters of twelve instruments. Their first four albums consisted of mostly traditional French folk songs

French folk music

As Europe experienced a wave of roots revivals in the 1950s and 60s, France found its regional culture reviving traditional music. Brittany, Limousin, Gascony, Corsica and Auvergne were among the regions that experienced a notable resurgence in the popularity of folk music...

, with one or two songs by Gabriel Yacoub and one or two instrumentals per album. Again like Steeleye Span, they occasionally sang group harmonies a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

. On Malicorne 4 they were joined by Olivier Zdrzalik on bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, percussion and vocals. The exuberant art-work on the album sleeves, featuring elves and dragons, makes them collectors pieces.

The experimental years

L'Extraordinaire Tour de France d'Adelard Rousseau (1978) was very much a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

, concerning a guild craftsman's travels around France, with an implied spiritual exploration. It is perhaps the most exciting of their albums, with some gothic and prog-rock elements in the music. Like their next album Le Bestiaire, it consists mostly of songs by Gabriel, with a few by Zdrzalik and de Courson. The range of sounds of these albums is huge. Their appeal goes beyond the French-speaking world, and still gives them a dedicated following, but most of the albums are only sporadically in print. Some sections are clearly classical music, but electronic wizardry and bagpipes also appear.

Excess and Decline

The size of the band grew to 12, including at one point, Brian Gulland from the English group Gryphon

Gryphon (band)

Gryphon were a British progressive rock band of the 1970s, best known for their unusual Medieval sound and instrumentation.-Career:Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that...

. Their commercial success enticed them into pure pop. Balançoire En Feu (1981) was a disappointment to many. Les Cathédrales de L'Industrie (1986) began with an epic folk-rock track. One of the other tracks, "Big Science 1-2-3" is in the style of Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

, Laurie Anderson or Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...

. They disbanded shortly afterwards.

Touring

Once they had gained a reputation in France, Malicorne toured in French-speaking Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The album En Public (1978), recorded live in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, makes it clear that they were more than a studio band. They toured over 800 venues in Canada, America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and Europe. In 1990 Gabriel and Marie appeared as a duo in a low-key event in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. All of Malicorne's songs were in French, apart from a few words of English on their final album. At their concerts they made some announcements in broken English. Gabriel and Marie continue to record, but their CDs are only occasionally in print. The three compilation albums Quintessence, Legende and Vox show the range of Malicorne's work. A compilation of Malicorne tracks, featuring only those sung by Marie, was issued in 2005, Marie de Malicorne.

Discography

• Pierre de Grenoble (1973)
• Malicorne 1
  Malicorne 1
  Malicorne 1 is an album by Malicorne. It is sometimes referred to as "Colin" because the album is called "Malicorne" and "Colin" is the first track. The absence of any rock drummer and the complexity of the sound makes it closer to folk than rock...
  
  (aka "Colin") (1974)
• Malicorne 2, Le Mariage anglais
  Malicorne 2, Le Mariage anglais
  Le Mariage Anglais is an album of traditional Folk music by Malicorne. Released in 1975 on the Hexagone label . Running time approx: 42 mins...
  
  (1975)
• Almanach
  Almanach
  Almanach is an album by Malicorne. As before, it has a complex sound. The arrival of Hughes de Courson has given the album a more classical feel.- Track listing :# "Salut à la compagnie" – 0:55# "Quand j'étais chez mon père" – 3:44...
  
  (1976)
• Malicorne 4
  Malicorne 4
  Malicorne 4 is an album by Malicorne. It is sometimes called "Nous sommes chanteurs de sornettes" because the album is called "Malicorne" and that is the first track. For the first time electronic effects and synthesisers are heard on a few tracks. The final track in particular is a slightly crazy...
  
  (1977)
• Quintessence (1978)
• L'Extraordinaire tour de France d'Adelard Rousseau (1978)
• En Public (1978)
• Le Bestiaire (1979)
• Balançoire En Feu (1981)
• Les Cathédrales de L'Industrie (1986)
• Légende : Deuxieme Epoque (1989)
• Vox (1996)
• Marie de Malicorne (2005)
• Concert exceptionnel aux Francofolies de la Rochelle (2011)

External links

• Hexagone years
• ectoguide
• Gabriel Yacoub's site, includes track listings
• Freak Emporium
• interview
• Official Myspace page (as of April 2011)

Websites in French
The website of Bruno Cornen The beautiful website "Malicorne, the legend" Website Comnet Review in French