Multi-instrumentalist with Rennes-based Güz II and Nantes-based Spiel, Benjamin Baccara is now embarking on a radical and joyous new start with this solo project that blends Klezmer music, post-rock and DIY electro. Driven by an electric mandolin and a few slightly outdated electronic machines, Crabe Vert reinvents a strange, Balkan instrumental surf, blending chemical and digital sounds, which proves itself a somewhat lean and nervous vehicle for exploring tender, hybrid lands. He’ll be appearing in the streets of Rennes with his radical first album, Bisque de rage (2023), for some exciting impromptu performances!
BIOGRAPHY
> CRABE VERT / BENJAMIN BACCARA (France)
With Rennes-based trio Güz II (alongside JB Lebrun and Francois Cariou), percussionist, mandolinist, violinist, singer and composer Benjamin Baccara has released six albums of heart-stopping instrumental and masked magic, somewhere between Zappa and Morricone: Opération gousse d’aïl (2009), Gousse d’aïl deluxe (2010), Güz II (2014), Acoustic single (2018), Maître carré (2020) and Allium Sativum (2023). In 2005, he formed El Trio Grandé with guitarist Maxime Arnault, followed in 2010 by the Bogues duo. Together with Aymeric Torel (accordion) and Morgane Le Cuff (harp), they created acoustic treats of “chamber music for the 2020s” as part of the Un chat Un chat trio (2019 eponymous album). With Nantes-based quartet Spiel (alongside Aymeric Torel on accordion and organ, Martin Feuvrais on double bass, and Marc Barotte on percussion), he further explores an encounter between jazz and Klezmer music, with a first EP, 1334 (2012) and eponymous album (2015). He released his first album under the name Crabe vert, with Bisque de rage, in 2023.
