Bobo & Behaja

Bobo & Behaja is a Franco-Malagasy quintet forging new directions in Tsapiky music, the fast-paced, rhythmically intricate sounds born from the dusty soil of the Tulear region of south-western Madagascar. For over a decade, French saxophonist Maxime Bobo has pursued his passion for tsapiky, travelling to Tulear to meet, record, and perform with numerous bands playing at the ‘bals-poussière’ ceremonial gatherings for weddings, funerals, circumcisions, and other multi-day festivities. There he connected with Behaja, virtuoso guitarist and bandleader, inviting him for a collaboration with his band, Electric Vocuhila. Now Bobo and Behaja join forces again in a deeper, stripped-down approach, with Behaja’s constantly shifting guitar patterns and Bobo’s melodic interventions cascading together over fast-flowing bass lines and relentlessly inventive drumming, while singer Pelahita holds together the song and arrangement with her calmly authoritative vocals.