Listen & relive: Asher Gamedze live at Le Guess Who? 2022

Recordings

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, working mainly as a musician, writer, organizer and an educator. With his band, he performed live during the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2022.

You can now listen to three tracks that the group performed live from their 'Dialectic Soul' album (2020): 'Eternality', 'Siyabulela' and 'Hope in Azania'; "music is meant to realign your spirit, to carry you from melancholy to utopia" was how NPR described the album. In addition, we've added two tracks from his brand new album 'Turbulence and Pulse'. Listen below:

"It’s here that we kicked off our festival with a celestial performance from Cape Town based drummer, composer, and scholar Asher Gamedze, who set the bar incredibly high for the rest of the weekend. With a band boasting talents such as bassist Thembinkosi Mavimbela, tenor saxophonist Buddy Wells and trumpeter Robin Kock, Asher’s performance truly captured a feeling we’ve had through the entire festival, of musicians who acknowledge, respect and honour the past and their ancestors while making music beamed from the future. Rooted in South African traditions, and infused with elements of resistance music against colonialism and capitalism, Gamedze’s music and performance was heavenly" - Cast the Dice

Le Guess Who? Recordings
The publication of this recording is part of Le Guess Who?’s ongoing expansion of the festival’s recordings archive, with 50+ recordings from past editions now freely available online. It contains audio and/or video recordings of Arooj Aftab, Mazaher, Zwangere Guy, Eddie Chacon, Suuns, Alabaster dePlume, The Microphones, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Aldous Harding, Deerhunter, Girl Band, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Neneh Cherry, Mount Eerie, Selda Bağcan and many more.

Recorded at TivoliVredenburg’s Pandora on Thursday, 10 November 2022.

Recording and mix by Marc Broer
Photography by Tim van Veen