Stranded Horse – Humbling Tides – Talitres - ??? - ***

When the Frenchman Yann Tambour released his previous records as Thee Stranded Horse he was attempting mystery in a second language.
Forgive Tambour. He plucks cascades of twinkling notes from a twenty-one string Kora, and his studiously subdued vocals, in French and English, now suggest the timeless tunes of some travelling Medieval troubadour, rather than the pre-natal blues of West Africa, a move North newly supported by suitably sparse string accompaniment.

The Malian Kora player Ballake Sissoko throws a fluttering coda over Shields, raising a bar that Tambour almost reaches himself in the extended closer, Halos, all visionary declamations and potent silences.

(9/4/11)