Cocoon

Cocoon is a two-piece French band formed in 2006 by Mark Daumail (born 1984, composition, lead vocals, acoustic guitar, ukelele, banjo, beatbox, etc.) and Morgane Imbeaud (born 1987, vocal harmonies, keyboards, arrangements).

“I wanted it to be a male-female duet. A duo like the White Stripes are in rock — we wanted to be the equivalent in folk music,” Daumail says. Their songs are entirely sung in English. “French artists singing in English isn’t something new. It goes back to groups like Les Thugs and Syd Matters,” he remarks.

Daumail says he’s always been interested in folk music: “Basically, Cocoon’s musical inspiration goes all the way from groups like The Pentangle and Fairport Convention right through to the ‘new folk’ movement that surfaced around the beginning of 2000 with artists like CocoRosie, Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens.”

In 2006, the pop / folk duet released its first EP, entitled I hate birds, and won the 2006 edition of the Big Jama regional contest. The following year, Cocoon was signed onto the French indie label Sober & Gentle. The band released a second EP, From Panda Mountains, followed by their first album, entitled My Friends All Died In A Plane Crash. The group won the CQFD music contest organized by the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles and performed in the new talent section of the rock music festivals Le Printemps de Bourges and Les Eurockéennes de Belfort.