Thee, Stranded Horse
Churning Strides

THE REVIEW

Raw and unfiltered. No frills, no electronics. This is Thee, Stranded Horse (with the comma), the second incarnation of Frenchman Yann Tambour, previously encountered as Encre. Post-folk, neo-folk... call it what you will, the labels matter little. Yann alternates between guitar and kora or even plays them simultaneously, one with his left hand and the other with his right, masterfully. At times he whispers, at others his singing caresses angry tones. And meanwhile, he never stops weaving chords as if they were the threads of an intricate web.

Songs a bit spectral yet skeletal, based solely on the sound of his instruments and voice, dark shades that never clear. Hypnotic loops, repeated and continuously intricately woven and enriched by new braids. An impossible tangle of chords to unravel.

With a touch of old times, "Churning Strides" seems like a zoetrope that never travels at the same speed but rather follows an alternating rhythm: the melodies slow down, seem to stop... a false ending, a moment to catch a breath only to start again, with even more momentum.

Mandatory callbacks: the pre-glitz and glitter Marc Bolan (of his Tyrannosaurus Rex "Misty Mist") and his emulator Devendra Banhart, the folk of that fantastic place where the Mississippi and Niger converge into a single river on the banks of which Jacques Brel, blissful, sips a glass of Beaujolais.

This young man has talent, and a lot of it.