Grace Barbé
Jamie Searle
Hardy Perrine
Grace Barbé hails from the sunburnt Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles, where a colourful history of slavery, pirates, coups d’état and coconuts have produced a unique Kreol rhythm, language and culture.
Drawing from the diverse cultural melange of the islands, Grace’s music fuses the tropical rhythms and dances of the slaves with psychedelic rock, afrobeat, reggae and pop.
In performance Grace’s trio conjures a bewilderingly huge sound – Barbé sings over her own complex polyrhythmic bass lines to Mauritian drummer Hardy Perrine‘s authentic island grooves while guitarist Jamie Searle adds a dense layer of Afro – guitar sorcery.
2020 has been yet another huge year, seeing FANM:WOMAN get an ARIA nomination for “Best World Music Album“, an NLMA nomination for “Best Live Bassist” and a standout performance at Western Australia’s legendary Wave Rock Weekender.
At the 2019 Western Australia Music Industry awards, Grace took out her tenth consecutive WAM award for “Best World Act“, and was also named “Best Vocalist“.
Grace has been enticing audiences to get up and shake their coconuts since the release of her debut album Kreol Daughter in 2009, with appearances all over India, East Africa (Sauti za Busara Festival, Zanzibar) and the Indian Ocean (Sakifo Festival, La Reunion) as well as at Australia’s leading music festivals, including WOMADelaide, WOMAD New Zealand, Byron Bay Bluesfest and Woodford.
Don’t miss a chance to catch Grace as she makes her way to the top!
LATEST VIDEOS
REVIEWS
Her set was downright amazing! – Xpress Magazine
It is said that talent can come from any corner in the world. Hailing from the archipelagos of the Seychelles, Grace Barbe, delivers a fusion of rock, African beats, Latin rhythms and Seychellois alchemy that resulted in a night of thumping beats, rich percussions, melodiously poetic lyrics, that could, and did, drive crowds into a frenzy of dancing.
Grace Barbe, with her band Afro-Kreol, played songs from her new album Welele! Her set was downright amazing- the crowd responded in agreement with vigorous, sensuous dancing. Throughout an hour and fifteen minutes of non-stop vibrant rhythms flowing between high and low tempo, yet a maintaining smooth transmission from song to song. Despite a genre more known for its low fidelity aesthetics, the technical quality of Grace Barbe’s set is rather good – the vocals are loud, clean and not clashing with the riffs, and three different percussion instruments (hand drums, drum kit, and triangle) conjure a really rich beat. Even though the lyrics are in French and Creole, it didn’t matter at all- the percussions and the guitar riffs reminiscent of the good old days of rock carried the night.
The crowd, which is normally a passive, appreciative being, radically mutated into a different beast for the night, actively dancing away with absolute abandon – all of them just there to listen to the music, without holding any pretentions.
Read the full review.
Effortless class and attitude – themusic.com.au – Lukas Murphy
Grace Barbé had so much effortless class and attitude about her she made it look easy.
Read the full review.
FAIRBRIDGE FESTIVAL OF WORLD AND FOLK MUSIC – www.coolperthnights.com
GRACE BARBÉ AFRO-KREOL; picture-perfect funky soul played by world-class muso-cats.
Concert:Byron Bay Bluesfest – www.musichord.com
When I think about the word “Fusion” in terms of music, I’m reminded of Jazz Fusion – of bands like Weather Report, or Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew double LP. But I think what happened when that term became commonplace was that people were trying to describe a sound that was a fresh mix of old and new, of the familiar and the foreign. And fusion describes Grace Barbè Afro Kreol perfectly. Led by Grace Barbè, a charming,beautiful islander woman from the Seychelles, the band puts on an intricate, fun and engaging performance full of island reggae, creole rhythms, and complex, intense vocals in French, Creole and English. (Just for the record, I have never seen anyone play a more awesome triangle solo.) The whole tent was jumping and grooving to the thumping bass as the band played selections from their new CD, Creole Daughter, and made their way through a tribute medley of reggae songs from the islands, including Bob Marley and Musical Youth. An amazing, uplifting experience.
Read the full review.