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 3+ 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.

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Reimagining Anglo-Celtic folk music through a shared love of trip-hop, flamenco and post punk, Lunatraktors reveal that 1800s 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. 

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Lunatraktors are known for dance, costume, installation and film as much as their music. Since their debut in 2017, they have created hundreds of performances, workshops and commissions for a wide range of theatres, festivals, galleries and museums across the UK and Europe, including the V&A, the Turner Prize opening weekend, the British Museum, and Waterford Gallery. Their DIY debut album This Is Broken Folk – drums and vocals recorded live in a viaduct arch – made #9 on MOJO Magazine's Top Ten Folk Albums of the 2019. Their second album The Missing Star explored a fuller, more cinematic studio sound, reaching MOJO’s #2 spot in 2021. Solstice Wyrd, a trippy yuletide folktronica release by festive alter-egos Yulatraktors, was selected for Tradfolk.com’s top three Christmas folk albums of 2023.