Dear readers, in this article we have the pleasure of offering you an interview with a French power trio that offers Experimental Rock sounds. We welcome Abacaxi.

Hi, it is a real pleasure to have you among our pages, how are you?

“Ciao Progressive Rock Journal,
We are pretty good, thank you! We feel like a pineapple who wants to release his sugar!“

You are a power trio called Abacaxi, how did the project and the choice of your name come about?

“Abacaxi is coming from a Brazilian expression. Abacaxi means pineapple in Portuguese from Brazil. Brazilians use to say «oh, tem um abacaxi» which means litterally, «there is pineapple.» But the expression means : everything start very well but something went wrong the way ! And it resumes perfectly the music of Abacaxi.“

Proposing Experimental Rock sounds, how did your passion for these sounds come about?

“After few and long trip in Brazil, Julien Desprez got a lot of influence from the brazilian music. Maybe not that much in terms of aesthetic but more about this music is very open in termes of rhythmics and the very large soundscape of it.
It gave him the idea to creat this power trio Abacaxi where he decided to mix type of sounds we don’t that much together. Like Noise and Funk or Reggaeton and experimental music.“

Your new album ‘Quetzal’ was released on October 2024, how would you describe this work?

“Quetzal is a very small bird from central america. Full of different flashy colors, it represents pretty well the big diversity of sounds you can hear through the album. It gives also a small taste of jungle as this bird leaves inside it.“

A long 7-part suite plus two other tracks make up the album, what themes does the music deal with?

“The music is dealing with colors. By putting different type of layers, like noise layers/rhythmical layers/harmonic layers, we create a color palette that we use to built the music. So the process is very close to paint! Then the taste of the music depends of which layer we put in the front!“

Entirely instrumental, intense and elaborate, how does the creative process of your music take place?

“Basically, Julien Desprez brings to the band an idea of composition. Those different layer we were speaking about before are already set. Then the band research how we can play them together. But then, it pushes the musicians, particularly the guitar player (Julien Desprez) and the bass player (Jean François Riffaud) to think them instrument in a new way. It means we dont’t think the effect pedals like just effect. We see it more like realinstrument, so it creates a new of playing by separate the action from the feet (who plays the pedals) and the action from the hands on the guitars. At the end, the way of playing for them is closer to a drummer skills than a guitar player ones.“

This is your third record release, how has your sound evolved over time?

“This is our second album! The first one, Mainstream Desire, was released on Carton Record, only digital, in march 2021. Between the both album, the sound evolution went from more classic free-rock to what we do today : a mix of different aesthetic played in the same time. So a music who contains different spaces. Like party feeling who meets riot feelings.“

Many of our readers and your fans wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have plans in this regard for the near future?

“Yes, different tours are planned in Europe at the end of the year. 2025 is a bit more quiet but the next one will be the 14th May at la Bellevilloise in Paris for the release of a live album on B-Records!“

Music is constantly evolving, especially experimental music, how do you see the modern scene in your genre?

“Which is good in experimental music it’s that the boundaries of this aesthetic is alway very blurry! So it creates a space where genre, style, aesthetic can meet others in a non mainstream way and we love that! It also opens to more performative art practice which we also feel close to.“

What advice would you give to young artists approaching music with more sophisticated sounds like yours?

“Just go for what you hear! Trust what you feel and what you hear inside you. Be confident with yourself, be passionated by what you do. But develop also the capacity of patience, humility and caring.“

Do you have any other activities or artistic passions outside music?

“Food, philosophy, running and politic. Politic is not really something we are passioned
by it just something necessary today.
Then we are food lovers!!!“

I thank the band for the interview and wish them all the best for the continuation of their artistic career.

“Thanks to guy guys! We wish you the best as well.“

Renowned as a festival that embraces jazz and electronic progressives, PUNKT's 20th jubilee gave its founders, Erik Honoré and Jan Bang, the clear purpose of acknowledging the PUNKT 'family'. Many who've been integral to the festival's ethos were here including musicians Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen, sound engineer Sven Persson, administrator Tonje Bjørheim and gracious festival host, Fiona Talkington.

As Artist in Residence Molvær played in several combinations, often perched on a high stool his back in an arc with trumpet pointed down, the tone never shrill or gruff as if the brass was lined with plush velvet. He seemed locked in a private conversation with his instrument, asking pressing questions about the meaning of it all; life, the universe and everything in between. This introspection was most potent in his duo with Alva Noto a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai.

An electronic artist of rigorous talent whose detailed audio passion and collaborative friendship with Ryuichi Sakamoto (they co-produced The Revenant soundtrack) was discussed in one of the seminars curated by David Toop; a freethinking element of the PUNKT programme. Here, with Molvær, he ushered the festival in with majesty. His sound was enormous yet elegant, drawing curtains of imperceptible stars from ceiling to floor with bell-like tinkles and sweet synth notes, and could summon a bass vibration that ran through the auditorium as if all that was solid had become smoke.

A piano trio led by Eyolf Dale and the art-noise band Abacaxi, may seem oppositional but their impact was identical; energising and life-affirming. Julien Desprez lobbed guitar strums and shot out rhythmic pellets like firecrackers, all the while tap dancing on an orchestra of effects pedals. Jean-François Riffaud pointed the neck of his electric bass at Desprez as if to lock horns with him, his basslines flashing fast whilst drummer Francesco Pastacaldi ran through an abandoned tunnel of punk rock; smashing the snare or clashing with drum rims. Abacaxi were fire starters with an infectious zest underpinned by incredible technique; they made sudden stops an art form.