He was the co-founder of the French folk group Malicorne. Gabriel Yacoub died this Wednesday at the age of 72, AFP learned Thursday from his manager and Marie Sauvet, his ex-partner and co-founder of the group. The singer and musician died Wednesday 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.
Success in the 1970s
“Malicorne recreates the magic of the music of yesteryear, by combining modern technology and rare or traditional instruments from around the world, such as cromornes, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdies, harmoniums and mandoloncellos,” specifies Gabriel Yacoub’s official website.
Just before the creation of the group, the couple had created a sort of trial balloon by publishing the experimental album “Pierre de 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, “Almanac”, released 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.
Farewell to the public in 2017
Gabriel Yacoub also had a solo career, started in parallel with the group. In 2001, his song “La colombe stabbée” appeared in the soundtrack of the successful documentary “Le Peuple migravor”, directed by Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and Michel Debats.
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,” Marie Sauvet wrote on Facebook on Thursday, in a short message in tribute to her partner.