Photo series: Bo Ningen's curation at LGW24 by Melanie Marsman & Juri Hiensch

Curated by Bo Ningen Photo

Japanese psych-rock outfit Bo Ningen is no stranger to Le Guess Who?. After several performances, they returned to the festival in 2024 with their own curation dedicated to 'representing the Bo Ningen community', with many collaborative projects and a strong focus on audiovisual performances.

"Bo Ningen, one of this edition’s curating acts, are one of the most interesting and powerful bands on the planet. Over the weekend they fused sound and vision in three remarkable shows, each different and surprising, and often spectacular." - Louder Than War

At the festival, Bo Ningen presented their alternate live score inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky’’s seminal film ‘The Holy Mountain’ featuring a word-image film by Noriko Okaku, comprising film and visual work by Pedro Maia, a series of found footage collages by Bo Ningen, and live-visuals by Daisy Dickinson.

The band members of Bo Ningen were involved in several projects of their curation, such as CHELA, made up of long-time friends Ajay Saggar and Bo Ningen's Kohhei Matsuda; Swedish experimental musician Klara Lewis and Bo Ningen guitarist Yuki Tsujii who performed their debut, Salt Water, a collection of explorative soundscapes; Ill Japonia, the trap/bass music alter-ego of Bo Ningen's frontman Taigen Kawabe in collaboration with movement artist Masumi Saito; and GAISTER, an exciting new encounter between Bo Ningen's drummer and percussionist Akihide Monna, soprano vocalist Olivia Salvadori, and multi-instrumentalist Coby Sey, in collaboration with visual artist Charlie Hope.

"It was the sort of energising gig that makes you realise just how inventive and daring modern music can be." - Louder Than War

In addition to the collaborations, Bo Ningen curated performances by, amongst others, Klara Lewis, who performed together with Nik Colk Void and visual creative Pedro Maia; and sound engineer Gorgonn, who presented his work alongside Berlin-based visual artist Utku Önal.

Furthermore, performing as part of the curation were South London vocalist and musician Wu-Lu, multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Rebecca Salvadori, presenting her film MESSENGERS, in collaboration with sound artist Charlie Hope and soundtracked by Kenichi Iwasa, Maxwell Sterling and Bo Ningen, and acclaimed saxophonist together with members of the legendary post-hardcore band Fugazi, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis.