Live Music at Horse + Bamboo: Lunatracktors

Lunatraktors are a collaboration between choreographer and percussionist Carli Jefferson (she/her) and vocalist and researcher Clair Le Couteur (they/them).  Starting in 2017 with an apocalyptic question, What's left when we've lost everything?  The project strips down folk to the basics of rhythm and voice.  Jefferson's hybrid of tap dance, flamenco and body percussion, developed after touring with Stomp (2001-2004), meets Le Couteur's self-taught overtone singing and three + octave range.  Building on this foundation of somatic sound, their 'broken folk' style, expands from harmonic singing and dance into eclectic acoustic beats, accordion, whistles and analogue synth basslines.

Reimagining Anglo-Celtic folk music through a shared love of trip-hop, flamenco and post punk, Lunatraktors reveal that 1800's broadside ballads can feel just as personal and urgently political today.  A double act in the old fashioned sense, Le Couteur channels the voices of multiple tragi-comic characters, matching Jefferson's hyper-expressive performance style.  Jefferson's compulsion to dance while drumming prompted Lunatraktors' custom percussion kit, providing both rhythmic and melodic elements to their sound.