DISAPPEARANCE – Launched in the 1970s, the musician and his ex-partner Marie Sauvet rode the wave of French folk music.
Gabriel Yacoub, co-founder of the French folk group Malicorne, died on Wednesday January 22 at the age of 72, AFP learned from his manager and Marie Sauvet, his ex-partner. The singer and musician died in the night at Bourges hospital (Cher), following a long illness, they said.
Gabriel Yacoub was, with Marie Sauvet (also known as Marie Yacoub), behind the creation of Malicorne in 1973. At the time when folk was on the rise and Bob Dylan was in every ears, the French group, initially composed of four musicians, chooses to revisit the traditional repertoire in its own way, which it presents in the language of Molière.
« Malicorne recreates the magic of the music of yesteryear, combining modern technology and rare or traditional instruments from around the world, such as cromornes, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdies, harmoniums and mandoloncellos », It is indicated on the official website of Gabriel Yacoub. Just before the creation of the group, the couple had carried out a sort of trial balloon by publishing the experimental album Peter of Grenoble. Malicorne enjoyed success throughout the 1970s. He has to his credit around ten records between folk and progressive rock, the best known of them remaining their third studio album, Almanacreleased in 1976.
The 1980s were marked by separations and reformations with new musicians. But, in July 2010, the Francofolies de La Rochelle managed to bring Malicorne back on stage in its original configuration.
-Solo career and new band
Gabriel Yacoub also had a solo career, started in parallel with the group. In 2001, his song The stabbed dove appears in the soundtrack of the hit documentary The Migratory People, directed by Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and Michel Debats. Still with Marie Sauvet, in the 2010s he launched “Gabriel and Marie de Malicorne», the opportunity to continue making music and concerts together.
It was on the stage of the Chant de Mar festival, in Paimpol (Côtes-d’Armor), in August 2017, that Malicorne said goodbye to the public and closed a musical epic spanning more than forty years. “ His music will always remain », Wrote Marie Sauvet on Facebook, in a short message in tribute to her partner.
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