Revealing the Guest Curators & Initial Line-Up for Le Guess Who? 2024

Curated by Arooj Aftab, Bo Ningen, Crystallmess, DARKSIDE, Mabe Fratti and Touching Bass

Each year, Le Guess Who? invites trailblazing creatives to curate their own dedicated programs, highlighting their inspirations, emerging acts and fellow like-minded artists, with an emphasis on discovery and exploration. This edition features curated programs by Arooj Aftab, Bo Ningen, Crystallmess, DARKSIDE, Mabe Fratti and Touching Bass.

     Arooj Aftab

Shortly after her last Le Guess Who? performance in 2021, Arooj Aftab became the first Pakistani woman to win a GRAMMY Award. With her new album Night Reign imminent, the Pakistan-born and Brooklyn-based singer, composer and producer is back as a performer and curator.

For her curation, she presents a.o. surrealist blues poet aja monet, whose poems are centered around themes of Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy; Egyptian singer, composer, and music producer Dina El Wedidi; acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and neo-soul movement igniter Meshell Ndegeocello; and a special filmed performance of the sober, serene singing of meaningful love poetry by her father, Aftab Sr., captured at his home in Lahore, Pakistan. 

     Bo Ningen

Japanese psych-rock band Bo Ningen’s curation is dedicated to “representing the Bo Ningen community, with lots of collaborative projects and with a strong focus on audiovisual performances.” The band itself presents their own alternate live score to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 magnum opus The Holy Mountain.

Furthermore, they present a.o. GAISTER, an exciting new crossover between soprano vocalist Olivia Salvadori (Tutto Questo Sentire), drummer and percussionist Akihide Monna (Bo Ningen), and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Coby Sey; an audio visual collaboration by musicians and composers Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void, along with visual artist Pedro Maia; and Still House Plants, a British group that bridges elements of sampling, slow core and repetition to create fractious and sharp music with a melting pop heart.

     Crystallmess

Paris-based artist and producer/DJ Crystallmess combines elements of film, music, performance and visual art in her radically interdisciplinary work. In doing so, she addresses themes of alienation and the deliberate erasure of narratives outside the dominant canon of African diaspora youth cultures. 

In addition to her own live set, Crystallmess curates a.o. performances by American singer, bassist and composer Kim Gordon, whose career is characterized by her boundary-pushing approach to music; HiTech, the Detroit-bred collaboration between rappers King Milo, Milf Melly and DJ/producer 47Chops; RP Boo, one of the originators of Footwork; and English experimental musician, rapper and choreographer Blackhaine.

     DARKSIDE

Ever since the release of their debut album Psychic, DARKSIDE have been celebrated for the fascinating ways they blend electronic music with disco, prog rock, psychedelic pop, and funk in a way that is both experimental and organic. Founded by multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolás Jaar, DARKSIDE performs with its newest member, drummer Tlacael Esparza.

DARKSIDE’s curated program features a.o. trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, creative composer/performer and author Wadada Leo Smith; Iranian artist Cinna Peyghamy, who creates encounters between the tombak (a traditional Persian instrument) and the modular synthesizer; critically acclaimed transdisciplinary scholar, vocalist, word-craftswoman, jalatarangam (a traditional Indian percussion instrument) artist, and double-bassist ganavya; and Phantom Orchard, the duo project of composer, harpist, and multi-instrumentalist Zeena Parkins and electronic music composer and drummer Ikue Mori.

     Mabe Fratti

With her hypnotic pieces, experimental cellist and composer Mabe Fratti combines contemporary genres such as shoegaze and dreampop with ancestral influences from Gregorian chants to Sephardic music. Transforming these ingredients into a powerful whole, Mabe Fratti has become a fixture in Mexico’s thriving experimental music scene.

Mabe Fratti presents some very special Mexican and South American acts that have influenced her personal development, such as the “father of Mexican experimental music” Germán Bringas; the quintessential ambassadors of Colombian folk music Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, who have continuously pushed Latin American music traditions like Gaita and Cumbia towards new eras since the 1940s; and Blanco Teta, a band from the burgeoning queer Latinx scene, who add unlikely yet irresistible processed cello to the hallmarks of their punk forebears.

     Touching Bass

Touching Bass is a London-based musical movement founded by Errol and Alex Rita. A community-come-club night, award-nominated record label, staple NTS Radio show, concert series and curatorial studio, it has steadily established itself as one of London’s most important musical incubators, gaining cult status for its community spirit, musical eclecticism and intentional approach.

At Le Guess Who?, Touching Bass will organize two evenings: Calm Roots, set in a church, is focused on the meditative power of music featuring a.o. Wadada Leo Smith, together with his grandson Lamar Smith; emerging Cameroonian-born and Paris-based artist Astrønne; and a DJ set by curator Alex Rita with live poetry by Rohan Ayinde. The second night, entitled INNA, is an in-the-round dancefloor of inclusion, celebrating the Jamaican roots of soundsystem culture. It features Jamaican dub master King Jammy, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his music career; legendary sound system and dub producer Aba Shanti-I; and the custom, hand-built KrackFree Soundsystem from Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

     General Program

The first artists of Le Guess Who?’s 2024 general program include a very rare and extended set by Theo Parrish who engages, challenges, and redefines the limits of Black dance music; Palestinian producer, rapper and DJ Al Nather & songwriter and rapper Shabjdeed whose work – full of abstract poetry – offers existential reflections on daily life in Palestine and sharp commentary on all systems and authorities held accountable; the world premiere of I; the hybrid and the antidote, a performance by producer, DJ and performer Liliane Chlela, with the Utrecht Flare Quartet, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Nancy Mounir and Yara Asmar; Frente Abierto, a collective of Andalusian musicians who collaborate with Israel Fernández and Lela Soto, some of the most powerful voices of new flamenco; Australian post-apocalyptic acid punk disco scuzzheads Tropical Fuck Storm; Bolivian singer, songwriter, composer and actress of Quechuan origin Luzmila Carpio, who for over half a century has spread ancestral Andean knowledge and music all over the world; Seni Reak Juarta Putra, from the Reak community, who invite the audience into a ritual trance ceremony from West Java; and collaborative projects from The Body & Dis Fig, who reimagine what it means to make “heavy music”; and renowned electronic experimental musicians Kevin Richard Martin & KMRU.

The initial line-up for Le Guess Who? 2024 can be found at leguesswho.com/lineup.

Remaining 4-Day Festival Passes and Day Tickets on sale Tuesday 28 May

A very limited amount of 4-Day Festival Passes (only 30% remain) and individual Day Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday 28 May, at 11AM CEST via leguesswho.com/tickets.