MALICORNE was founded in 1973 by French singer/guitarist Gabriel YACOUB and Marie YACOUB, after having recorded an album together. With several other musicians, MALICORNE released approximately 10 albums between 1973 and 1986. The band's speciality was French traditional (i.e. folk) music, but revamped and updated with a fresher, more progressive format. Besides guitars and bass, the musician's played a wide variety of instruments, with focus on early wind and string instruments (crumhorns, recorders, violins, rebecs, dulcimers, harmoniums, autoharp, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, etc.) Brian GULLAND of the band GRYPHON even joined the band for the recording of "Le Bestiare" (roughly meaning "The Animals"). Although the vocals are in native French, they are very listenable (perhaps more so than vocals in Italian, German, Spanish). So fans of GRYPHON, STEELEYE SPAN, GENTLE GIANT, PFM, and maybe VDGG might enjoy this band.
The later albums by the MALICORNE are the high points, taking advantage of improved sound quality due to improvements in technology, and also a rockier approach. Earlier albums had mostly percussion and little drums. But starting with 1979's "Le Bestiare", the band maintained a drummer to beef up the sound. 1981's "Balancoire en Feu", and 1986's "Les Cathedrales de L'Industrie" are the band's true masterpieces.
|
