Gabriel Yacoub a unique musician, producer, artist and pioneer of eclectic French roots. Simon Jones remembers.
It’s the early 1990s and I’m sitting in a very exclusive French recording facility, Studio Davout. I feel a bit awed since this is normally the chosen venue of the likes of David Bowie or The Eurythmics, to say it’s smart would be an understatement. The chairs are velvet covered. Everything’s on hand, food, drink, it’s all here, provided without question. So what am I doing in such surroundings? You may well ask. Truth to tell it’s all down to the man sitting on my right, his eyes closed in concentration as he listens to some frankly astonishing music issuing from huge speakers either side of a Star Trek like mixing desk on which levels and lights flash. He relays something in French to the engineer, my French is basic at best but I can get by, he’s just asked to have the drums and bass higher in the mix. We listen once more, the music is still remarkable. An almost monastic, medieval vocal with an acoustic, melodic core yet a rhythm drives the track forward and places it firmly in the contemporary.
This is the way to spend a Tuesday afternoon in Paris during high summer. The musician next to me is Gabriel Yacoub and those round him include members of Malicorne his former band, who wrestled French folk music from obscurity and planted it squarely into the here and now. The album being mixed is ‘Quatre’ which handily it transpires is his fourth and what a release it is….. not only does it contain the best players of Malicorne but Brian Gulland of Gryphon, Paul Brady, Jean Pierre Rasle from The Albion Band and a whole host of French folk musicians playing exotic, frail sounding strings, Vielle a Roue anyone?
This however isn’t the first time I’ve encountered Monsieur Yacoub, that was at Broadstairs Folk Festival where I interviewed him and his then partner Nikki Matheson whilst we ate fish and chips on the sea front and fended off sea gulls determined to steal our meal. Such adventures and the fact that I made sure the ensuing article covered virtually most of his career meant we communicated often and exchanged phone calls regularly. The fact that Gabriel had a hard working English agent in Chris Wade meant he often toured Britain in the 90s and so it was that I roped he and Nikki into translating for me at a gig held in Nottingham University which featured not just them but the wonders of Gwendal a brilliant Breton folk rock crew led by Youen Le Berre and his dancing flute, who I’d arranged an interview with. I also think Le Gop were on the same bill. The whole thing was an afternoon of wonder and one of those ‘you had to be there to believe the bill’ gigs. As I left Nottingham Gabriel was worried because I’d told him my car’s brakes were playing up, his advice was to drive slowly back to Cheshire and he’d ring me the next day. Which bless him, he did and was relieved I’d got home safely. “Get your brakes fixed,” he said mock sternly. I did.
Gariel Yacoub was born in Paris in 1952, he was from a French and Lebanese background though the latter part of his make up never really moved him, it was French roots which fascinated him although that came through teenage fascination with the guitar of Martin Carthy who he informed me he used to travel to London to see each weekend he could in the late 60s. He also loved the music of Bob Dylan and others who made their music sound both ancient and modern at the same time. With the guitar as his instrument of choice he began to cast around for a way forward, what he found was the Breton revival and Alan Stivell, who was plugging in his harp and expanding the scope of Breton folk material. In 1971 Gabriel and guitar joined Stivell’s band appearing on the revolutionary ‘Chemins De Terre’ and the live ‘A L’Olympia.’ It was whilst with Stivell his imagination saw French folk music in an electric form and so he and his first wife Marie assembled a band to record ‘Pierre De Grenoble’ an unassuming album which was a game changer for French traditional music. Melding French obscurities like hurdy gurdy, pipes, with sinewy electric solos, ancient sounding harmonies and droning strings the album set the template for the duo who quickly morphed their band into the first firm line up of Malicorne. Malicorne redefined and reshaped the source material repeatedly over the ensuing years with the undoubted talents of Gabriel at the centre. No two albums sounded excatly the same, there was a constant move forward to find different avenues and fresh inspiration.
Early Malicorne. Wonderful music, dodgy hairstyles.
There is neither the time or space here to chronicle Malicorne’s many achievements except to recommend heavily their album ‘Le Bestiaire’ a brilliant record shot through with power and presence. Released in 1979 by then Malicorne had grown from a simple four piece to an eight strong atmospheric, experimental aggregation driven by courtly folk and funk. A true rootsy groove machine. All the tracks have a wild animal as their focus. The eyes staring malevolently from the cover are those of a wild boar but could just as equally be those of a wolf. The late Karl Dallas wrote in his Folk News review he hadn’t “heard tracks as disturbing in their animalistic references since the first Mr. Fox album.” Quite a quote. Gabriel was at the epicentre of it all, moving deftly to writing his own material as well as encouraging those around him to do the same, contemporary yet distinctive. By the time of ‘Les Cathedrales DeL’Industrie’ 1986, electronics and keyboards had come to the fore, snatches of folk song drifting in the mix, like ghosts from another century in material concerning sorcery, deep sleep, out of control experimentation, weariness and overall gothic intention. It was to be their final album until reunion concerts saw a last live release in 2010 very much focussed on their first incarnation.
Malicorne. Top latter model and below 1979.
Occupying himself – between Malicornes- Gabriel began a solo act, which first of all appeared in very traditional mode, unplugged ‘Trad Arr’ released in 1978 was just that, acoustic and folksy the music came across in very stripped back form with contributions from Barry Dransfield and English engineer Nic Kinsey. A complete about face was displayed on ‘Elementary Level Of Faith,’ 1987 which was a very electronic, keyboard dominated affair with minmalist Hungarian composer Ivan Lantos and new lady Nikki Matheson, a product of the New York folk scene. As his songwriting developed Gabriel admitted “I don’t write straight forward songs really. They all have an element of the folk music I love in them. I like to have a definite core to what I write be it a romantic story, a wild historical retake or just my own musings.” He refined his output on albums like the duo effort with Nikki, ‘BEL’ another acoustic recording or ‘Quatre’ later ‘Babel’ shaped his songs further. Latter efforts were chiefly recorded with old friends mixing electric and acoustic, his own works shared with trusted companions like Jean Pierre Arnoux, Hugh De Courson and Yannick Hardouin. A split with Nikki Matheson saw her returm to the USA leaving a brilliant solo album she recorded with Malicorne unissued – still to this day, as for Gabriel he played in a variety of duos/trios and began production work, he even made an album of his songs in English ‘The Simple Things We Said.’ 2017 found him on stage once again with his former boss Alan Stivell, there is a wonderful video of them performing together in 2017 on YouTube, I urge you to seek it out.
Gabriel passed away on January 22nd. I hadn’t seen him since the early 2000s when I caught a show of his in Shropshire, he was as friendly as ever but time and his schedule were tight so we didn’t have as long to speak as I would have liked. Now he’s gone and French music has a huge hole where he used to be. I’ve been playing his work whilst writing this appreciation and nestled away on one of the later Malicorne albums is the song ‘Je Resterai Ici’ ( I Will Stay Here.) It’s as if he wrote his own homage. Rest well Gabriel Yacoub. Your music is your enduring legacy.
