Abacaxi
Julien Desprez (guitar), Jean Francois Riffaud (bass), Francesco Pastacaldi (drums/synth)
Somewhere between noise, funkrock (with sometimes a hint of reggaeton) and sound art, ABACAXI has a heart full of candy and a skin made of spikes.
Formed by Julien Desprez, this brand new incarnation of the classic rock line-up guitar/bass/drums presents an intense electric sound sculpture, carved by the rock idiom.
The trio creates an highly energetic new music full of noisy brightness and sharp edges - completed by a choreography of flashlights.
The remarkable new power trio Abacaxi—“pineapple” in Portuguese—summoned an exhilarating fresh sound, geared around maverick guitarist Julien Desprez. Elements of abstraction, snarly noise and prog mixed with the guitarist’s gymnastic, dance-like maneuvers on an array of floor pedals, including stage lighting controls. (…) Abacaxi is one of the more exciting, genre-blurring and multisensory new ensembles around. (Josef Woodard, DownBeat)
Distressed metallic contusions deified the abrupt, everyone had a sonic impediment, and the bright white flickershow lighting was manually controlled by the players. This might account for the borderline ridiculous tap-dancing routines around their crowded semi-circle of effects pedals, as a month's worth of compacted, nervy excitement was crammed into however many minutes they were speeding at full pelt, juddering, jolting and spasming as they demanded total attention to heavy detail. Go see them next time, for sure! (Martin Longley, Jazzwise)
Un total coup de foudre. (Jérôme Provençal, Les Inrockuptibles)
Live Remix: Nils Petter Molvær / Soheil Shayesteh
Nils Petter Molvær (Punkt 2024 Artist in Residence)
Norwegian trumpet player, composer and producer, who takes multiple music styles – jazz, ambient, house, electronic and break beats, as well as elements from hip hop, rock and pop music – and effortlessly reshapes them into unique and dramatic soundscapes of deep intensity.
His remarkable ease in handling the often-contrary conventions of pop, rock, funk, and modern jazz ensured a strong interest in both acoustic and electric music. This chameleon-like ability soon established him as a much sought-after musician in Oslo, which ultimately led to his a colourful and diverse curriculum vitae as a sideman. A trumpet that knows how to capture both the polar ice caps and the burning desert sand, that can portray surging crowds just as well as total solitude, that loses itself but always finds the way back again. Molvaer has his own very individual sound, influenced as much by the poetry of Scandinavian nature as by electronic calculation, and last but not least by colleagues like Miles Davis and Jon Hassell. But more than anything else, Molvaer has himself. Listening to him play, it’s easy to forget that his instrument is a trumpet.
Soheil Shayesteh
Soheil is an audio-visual composer, violinist, and Kamancheh player based in Amsterdam. His interest in exploring the sound of the Kamancheh with live electronics has led him to develop audio processing units which are unique to the instrument.
He appreciates the unpredictable nature of live performances and has incorporated this quality into every processing unit he has developed. This allows him to interact with and control the live electronics and Kamancheh-driven audio-reactive visuals regardless of any fixed timeline and based on the changes in the spectrum of the sound and the playing style of the player.
He weaves intricate and textured soundscapes with his layered drones, creating a hypnotic effect that seems to slow down time and transport the listener to a meditative zone.
Soheil believes by the coupling of image and sound the audience is not only listening to the music but also observing the physics of the sound from an artistic point of view. The brain will try to connect what it sees to what it hears and therefore it enters a new dimension of the sonic universe.
He has developed a unique style of playing the Kamancheh because he believes that his instruments extended by live electronics and visuals are new instruments that require a new vocabulary.
As a composer, Soheil has achieved significant recognition for his work, including winning the first prize at the 'Tera de Marez Oyens' award with his audio-visual composition ‘Zha’ for kamancheh, live electronics and visuals.