Röyksopp casts a crab

Produced through Bacon, A Crab and A Pipe was the result of the Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp giving director Johan Stahl complete creative freedom over a promo for their new album, Profound Mysteries. 

The film features a supermarket shopper with superpowers who communicates telepathically with a crab at the fish counter. The customer frees the quivering crustacean from his ice prison, who then exacts his bloody revenge on the fishmonger.

The film is moody and highly stylised with saturation and white highlights that Stahl says “evoke an ‘80s feel.” A special probe lens brings the viewer down inside the crabs’ cinematic icebox world. 

“We tested different crabs for each setup, and funnily enough, it was always the same six-legged hero delivering what we were looking for,” remarks Stahl. “He was a natural. It was an emotional moment in the end, though, releasing him back into the sea at a nearby harbour.”