Julien Desprez’s trio Abacaxi first made a name for itself in Europe in 2019 when it performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival. 

Critics call the band “a refreshing reincarnation of a classic rock ensemble” and describe their music as “intense electric sound sculptures.” The trio’s performances blend noise, funk rock, sound art, and visual shows with choreography of flashlights and the guitarist’s tap-dance-like movements as he plays the effects pedals.

According to DownBeat, Abacaxi is one of the more exciting, genre-blurring and multisensory new ensembles around.

Julien Desprez began his career as a guitarist in jazz and rock projects but soon became interested in alternative forms of creativity and various sound transformations, incorporating body expression and spatial effects into his experiments.

When listening to him without seeing him, it does not seem that the musician is playing an electric guitar – various sound modifiers, microphones, and effects pedals transform it into percussion instruments, organ, and any other desired instrument. 

Desprez’s performances combine improvisational music, sound art, and performance. The guitarist’s hands, feet, and entire body dancing in the flashing lights transport listeners to a mesmerizing magic show. Julien maximizes the potential of his instrument and his physical abilities. This is particularly evident in his solo projects Acapulco Redux, Agora, ARC, and others. 

In addition to Abacaxi projects, he collaborates with the samba group Coco Raizes de Arcoverde, bassist and sound artist Farida Amadou from Brussels, and plays in the trio MOPCUT. The stage has brought Desprez together with many musical luminaries, including Charlie Haden, Mats Gustafsson, François Jeanneau, Louis Sclavis, Benoit Delbecq, Han Bennink, Hubert Dupont, Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker, Noël Ackchoté, Marc Ducret, Sylvain Darrifourcq, Magic Malik, and Hasse Poulsen.

The musician is a co-founder of the national organization Collectif Coax. It is an association of contemporary artists of various genres in France, which particularly encourages and supports authors of non-traditional projects and the dissemination of their art at the regional, national, and international levels.

Jean-François Riffaud graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. Initially, he engaged his artistic abilities in creation of installations and performances. After turning to music, he performed on alternative stages, in jazz clubs, and at festivals with various groups (Syntax Error, Electric Vocuhila, Parquet, Abacaxi, The World). 

Recently, the bassist has been mostly active on the experimental music scenes of France and other European countries. He is interested in sound sculptures, explores dynamics, contrasts and chiaroscuro in his work.

Jean-François is passionate about traditional music and is currently learning to play the Hawaiian guitar.

Drummer, percussionist, and composer Francesco Pastacaldi was born in Italy. He studied jazz at the Paris Conservatoire and has lived in France since 2000.

Francesco attracted attention by forming the radical-sounding trio Jean Louis with his friends, which won the “Jazz à la Défense” competition in 2007, with Pastacaldi receiving an award as instrumentalist. For almost a decade, this trio rocked the French jazz scene, released four albums, toured Europe and the US, as well as collaborated with Hungarian saxophonist Akosh S and the contemporary music ensemble Quatuor Béla.

Besides playing in Abacaxi, the drummer regularly collaborates with vocalists Fantazio and David Lafore, the punk garage band Cheveu, Syrian flutist Naïssam Jalal, dancer Maeva Lamolière, and video artist Arthur Arbez. He also plays in the duo Ciccio & 2mo and the international quartet Brique, develops solo projects, and composes music for films.