Search: The Sweet of Release of Death

The Sweet Release Of Death triumph over doom-and-gloom with a pinch of dark humor and a penchant for stretching guitar-based music’s outer peripheries. The group forms a maelstrom of ear-splitti...

22 years ago, four kindred musical spirits found each other at Utrecht University. They shared a passion for unconventional music and formed We vs. Death. For ten years they steadily built on a succes...

Right next to the chaos of Utrecht Central station is Perron West, an old train car revamped to serve as a get-together. Party by day in the Stiltecoupé; a channel serving silent disco by local...

Whether it’s a stage, a computer screen or a page from a book: Jenny Hval’s multi-disciplinary work aims to break beyond these confining zones to form a deeper connection with her audience...

In 1995, Serbian-born, Brazil-based producer Mitar Subotić – also known as Suba and Rex Illusivii – created ‘Wayang’, an album that would be considered visionary even by today&...

DJ Quesadilla and DJ Fitz, two swashbuckling archeologists of music who habitually turn dancefloors all over the world into journeys of sweet sonic oblivion. The former is one of the most prominent fi...

Through live interviews, listening sessions, art exhibitions with select LGW? performers and all things print and sound, Kapitaal will transform into a three-day meeting place for craftsmanship and de...

Belgian dancer and choreographer Judith Clijsters isn’t just someone who constructs and performs a dance movement. She observes. More specifically, she observes our bodies, and how we use them....

Fred Warmsley was once a vital member of Joey Bada$$'s Pro Era crew under the moniker Lee Bannon. Gradually however, the Sacramento native started to veer into more amorphous sonic territories. Under...

Once dubbed the ‘High Priest of L.A. Freak Folk’, Devendra Banhart leaves a swirling trail of mystic folk, raga spirituals and Latin-American rock in his wake. With his weird and wonderful...

London's Dry Cleaning's debut LP is filled to the brim with unheard-of snark, courtesy of vocalist Florence Shaw's quick-witted lyrics. Last year’s 'New Long Leg' follows their acclaimed 2019 EP...

The Botanical RevolutionGardens have appealed to our imagination for centuries. We associate them with harmonious bliss, a place to witness the cycle of life and death, a place of contemplation, and a...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver The Burial Of Kojo follows the story of Esi, as she recounts her childhood and the tumultuous relationship between her father, Kojo and her uncle, Kwabena...

In partnership with Space21Hardi Kurda, a sound artist and curator of Kurdistan-Iraq’s first experimental festival, Space21, takes us on a listening journey to the city of Slemani and its cultur...

Presented by IMPAKT - Centre for Media Culture The Sound Of One Computer Thinking invokes a paradox or question that is essentially unanswerable. Are love, death or humour uniquely human or biologica...

Kaðlín is a composer based in The Hague, whose work reflects on deterioration by drawing parallels between the imperfections of memory and technology. She creates ethereal soundscapes by co...

Lili Boulanger (1893) is a unique and prodigious case studies in music history, taking up singing, organ, piano, violin, cello and harp at the premature age of five. In 1913, she became the first woma...

Swiss self-described ‘sound maker’ Leoni Leoni is a quintessential lullaby sculptor. Between 2019 and 2021, she has released four tapes which have made her a leading figure in the Bern und...

After the death of krautrock legend Christian Burchard, his band Embryo continues, led by his daughter Marja. Is it possible to build musical autonomy on top of such a rich heritage?IDFA (Internationa...

Veni Om is the guise of towering sax fiend Otto Kokke, one half of death jazz deconstructionists Dead Neanderthals. Kokke takes less of a Lovecraftian approach as Veni Om however, proving he can pull...

‘FIS’ stands for ‘forever in search’, and in all respects, this is exactly the intent of producer Olly Peryman. The monumental soundscapes of FIS highlight that sense continuit...

Under the name Nivhek, Liz Harris (Grouper) maps richly detailed inner worlds where enigmatic vibrations and voices glide dimly in and out of the void. Double album ‘After its own death / Walkin...

Phil Elverum's latest Mount Eerie album ‘A Crow Looked At Me’ opens with the words "Death is real/someone's there and then they're not". The album is a deeply personal document of grief, h...

The legendary Sun Ra Arkestra isn’t so much an ensemble as it is an ideology passed on from generation to generation. Founder Sun Ra (visionary pianist, poet, electronica pioneer and composer He...

With over twenty releases under a closely-related variety of names – Orinoka Crash Suite, OCS, Orange County Sound, The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, and Thee Oh Sees, and now just Oh Sees – f...

Tropical Fuck Storm’s wailing backing harmonies sound like a coven chanting hellish incantations, and the filthy percussive thrusts, the otherworldly synth flourishes of the band’s debut L...

Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda’s devotion to spirituality defined the final decades of her life. In 1983, she established the 48-acre Sai Anantam Ashram outside of LA, where she quietly began...

‘What do you do when your band has crafted such a unique signature sound and the aim is to maintain things at this superlative level without repeating yourselves?’, asked Christoph Clö...

The famous Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares ('Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices') is comprised of 22 members. Performing in traditional clothing, the varying voices of the cho...

In our opinion, by the time November rolls around, Catalan duo Tarta Relena should head a-many top-of-year lists thanks to ‘Pack Pro Nobis’. The release, an expanded edition of prior works...

2019 was quite a different year for ethnographic label Ored Recordings. Instead of setting out on expeditions throughout the frozen Caucasus mountains on a quest to collect traditional music from the...

Diverse musical approaches, tools, and histories come together in the repertoire of Iztok Koren, Samo Kutin, and Ana Kravanja. This Slovenian trio's work as Širom is inhabited with one-off imag...

Having participated in pretty much every edition of the festival thus far, internationally recognized DJ Fitz, is by now basically Le Guess Who? royalty. One of the world’s primary authorities o...

London band The Chisel’s new EP, ‘Come See Me / Not The Only One’ embodies a variety of British punk traditions, brought on by each member’s distinct origin story; Blackpool, C...

Please note: in order to attend this film screening on Wednesday 10 November, you can just show your festival ticket at the entrance of Louis Hartlooper Complex. In this film, Johannesburg record lab...

Raised in the small German town of Weilheim, Markus and Micha Acher were brought up surrounded by music, performing alongside their father in the New Orleans Dixie Stompers. But, through the catalogs...

The audio-visual happening of Jerusalem In My Heart has roots in both Montréal and Beirut, also combining the best of both worlds. Figurehead Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has been nursing the craft of...

Malian singer Oumou Sangaré has become a global legend. Her voice has toted some of the most celebrated titles in contemporary African music, and she has taken on prestigious stages such as the...

When ex- COIL member Drew McDowall decided to revive the group’s 1998 masterpiece ‘Time Machines’ to the present, two decades after its release, the joke was probably not lost on him...

Composer Mario Batkovic is no stranger to praise from the public and the press; his debut self-titled solo album was listed by Rolling Stone among the best avant-garde releases of the year. In 2021, t...

Throughout his critically acclaimed fifteen-year career, London-based producer Ryan Lee West has reinvented himself with each lauded release. His work is bound, however, by his increasing drive to hum...

In this film, Johannesburg record label Mushroom Hour Half Hour’s rotating SPAZA ensemble takes you on a journey through their creative process as they delve into a new project. SPAZA are a band...

As Bong-Ra, Jason Kohnen fuses monolith sub-frequencies, jazz percussion, wailing saxophones, and ritualistic chants. All of these can be heard on his second Tartarus Records release, this year's 'Med...

New York-based musician Martin Bisi is hailed as iconic producer who defined the sound of New York noise. This year’s release ‘BC35’ celebrates the 35-year Anniversary his of BC Stud...

Zachary James Watkins (Black Spirituals) and Ross Peacock (Mwahaha) conjure a new possibility of tone together. Influenced by dub and krautrock, and molded by experimental masters that came before the...

‘What’s in a name?’, they say. In Richard Fearless’ case, a lot. He’s the mastermind behind Death In Vegas, not to mention an accomplished producer and DJ whose scope ext...

DNMF is a Lovecraftian abomination comprised of death jazz zealots Dead Neanderthals and prolific experimental musician Machinefabriek. Two formidable elements – the latter’s shrewd on-the...

Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Goldflesh, Napalm Death) and Kevin Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) initially consolidated their mutual love for abrasive noise, dub and industrial as Techno Animal. If that...

Taiwan duo Scattered Purgatory is named after a Taoist ritual that redeems and releases souls from a state between life and death. As it turns out, they adopt this notion quite literally in both perfo...

The mystery of life and death is frequently on Dutch-Croatian artist Eerie Wanda’s mind - and it is a topic spilled on this summer’s ‘Internal Radio’. On her third record (and...

After a hiatus lasting over thirty years, the musical career of singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan finally got back on track at beginning of this century. Her 1970 debut album ‘Just Another Diamond...

Ottawa-born Myriam Gendron settled in Montreal at age sixteen, working as a book dealer. Her kinship with literature resulted in her first release ‘Not So Deep As Well’, being a nine-track...

As Olan Mill, UK sound artist Alex Smalley’s work holds a sublime measure between the realms of modern neo-classical composition and ambience, with tender and elegant clusters of sound. His late...

Gözen Atila (or Anadol) has authenticity as a guiding principle; ‘this is what I want to achieve'. Their ambition does not betray them, since every inch of their latest release, 2022’...

Driven by trance-like repetition and adventurous spirit, Colin Stetson’s performances are an unworldly display of sonic inventiveness and emotional release. Exploring the full scope of his instr...

FRKWYS is a series initiated by Brooklyn-based independent record label RVNG Intl.; aimed at an ambitious and unique pairing of modern artists and their musical predecessors for the creation of a coll...

In PAINT, LA guitarist and songwriter Pedrum Siadatian is no longer one fourth of the band Allah-Las, but rather his own person. By himself, he has an opportunity to stretch out his musical and lyrica...

Italian sonic shamans San Leo deliver a swarming, uncompromised blend of heavy music and minimalism, with a particular taste for epic, cathartic live shows. Thanks to constant touring and through...

‘Every Thought Flies (Time is the Teacher)’ is a short documentary coinciding with the archival release of Italian pianist, composer and performer Tiziano Popoli’s ‘Burn The Ni...

Idris Ackamoor has revived his legendary afro-jazz band The Pyramids before, but never quite like this. The epoch bringing them back for a new tour (to commence at Le Guess Who?) is one worth an epic...

Swedish trio OCH is unafraid to tumble headlong into the darkness. Fearlessly embracing space rock's natural void (a frictionless slide into the vacuum, without so much as a handle to pull yourself ba...

Masayoshi Fujita trained extensively on the vibraphone before seeking out novel possibilities for it. The Hyogo-based Japanese composer has reinvented the instrument, adorning it with beads, foil, and...

Following a stellar performance last year, Alabaster DePlume was an undeniable invitee to Le Guess Who?'s anniversary edition. This time, he too is celebrating - in his case, the release of this year'...

Utrecht's beloved independent print workshop, Kapitaal, collaborates with Stranded FM and Julian Brimmers to host the official Le Guess Who? 2022 Hangout through all things print and sound. The progra...

Dean Blunt’s label World Music’s output is often shrouded in mystery - much like the founders themselves. When it comes to their 2021 release ‘Quarrel’, put out under the name...

Although Mairee Sioux grew up with no musical ambition, music came to be the best vessel to fill a cultural void filled by severed connections to her Polish, Hungarian and Native American ancestry. Sh...

Jana Rush started DJing in her native Chicago aged only ten. Three years later, she started producing - releasing music with ghetto house pioneer DJ Deeon as ‘DJ Deeon Presents The Youngest Fema...

Madensuyu have always been charmed by the mysterious and esoteric, the notion that two mortal souls can inhabit a stage and conjure something bigger than themselves. Their angsty, sprawling brand of n...

De Schuurman’s 2021 release – ‘Bubbling Inside’, a collaboration between Kampala-based label Nyege Nyege Tapes and Rotterdam’s platform Pantropical – centers around...

Insecure Men is the wacky side project of Fat White Family-member Saul Adamczewski and Ben Romans-Hopcraft (Childhood). First release ‘Karaoke For One’ contains nine stripped cover songs d...

Colombian experimental producer Lucrecia Dalt creates multilayered and surreal dimensions through sound. Whip smart electronic compositions are shaped into atmospheric sounds, complemented with tradit...

Crack Cloud is a rather peculiar project: a multimedia collective that includes members from different cities, ethnicities and origins. Their debut release ‘Anchoring Point’ is based aroun...

Hidden in the rural area of Limburg until recently, this Belgian post-punk gem is ready to take the world head-on. With their latest release ‘Winter / Milk,’ Fornet displays their nonconfo...

Since the release of his self-titled debut in 2011, Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, has demonstrated his versatility as an experimental drone/ambient musician and producer. Apart from being one...

Loving is an experimental pop collaboration between musicians David Parry, Lucas Henderson and Jesse Henderson. Latest release ‘If l am only my thoughts’ marks a newfound appreciation for...

Colombian artist Julián Mayorga reminds us how freeing it can be to not take ourselves too seriously. Upon graduating from a Masters degree in electroacoustics and algorithmic composition in Ma...

Leisha Thomas is Alpha Maid, a guitarist, vocalist, and producer hailing from South East London. Her first solo release on the C.A.N.V.A.S. collective label, 2021's 'CHUCKLE', garnered significant cri...

‘Visions of Bodies Being Burned’, clipping.’s 2020 release is another cornerstone in their terrifying discography. The West Coast-based hip-hop trio, made up of producers Jonathan Sn...

Paris-based Niamké Désiré began studying graphic design and cinema, but soon enough, he was designing and creating his own digital instruments. After several musical collaboration...

Nia Archives, one of the most talked-about newcomers to the jungle scene, is busy crafting every introverted extrovert's dream soundtrack. After teaching herself how to produce at sixteen, the prodigi...

This cosmic project began when producer Karl Jonas Winqvist befriended multi-instrumentalist Arouna Kane in Toubab Dialaw. In this village, an hour away from Dakar, Wingvist began improvising with Kan...

‘Dos City’, Tokyo-based experimental hip-hop trio Dos Monos’ 2019 debut album, followed the hype the eccentric group had spawned through their live performances around Japan and in E...

Nijhof & Toonk make improvisational clever electronics fuelled by post-rock and dub-laden styles. In their immersive and lingering live-shows, unique pathways are explored and take shape, as the d...

Three veterans from the Dutch hardcore scene bring you an intense and melodic form of post-hardcorepunk in the vein of Wipers, Black Flag and Bad Brains. With two full-length albums under their belt,...

Brintex Collective is a group of young Rotterdam-based musicians fronted by keyboardist Brenn Luiten. Drawing on jazz, hip hop and electronic music, the result is a refreshing sound that instantly ene...

With each of her releases, Berlin-based experimenter Lucrecia Dalt unbolts a new sonic door. She is led by assorted references, informed curiosity (the same which has led her to embark on many cross-d...

Musical selections and conversation with Dhanveer Singh Brar and Paul RekretIn this session Dhanveer Singh Brar and Paul Rekret are asked to pick a piece of music in response to a set of remarks that...

In ‘Everybody in The Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992’ (2018), Jeremy Deller explores the socio-political history and contemporary legacy of the ‘Second Summer of Lo...

Musical selections and conversation with DJ Lynnée DeniseThis session looks at the overlooked genealogies of Black music that shaped the electronic sound of Detroit. Picking up from DJ Lynn&eac...

Musical selections and a conversation with Edward GeorgeArtist and filmmaker Edward George explores how Caribbean consciousness—sonified through the music of dub—gives the housing estate o...

Johanna Constantine presents "Rise"&Kembra Pfahler and the Girls of Karen Black present "Fuck Island" Founded by New York-based artists Kembra Pfahler, Johanna Constantine and Anohni, Future Femi...

At the centre of The Curse of Smooth Operations stands a proposition: THE MOST DISSATISFYING TECHNOLOGY OF ALL IS THE ONE THAT WORKS. We all know the feeling of dissatisfaction with technology that un...

Keys of Light is a piano installation for everyone; it allows the audience to co-create the work by playing the piano. Every note that is played creates a pulse of light or visual element th...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, tells the time-traveling tale of the mystical musician and vocalist - who gave a very rare performan...

New at Museum Speelkok, a museum that houses a phenomenal, unique collection of self-playing musical instruments, is the freely accessible art space, where talented artists can exhibit their music and...

Based in Jajouka, Morocco, The Master Musicians are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance makers who are committed to creating a contemporary representation of a century-old musical tradition. Their lates...

Theater Kikker x U? presents The EarIn the 30-minute one-on-one performance Sensory Sensation Series No.1 – The Ear, the ear of the participant is central. The participant, the ear and the...

The 3-channel video ‘Wajãpi’ follows the saga of the Wajãpi indigenous tribe in the north of Brazil while immersing the viewer in a universe of images that unveils at the rhy...

In partnership with Radio AlharaRadio Alhara presents an unprecedented collaboration between Beirut-based multi-instrumentalist and puppeteer Yara Asmar, electronic musician Sary Moussa, and Bethlehem...

In partnership with Radio AlharaRadio Alhara presents an unprecedented collaboration between Beirut-based multi-instrumentalist and puppeteer Yara Asmar, electronic musician Sary Moussa, and Bethlehem...

Jeffrey Bruinsma is researching the extent to which people can draw a line underneath their past and create something from scratch, the same way a painter starts with a blank canvas. A search for new...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure Writer, researcher and musician Edward George’s radio show The Strangeness of Dub combines critical theory, social history, a cross-genre musical selection, and...

Quintessential Ethio-groove performer Ayalèw Mesfin has joined forces with the renowned US-based ensemble Debo band for his first European live performance ever, and in truth, few collaboration...

‘Vision Of Paradise’ is the thrilling, poetic story of the legendary Lee Scratch Perry, a fairy tale documentary rather than a biography. The film is a mind-blowing encounter with the inve...

In the mid-1960s, Art Ensemble of Chicago sprung from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Ever since, they have been celebrated as one of the most remarkable free jazz mo...

Together, the most revered merchant of noise and two of the most resounding voices in grime form an alliance of gritty UK fringe music that simply knows no equal. These three artists will stretch the...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver Following the footsteps of Islamic mystics on the Indian subcontinent of Pakistan, the Swiss director Annette Berger managed to document the spiritual eve...

[ THUS TIME GOES BY ] is a new durational sound work by Midori Takada, consisting of four parts, created especially for the Jacobikerk and Le Guess Who?.  1 – THUS TIME GOES BY is based on...

‘Ongehoorde geluiden’ hands the mic to people who courageously, and sometimes barely, brave daily life in the city of Utrecht. They’ve been homeless for some time and make little or...

A woman arrives in Lebanon in search of a missing man, whom she met in Iceland a few years ago. Here, the buildings and landscapes still bear the traces of past conflicts, and the missing friend&rsquo...

An intimate portrait of the circumstances surrounding the creation of Jerusalem In My Heart’s live recording of “Wa Ta’atalat Loughat Al Kalam” (The language of speech has brok...

Le Mini Who? is a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?. It turns venues, cafes, art spaces and even a fire station of the fast-developing and creative area Cartesius into improvised venues for (mainly)...

Hailing from the town of Agadez, which is known as “the gateway to the desert”, Etran de L’Aïr capture the pulse of everyday life at weddings, baptisms, political events, outdoo...

In partnership with Sonido ConfirmacionMEXPOSURE, a simulation of a pirate television signal disguised as an institutional TV channel, is a place where independent artists come to find a space to expr...

In partnership with Sonido ConfirmacionMEXPOSURE, a simulation of a pirate television signal disguised as an institutional TV channel, is a place where independent artists come to find a space to expr...

De Nijverheid is a cultural freeport full of artists from all kinds of disciplines. Over fifty artists call this their second home, making De Nijverheid an artistic hub that sparks new creativity, une...

Hailing from the small town of Como, Mississippi, this vocal trinity of gospel singers perform their spirituals together with musicians from the Daptone family. Each heartwarming voice has its own set...

‘Promises: Through Congress’ explores visual artist Julie Mehretu’s painting Congress (2003) and the 2021 album by electronic composer and musician Floating Points, jazz titan Pharoa...

Taking his name from a spot near to his heart and home, Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and The Microphones makes music heavily imbued with that foggy green mood of Washington state. But far from limiting...

In partnership with Space21Hardi Kurda, a sound artist and curator of Kurdistan-Iraq’s first experimental festival, Space21, takes us on a listening journey to the city of Slemani and its cultur...

Jota Ortiz is a collector, selector and musician from Panama. He has been roaming his hot and humid homeland for the past 10 years searching for lost gems on vinyl to preserve for future generations....

Via therapeutic frequencies, forest bathing, and binaural sound, Hinako Omori's solo work is more akin to immersive cartography of the mind in ambient tradition than a plain recording. The Yokohama-bo...

Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and leading force of the collective Moonshine, Pierre Kwenders sketches memories and visions by singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Ts...

Musician, producer and composer Kevin Richard Martin’s chosen moniker has always been a fitting one. As a defiant experimentalist ceaselessly exploring sonic extremities, contrasts and frictiona...

Uncloud 2021 takes the form of a pop-up museum for contemporary and media art. The exhibition, titled ‘Transliminal’, is about the temporary estrangement that takes place during the interm...

Named after a Yoruba deity, OSHUN preaches spirituality, rebirth, identity, unity and the blessings of Mother Earth with an Afrofuturistic center of gravity.  The duo of Niambi Sala and Thandiwe...

Tunisian-Belgian artist Ghalia Benali presented her new project ‘Hadret Ishq’, or the Sufi Project, live at Le Guess Who? 2021. The video premiere of the performance can be seen during thi...

The traditional improvisational song of the Northern Algerian Berbers is called achewiq. It is a vehicle for women to express their feelings and deal with disaster—such as the recent forest fire...

As a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?, Le Mini Who? transforms many of Utrecht’s local bars, restaurants, venues and warehouses into improvised venues for (mainly) Dutch underground bands to p...

Julie Byrne's lucid and enchanting folk songs speak immensely to the imagination, providing visions of the stars of the high desert, the fatigue of change, the wild flowers of the California coast, as...

Mo DJ is one of the first artists to successfully integrate Malian music within the electronic mixing spectrum. His journey began as cassette salesman at one of the station roads in Bamako, Mali, moon...

Little Blue Nothing is an intimate journey into the world of Irena & Vojtech Havlovi, two low-profile Czech viola players who live in the suburbs of Prague, out of society. The two musicians recor...

Sons of Kemet’s latest record, ‘Black to the Future’, was released in May – mostly recorded after the murder of George Floyd. For The Guardian’s Kitty Empire, the album f...

Danseruna is an experience happening for the past 4 years in the south of France, in the small village of Capestang. Born from the desire to merge various dance languages, mostly traditional folk danc...

Presented by Le Guess Who?, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, No Seat At The Table, BAK - basis voor actuele kunst, Urban Futures Studio (Utrecht University), RAUM “In urban social...

Liu Fang is known for her virtuosic and expressive interpretation of traditional pipa and guzheng music from China’s classical and folkloric traditions. Celebrated as being one of the greatest v...

Centraal Museum presents Black Chords is an installation by the French ‘post-conceptual’ artist Saâdane Afif, which consists of thirteen electric guitars and the same number of ampl...

Naming a band after something concise and universal seems to naturally generate some of the most physically punishing music in existence. If Sunn O))) and Sleep are part of a three-headed beast of &ld...

In cooperation with Utrecht Early Music Festival Olga Pashchenko, one of the world’s most accomplished piano and keyboard virtuosos, will bring a unique take on one of the most famous horror so...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure India Tapes (1969-1972), the opening session of ‘Music as Spectral Infrastructure’, explores the life and afterlife of early experiments in electronic mus...

There is a thread binding London and Johannesburg, of which internationally-acclaimed ensemble The Brother Moves On is part. Founded by artist Nkululeko Mthembu and his brother Siyabonga Mthembu, the...

Composer, guitarist and producer Patrick Higgins (also a member of New York avant-garde outfit Zs) will perform with string ensemble of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. The performance will feature...

Cycle or walk through Utrecht suburb Lombok's main street, and you're immediately welcomed by Turkish and Moroccan grocery stores, bakeries, the smell of kebab, and huge piles of colorful fruits sold...

Fashion designer Iris van Herpen and sound artist Salvador Breed curate a lineup of artists and performances symbolizing their highly intertwined aesthetics, developed over years of collaborating on n...

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, better known as Jerusalem In My Heart, has been nurturing the craft of contemporary Middle Eastern music for over a decade. In 2017, he was one of the guest curators for Le Guess...

Declared a ‘cult hero’ by The Guardian, Perfume Genius has invited Canadian songwriter and actress Mary Margaret O’Hara to Utrecht for a very rare live performance. The undisciplinar...

Moonwatch plays layered dream indie pop, merging spellbinding melodies with reverb-drenched textures to convey the moods of the night sky. The members of the five-headed band from Utrecht joined force...

Hosted by FACT As sparkplug of dubstep’s golden age the previous decade, Mala is now part of a select group of producers taking it to thrilling forward-thinking pastures. Responsible for some o...

Invoking the cosmic spirits of Sun Ra, futuristic three-piece The Comet Is Coming creates an impetuous blend of jazz, afrobeat and electronica. The group turn their intergalactic jazz into a mythologi...

Many nomadic Tuareg artists channel and preserve the vibrancy of life that was once the everyday in  Mali. Ahmed Ag Kaedy initially set out to do the same, but instead his haunting eight-track LP...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical genius who nearly slipped away. Director Jeff Feuerzeig exquisitely depicts a perfect ex...

“I want to make more music,” was the reaction of Japanese composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. Not long after his treatment he started m...

As music and media are so closely connected, we often underestimate the role of the music journalist in the distribution of music. At one point, a portal from obscurity to recognition, music journalis...

Farida Mohammad Ali's mastery of the ancient maqam discipline - a lifetime’s pursuit - is truly extraordinary. In execution, this traditional singing technique requires full command of complex m...

It's kind of funny how one of Mario Batkovic's most well-known pieces is called Restrictus, as ‘restricting’ is quite the opposite of his enthralling mastery of the accordion. The Switzerl...

Flaunting an impressive resume of bands (notably as singer/guitarist of trance-rock cosmonauts Spacemen3) and production credits (Panda Bear, MGMT, Beach House), Pete Kember’s genius has now spa...

As a resident photographer for LGW and a resident of Utrecht, Juri Hiensch has been rediscovering the city of Utrecht. He has captured the unique character of several neighborhoods outside the city ce...

Rotterdam’s Rats on Rafts’ most recent album, ‘Chapter 3: The Mind Runs A Net Of Rabbit Paths’, is proof of their ambition - and even more so is their one-off performance at Le...

In partnership with B-62Egyptian artists Khaled and YUNIS take us on a tour through the music scene of Cairo. Through meetings, conversations and live performances with different artists, we’ll...

Whip is the combination of Ben Kalb (Pizza Knife) and Bob Mollema (Fluisteraars). They don't know what kind of music they make; it's genreless but explores all the areas they find relentlessly inspiri...

In partnership with B-62Egyptian artists Khaled and YUNIS take us on a tour through the music scene of Cairo. Through meetings, conversations and live performances with different artists, we’ll...

Hidden Musics Lakha Khan is a living legend of Rajasthani folk music. As the undisputed master of the sindhi sarangi, Khan is one of the last remaining Manganiyars to have honed this complex instrume...

The story of Somalia’s legendary Dur-Dur Band is one of regrouping and resilience. In the 80s, their vibrant Somali funk music embedded the nightlife of the capital of Mogadishu. Since dictator...

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is the true originator of simigwa-do, a Ghanaian fusion of afro funk, soul and jazz. His work with the Uhuru Dance Band and the The Apagya Show Band (the latter with one-time mento...

Hidden Musics Christopher C. King’s relationship with the folk traditions of Epirus, a mountain region connecting Greece with the southern parts of Albania, occupies a special place in his hear...

Milford Graves Full Mantis is a portrait of renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. Graves has performed internationally since 1964, bot...

U? is Le Guess Who? participatory and freely accessible day program created for and with the city of Utrecht. During U?, programs are made with, or even fully by, local initiatives, entrepreneurs, soc...

After performing at the festival with her band, Grup Simsek, in 2017, this Hamburg-based singer and multi-instrumentalist is returning to Le Guess Who? on her own, making Anatolian folk the focus of h...

Born in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Chennai in India. He began playing tabla aged 10, but was also drawn to the American music that he heard on the radio and leaking through the do...

In cooperation with Gaudeamus AEAEA is the new duo from composers and performers Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar. Utilizing instrumental performance and live digital resampling, the aim of the group...

Stella Chiweshe, The Queen of Mbira, broke new ground by becoming the first artist to successfully combine the mbira with the marimba. She took up the homegrown instrument back in 1964, originally use...

‘Pep Navigates’ is a short film accompanying the reissue of Valencian ambient composer Pep Llopis’ 1987 record ‘Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes’. The album of minimalism...

The documentary 'Before Wisdom' follows the journey of Pink Oculus, the alter ego of Amsterdam based artist and producer Esperanza Denswil, in presenting her debut album 'Before Wisdom' at the Le Gues...

Repetition, repetition, repetition; these three 'r's are paramount to multi-instrumentalist Daniel Foggin's project Smote. Despite only bursting onto the scene in the hazy times of early quarantine, t...

Hellvete is the solo moniker of Glen Steenkiste. Previously active in Silvester Anfang and one of the founders of the Funeral Folk label, Steenkiste draws influences from early minimalism to old folk...

Maria Chavez approaches the turntables as an instrument of transmission. This Peruvian artist doesn’t opt for just its function of mixing different types of music. Her approach is more primordia...

This blood pact marries the ink-black, minimal productions of Alessio Natalizia (aka Not Waving and member of Kompakt stalwarts Walls) with the smoke-suffused vocal drawl of alt-rock minstrel Mark Lan...

The incomparable Instant Composers Pool Orchestra are like the Jedi Knights of improvisation: a collective of musical marvels hacking the conventions of their individual instruments, setting an arena...

Hailing from Amsterdam, The Mauskovic Dance Band is a brainchild of producer and multi-instrumentalist Nic Niggebrugge, a.k.a Nicola Mauskovic. After years of playing drums for bands like Jacco Gardne...

The ‘Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales’ (ONCEIM) is an orchestra of 34 musicians dedicated to the art of creation and experimenta...

In collaboration with Future Feminism New York-based performance artists Kembra Pfahler and Johanna Constantine call for the emergence of a feminine collective consciousness with their project Future...

He reimagines classical composers like Bach with modern-day instrumentation. He interrogates the role of individuality in the digital world. He tackles the cataclysms of climate change. Indeed, music...

Even if Neptunian Maximalism, also known as NNMM, are more of a sparse community of ‘multi occultural engineers’ than a band per se, their mission is crystal clear; to explore the evolutio...

In the small inland town of São Domingos on Cape Verde's Santiago Island, The Ano Nobo Quartet delivers a fresh take on Koladera, a guitar-driven, subtly rhythmic sound of a lighter spirit. The...

In honor of 900 years of Utrecht, the moment the city was born, No Man’s Land and U? are organizing a one-off musical trip through time. Leonard Luka, GINGE (ft. .Multibeat) and STACH x TANO are...

Outside the Catharijnepoort, where today you’ll find the Smakkelaarsveld, the Ellendigenkerkhof (the churchyard of the wretched) was situated between 1402 and 1664. A burial ground for those who...

‘The Invaders’ talks about a generation of civil rights activists who originated from Memphis in 1967, consisting of students, Vietnam veterans, musicians and intellectuals who were inspir...

Please note: limited capacity, sign up (between 5-7 November) via bit.ly/lgwlonnie Since 1979, Lonnie Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity through drawing, painti...

With their curious mix of infernal free-jazz and post-rock, LOTTO are one of the most inventive groups of the Polish underground. Embracing the minimalist spirit of The Necks, Godspeed You! Black Empe...

Oiseaux Tempête’s cross-cultural, multi-genre improv rock has a tendency to unfold in places of turmoil, recording records in Greece, Turkey and Lebanon in the past. The core duo of Fr&eac...

Presented by Centraal Museum Visual artist Eva Spierenburg from Zeist is the winner of the K.F. Hein Stipendium 2018. Physicality is omnipresent in Spierenburg’s work. Whether it is the visuali...

Lombok Festival, one of Le Guess Who?’s satellite events, returns on Friday 8 November. The freely accessible festival is a celebration of the cultural diversity of this city’s district, i...

Vik Sohonie is a Grammy-nominated music producer, writer, storyteller, activist and founder of Ostinato Records, a record label working with historic archives and contemporary acts. He will tell the s...

Known for its copper and mines, the second largest city of the Democratic Republic of Congo is also home to DJ P2N (real name Prince Mulowayi) - a restless creative, putting his town in the musical ma...

Somewhere close to the sounds of trains leaving and entering Utrecht Central Station, you can find the Ping Pong Club. Ping Pong & DJ’s will take place in this industrial former warehouse. P...

Chasing Reels presents; dir. Paul Elliott & Sean Lamberth ‘The Library Music Film’ is a quest for some of the most original, but largely unnoticed music ever recorded. In the document...

California, 1970. While the youth engages in the sexual revolution, anti-government protests, and the Vietnam War, a different kind of battle takes place underground. Vet Lauren Gray tracks down magic...

Having fled from the fundamentalists in their home country of Sudan, the original members of psychedelic group The Scorpios established themselves in London during the 80s. Once there, they built a gr...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure Black Audio Film Collective’s 1989 film ‘Twilight City’ presents the financial deregulation and spatial restructuring of London in the late 1980s as...

The legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York is being turned into a boutique hotel, and its permanent residents have been living in the mess for the last nine years. Dreaming Walls captures the last visibl...

dir. Maris Curran As a prolific artist, musician and lover of Mother Earth, Lonnie Holley treasures the discarded. Nurturing the neglected, he finds healing in the transformative power of art. This s...

Obscure a moment the thinking head, the sovereign eye, the ears of dialogue, the nose of instinct (...) this could create an extraordinary vacancy, an unprecedented brake on the rational injunction in...

In partnership with Hassan Kamil & AndariyamagKnown for its strong rhythms, melancholy lyrics, and bittersweet taste, the Sudanese music scene is more active than ever. This Embassy features a sel...

In partnership with Hassan Kamil & AndariyamagKnown for its strong rhythms, melancholy lyrics, and bittersweet taste, the Sudanese music scene is more active than ever. This Embassy features a sel...

In her home country of Zimbabwe, music icon Stella Chiweshe is endearingly called The Queen of Mbira, becoming the first female artist to gain widespread recognition for a strictly male-dominated disc...

Throughout her chronicle of life, it’s easy to understand how Vivien Goldman earned the title ‘Punk Professor’. In the 70s, Goldman wasn’t simply satisfied standing on the side...

Wanderwelle & Floor van het Nederend present their debut graphic novel ‘De Duizendpoot’ (The Millipede). The Wanderwelle duo is known for their electro-acoustic compositions and more....

Through a blend of tradition and modernity, Egyptian producer YUNIS is distilling and reinventing his country’s folklore – finding inspiration in Sufism, the Egyptian wedding and the conce...

Jannis Stürtz first had the idea of co-founding his own music label amid traveling to North Africa. It was there that the Berlin-based crate digger was introduced to a brand new world of music fr...

Príncipe Discos presents, hosted by FACT “Her music is dazzling in all senses, a trance-inducing tangle of boxy drums, vivid swirls of synthetic melody and buzzsaw grime bass,” The...

Istanbul’s Lalalar remind you of your favorite 80’s cult show theme, and simultaneously sound like a delightful dumpster dive of spaghetti western-psychedelics, Anatolian funk, sampling an...

Hidden Musics Female vocal ensemble Isokratisses both uphold and reinterpret one of the world’s oldest remaining folk music traditions: the polyphonic songs of Epirus. Thanks to the vast mounta...

New York-based Ana Roxanne became the talk of the town in ambient music circles thanks to her second record, ‘Because of a Flower’ (2020) - and deservedly so. Her most recent contemplative...

‘Concrete Desert’ is a colossal masterpiece created by The Bug (Kevin Martin) and Earth's Dylan Carlson. On this tandem project, Carlson and Martin plunge into deep sonic abysses, with dro...

In Utrecht’s suburb Lombok, you're immediately welcomed by Turkish and Moroccan grocery stores, bakeries, the smell of kebab, and huge piles of colorful fruits sold in the streets. The impressiv...

The audio-visual happening of Jerusalem In My Heart has roots in both Montréal and Beirut, also combining the best of both worlds. Figurehead Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has been nursing the craft of...

The sprawling universe that is the great Acid Mothers Temple was formed in 1995 by Kawabata Makoto. This fabled Japanese collective always held a deep dedication and devotion to improvised music. From...

When Girl Band prowl the stage, you’d best prepare for a barb-wired wallop of first class agit-rock. This Irish wrecking crew has become one of the most fearsome live units of the decade thanks...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Utrecht University In the wake of his recently published fifth book ‘Silenced by Sound: the Music Meritocracy Myth’ and driven by his ongoing field-record...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver, hosted by John Doran (The Quietus) Hream follows the 25+ year career male nurse and adult music student Doug Hream Blunt as he embarks on a world tour, p...

Le Guess Who? curator collective CURL is made up of sonic eccentrics Mica Levi, Brother May, and Coby Sey, among others. A tightly-knit community of artists and musicians from the London underground,...

Leading the Latinx-infused club music coming out of the UK is Marissa Malik, best known by her stage name Manuka Honey. The boisterous London DJ has been showcasing her brand of beautiful chaos all ov...

As a wind of change blows through Kinshasa - an alternative cultural scene that escapes the restrictive category of ‘world music’ -, the sound of the KOKOKO! project is heard in the air. B...

‘The leading light of the new generation of Brazilian songwriters’, ‘music of nowhere and everywhere’, ‘brilliant’ - everybody from no-wave icon Arto Lindsay, The N...

Very few preserve the tradition of the tonkori; Oki Kano, or OKI, is one of the few surviving players of this five-string harp, performed by the indigenous Japanese Ainu people. Kano revives and reinv...

Finish off your U? journey with Ping Pong Club's all-day Sunday event. Visit one of Utrecht's last bars in the iconic train maintenance buildings around the city. They will have some of their local se...

In partnership with Mentha Project & BIE MusicThe project curated and produced by the Beijing-based BIE Music showcases the originality and creativity of China’s diverse indie music scenes w...

In partnership with Mentha Project & BIE MusicThe project curated and produced by the Beijing-based BIE Music showcases the originality and creativity of China’s diverse indie music scenes w...

The slinky, cinematic music of Midnight Sister is brought to you by the isolating landscape of the San Fernando Valley — its colors, its diners, its lunatics, its neon lights. The duo of Juliana...

Psychedelic/krautrock mystics Moon Duo have risen up, understatedly, as one of the most intoxicating live acts of this decade. The Oregon band’s trademark sound is as much acquainted with minima...

Indeed, as adroit players of the harp and the violin respectively, Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz’s joint project LEYA inspired some emphatically gorgeous music. With the help of fellow expe...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver Franco Rosso’s Babylon had its world premiere at Cannes in 1980 but was deemed “too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension”...

‘Erratic Weather’, the digital art project of French digital artist Mathieu Le Sourd (Maotik) and Dutch cellist, composer and producer Maarten Vos, is a sonic picture of the chaos of clima...

Known for the whisper-like tenderness of her music, Scottish songwriter Joanne Robertson has cemented her place in the femme-folk tradition with a series of solo records - the most recent of which bei...

Growing up, Maria BC found peace in solitude. Their liking of seclusion translates into their spectral sound. The Ohio-born, Oakland, CA-based artist cites poet Louise Gluck as an inspiration behind t...

“Unfamiliar” sounds, from “unknown” parts of the world. Exoticizing entire cultures from a global North perspective, such are the traditional descriptors attached to so much of...

Over the span of two albums, the dynamic of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and brass/woodwind maestro Peter Brötzmann has become truly transcending: a continually evolving high-energy exchange...

As we struggle to keep up with a world enwrapped in digital technology, its influence on art and communication is often dismissed as harmful. Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile's ambient project Visible C...

Fhloston Paradigm is one of the many groundbreaking excursions of renowned Philly producer, musician and DJ King Britt. Hyperdub debut ‘The Phoenix’ and this year’s follow-up ‘...

Over the past decade, Malian, Grammy-nominated artist, musician, and actress Fatoumata Diawara has been universally praised as one of Africa’s most trailblazing and outspoken voices. Diawara&rsq...

Conrad Tao first touched a piano as a one-year-old toddler, and by the age of eight, he already performed Mozart’s Concerto No. 12. So, becoming one of the most exciting new faces in classical m...

Embracing music from both bygone and current eras, Miranda Cuckson is regarded as one of the most acclaimed performers of classical and modern music. The New York Times called Cuckson “a prodigi...

The power of the imagination is arguably the greatest during youth, and Oslo-based collective DNA? AND? bring this notion into play in the most remarkable fashion. Comprised of special needs children...

With a super contagious cocktail of Afrobeat, disco and funk, Arp Frique is the past, present and future scrambled together in one groovy, bright-lit musical skirmish. The Dutch producer’s new l...

Porto collective HHY & The Macumbas compose mind-blowing permutations of experimental jazz, dubbed-out noise, and hypnotic African folk. Lead by artist Jonathan Saldanha and a rotating cast of pla...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver The directorial debut from Boots Riley presents an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, California, when telemarketer Cassius Green finds himself in...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver Part film, part baptism, in Black Mother director Khalik Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and...

In 2020, Lyra Pramuk published a picture of her vocal cords on Instagram – a display-case of the force behind her debut album ‘Fountain’, arranged entirely from the sound of her...

Common Frames and Radio Einstein present Greet & Meet: films, podcasts, photographs, talkshows and art, about and by newcomers from Utrecht and the surrounding region. In the wooden trailer you ca...

Location: Vredenburgplein Aïda Gómez is an urban artist based in Berlin. Working with language games and the playful replacement of social codes in our everyday environment, she finds a w...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure In Turntable Epistemologies, artist, scholar, writer and DJ Lynnée Denise discusses her research into sound system culture during the rollout of neoliberalism...

On a quest for the awakening of true beauty on stage and all around us, Mathieu David Gagnon conjures up in Flore Laurentienne’s chamber music the lushness of vintage film, blossoming spring, an...

DJ Diaki is Diaki Kone, radio animator and DJ in Sanakoroba, Mali. He is also one of the main figures behind Malian phenomenon 'Balani Show'. This high-energy genre of electronic music emerged in the...

Running for president in Uganda can be deadly dangerous, even if you are a democratically elected member of parliament. Charismatic ghetto pop star Bobi Wine decides to chance it anyway, but meets dau...

With an increasing abundance of music events in recent years, the competition for audience engagement within the cultural sector is as high as ever. In light of everything visitors have to choose from...

Elegance, punch, softness, a magical rhythmic playfulness – Flamenco has it all. Flamenco is a physical activity, making music with the body, an outlet for the stirrings of the soul. Azules is d...

Hatis Noit’s vocal awakening came at the age of sixteen, during a trip to Nepal in which she was moved by a female monk’s chant. This experience led her to begin exploring the visceral pow...

Kelman Duran presents‘To The North II’ is an experimental documentary by Dominican producer, multimedia artist and filmmaker Kelman Duran. It is the follow-up to ‘To The North I&rsqu...

If you were to compare the world of noise music to our physical world, Prurient occupies the very bottom; the deepest and darkest dwellings in our oceans. Sound artist Dominick Fernow's output of obli...

Violinist and vocalist Sudan Archives writes, plays, and produces her own music. Drawing inspiration from Sudanese fiddlers, she is self-taught on the violin, and her unique songs also fold in element...

Takuro Kikuchi’s subdued piano compositions move adrift between tranquility and contemplation. The 35-year-old musician hailing from Sendai, Japan, has been playing since the age of nine, drawin...

Besides being one of Chicago’s finest producers, Kavain Space a.k.a. RP Boo is also known as the originator of footwork music. Emerging from Chicago house in the late 90’s, the genre inclu...

In recent years, Ghanaian star King Ayisoba ascended the West African pop charts with his futuristic approach of traditional styles. A master of the ancient kologo instrument - a two-stringed lute -,...

Despite Sun Foot being a three piece, they could easily be defined as the exact opposite of a power trio. Labeled as surf noise and anti-beach pop, the members of Sun Foot play at a low volume, frisky...

Cindy Lee is the 60s girl group persona of Pat Flegel, once the voice of now-defunct indie pop outfit Women. Though his former band flirted with sounds of the past, Flegel now follows through, bending...

Seattle-based singer-songwriter Austin Crane (aka Valley Maker) has one of the most remarkable voices in contemporary pop music. Accompanied by heartfelt, wistful acoustic guitar arrangements, Valley...

Whether they intend to or not, Negativland have bursted many bubbles over the decades with their quizzical remapping of pop culture, media and advertising. Though Negativland consider themselves artis...

Tongue-in-cheek, hilarious and often controversial, Ghanaian duo FOKN Bois coined their sound as gospel porn rap, which might be a cryptic way of calling their art slyly subversive. Their music has be...

Deerhoof is one of those fantastic beasts the world has been lucky to find, an anomaly of a band that can twist any crunch of noise into saccharine hook-heavy pop euphoria. Their wide-eyed trial-and-e...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver In this genre-defying film, Zerzura follows a young man from a small village in Niger who leaves home in search of an enchanted oasis. His journey leads h...

There is so much underlying this trumpet-and-percussion duo’s mix of free jazz, Afro-Caribbean traditions and electronic production that their music urges multiple, infinite listens, only to pee...

Luc Bersier’s band Reymour exchanged the quietness of the Swiss Alps for Brussel’s busyness, and out of it came ‘Leviosa’, released under Amsterdam label Knekelhuis. Their debu...

Based in San Antonio, Texas, claire rousay makes extraordinary out of the everyday. Voicemails, haptics, environmental recordings, stopwatches, whispers are all made suddenly big, their significa...

The music of Plague Organ inspires superlatives of a particularly brutal nature. This mutating self-reproducing entity assimilates the qualities of metal, noise, free-jazz and experimental rock. Often...

Chasing Reels presents; in collaboration with Leiden International Film Festival; dir. Ethan Hawke The film ‘Blaze’ is about the unsung songwriting legend Blaze Foley, a relatively obscur...

The performative character of the work of painter Koen Delaere can be compared to experiencing a live music performance or to making music in which meaning evolves while listening and playing. A spont...

Movies That Matter presents “Ladies and gentlemen, you wanna change? Come join us now!” In the powerful, inspiring and eye-opening ‘Mrs. F’, Nigerian theatre director Ifeoma F...

In collaboration with Centraal Museum The Colombian ambient producer Lucrecia Dalt composed a commissioned piece for the exhibition De Line Up, which displays a rich overview of the power of drawing...

In the early 70’s, free-jazz evangelists Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids sprung from the tutelage of the great Cecil Taylor. Drawing furthermore from the vast cosmos of Fela Kuti, Pharaoh Sand...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver Lutz Gregor’s documentary Mali Blues takes a vivid look at the West-African nation’s rich and diverse musical fabric, following folk star Fato...

Pop music canon has always compelled the listener to unravel the mystery behind the song. But the music of Aldous Harding inspires something arguably more powerful: an individual whose voice can seaml...

Alison Cotton's 2022 album 'The Portrait You Painted of Me' - her first for Rocket Recordings - eerily coalesces the viola, the harmonium, and the human voice, to conjure a rich and dark matter of son...

RVNG Intl. presents; dir. Tony Lowe ‘ICON EYE’ is RVNG Intl.’s first film production, about the making of the FRKWYS recording ‘Icon Give Thanks’. The film evokes a feel...

Collaboratorium The cartoon physics of Brooklyn experimental outfit Zs, the Lovecraftian doom tandem Ex Eye with Colin Stetson, the blast beat barrages of Liturgy; Greg Fox has an uncanny knack for t...

Presented by BAK - basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht Trainings for the Not-Yet is a project convened by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, in collaboration with many other...

Hidden among the rabble-rousing tourists and historic canals, Red Light Radio (RLR) is an online seminal DIY radio booth squat and international music platform based in the middle of Amsterdam’s...

Centraal Museum presents Utrecht artist Robbie Cornelissen creates films, drawings and installations and was one of the main curators of the Centraal Museum exhibition De Line Up. Cornelissen is know...

During this decade, Atlanta art-punkers Deerhunter have further established themselves as one of the finest bands alive, consolidating an unmistakable sound with restless reinvention. The electronic-d...

The “demonic” and “physical” shows of this feisty Flemish couple are well-documented, ruthlessly steamrolling onlookers like some indomitable force of nature. The Glücks b...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Fotodok & Casco Art Institute Being born and raised on the island of Curaçao, the work of Kevin Osepa (1994) revolves around his identity and the identity...

‘Rakka II’ is the follow-up to Sasu Ripatti’s 2020 escapade as alter-ego Vladislav Delay, ‘Rakka’. However, its latest incarnation is not to be seen as a mere sequel, but...

According to the band itself, it was a ‘common misinterpretation of psychosis’ that led Ice Balloons to start making music. The Brooklyn-based noise/rock band features Sean Kennerly (Samia...

If you could paint the world black, rediscover it with a flashlight illuminating every single detail and turn each finding into an obsession while gliding across the murk, then you might stumble into...

Movies That Matter presents Memory House is the mesmerizing, carefully composed debut of director João Paulo Miranda Maria that follows Cristovam living in the poor, rural north of Brazil. Whe...

Last year, Istanbul-based beatmaker Grup Ses returned with their first fully instrumental work since 2011's much-coveted 'Beats and Pieces from Turkish Psychedelia'. In 'Beats From the Vaults (2008-20...

Grouper, the moniker of Liz Harris, continues to bewilder with the most basic resources: a voice, one instrument and the ambience of her surroundings. Her sparse compositions occupy an intimate space...

Margaret Chardiet doesn't need to change costumes to completely transform on stage. As Pharmakon, she creates an echo chamber of monstrous proportions, making Pharmakon one of the heaviest and most di...

La Double Vie de Véronique is a story of two women that go by the same name and share the same hopes and dreams, even though the one lives in Poland and the other in France. Unaware of the exis...

Six standalone stories are featured in this film, which are united by a common theme of violence and vengeance. Director Damián Szifrón takes the idea of human behavior of people in dist...

Nicole Mitchell, the former first female president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), is an award-winning flutist, composer, poet and educator. Invoked by...

Haley Fohr’s Circuit des Yeux creates an unprecedented deep and rich sound. On Fohr’s latest, acclaimed album Reaching for Indigo, she combines 50s & 60s avant-garde with drone, experi...

While the festival’s numerous performances spread all over the city of Utrecht, there will be one moment we all come together, and that is at the afterparty. The line-up will feature dub-king Ke...

The Chilean colossus known as Föllakzoid, are clerics of both the cosmic heritage of Can and the more progressive electronics. The trio are no longer bound by concept or narrative on their latest...

Overviewing the impulsive career of Asha Puthli, it’s dizzying how one individual can encapsulate such a ridiculous range of juxtapositions. Puthli’s notoriety really depends on who you as...

As Yves Jarvis, Jean-Sebastian Audet’s gauzy post-R&B vignettes are driven by color, both as a visual and thematic component. His 2017 album ‘Good Will Come To You’ (released und...

Felix Manuel’s ears are attuned to the spontaneity of jazz while his production chops create original compositions out of a wellspring of samples, textures and beats. Manuel’s extraordinar...

Former Screaming Tea Party-member Koichi Yamanoha was once better known for his scream than his whisper. ‘Hazy Eyes Maybe’, the Japanese-born, London-based musician’s debut LP under...

Japanese composer and percussionist Midori Takada is a true luminary in the world of ambient and experimental music, playing solo, in various groups and theatre productions. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ta...

Like his forbears Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Sessa casts a beguiling spell over the listener with his sultry, jazz-flavoured folk rock. But there’s a gravitas to Sessa’s music as wel...

Model Home is a hyperprolific experimental hip-hop formation from Washington D.C., instigated by rapper NAPPYNAPPA and producer Pat Cain. The duo recruits an ever-changing cast of collaborators to giv...

It has been speculated how the current environmental crisis we face will inspire musicians, the same way warfare and social justice have. Perhaps no current artist embodies this prediction as heartily...

The name of this Columbian project means, in Spanish, “suck my finger”. One might wonder if that could be a reference to hallucinogens, since this is decidedly the same state of fever drea...

Based in London, born in Lagos, Funmi Ohiosumah began calling herself Flohio as a teenager. Nowadays, her self-given alias is synonymous with the harsh, bleak electronic beats that surround her &lsquo...

Kleine Crack is the only Belgian artist signed to Burning Fik. The cult-rapper and his producer-teammate Slagter create ominous hip-hop, set to heavy beats. In their hometown ANNA (Antwerp) they are s...

The Amsterdam-based trio Marathon started out as a psychedelic shoegaze band, until they got a taste of the exuberance of garage punk. This discovery eventually led to the sound that characterises Mar...

Brewpub De Kromme Haring is the house brewer of Le Guess Who?. Visit the brewpub and see where the festival beer is made, drink a pint of the LGW Yuzu Pale Ale or try YAYA's non-alcoholic Kombucha. Th...

Alabama-born, Marseille-based artist and musician Turner Williams Jr. (formerly Ramble Tamble)’s latest record, 2021’s ‘Let It Warp’, was shaped by the thirty-two winds of the...

Following a decade of sonic research, 'Veines', Merakhaazan's second LP, is the France-based artist's vision materialized. Surrounded by an array of influences, ranging from post-rock and jazz to cine...

Wolfgang Voigt's groundbreaking project GAS is the sound of organic matter and technology living in perfect harmony. As he himself puts it: 'bring the forest to the disco and vice versa'. Voigt struct...

Pharoah Sanders isn't just one of the biggest jazz icons to ever set foot on a stage. In many ways, he transcends jazz music's conventions like few others. His employment of the tenor sax is unequaled...

Maâlem (or ‘master musician’) Houssam Guinia is the son and successor of the late Mahmoud Guinia, an emblematic figure in the practice of West-African Gnawa music. Gnawa is an extens...

Essaie pas is one of the most exciting bands you’ll find on James Murphy’s influential label DFA Records. The group features burgeoning Canadian electronic maestro Marie Davidson as one of...

Continuing the legacy of her father, the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar is considered to be one of the world’s most renowned sitar players. Her music reflects her Indian background as...

Dominican producer and multimedia artist Kelman Duran creates a club-situated, tense merger of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Despite being rooted in the thriving L.A. club circuit, his music doesn’t l...

In the late 70’s, as member of the notorious Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Lydia Lunch was a leading figure in the rise of New York City’s no-wave scene. Grounded in a dissonant and atonal...

The King of Keyboard himself, Rizan Said, remains one of the most famous and influential musicians from Syria. He’s made a name for himself as composer for all kinds of Syrian artists, as well a...

Jessica Pratt’s peculiar brand of astral folk has a way of stopping you dead in your tracks. The LA-based songsmith’s captivating, wistful coo evokes a mirage-like warmth, seducing the lis...

Singer-songwriter and producer Emel Mathlouthi combines the vibrant sounds of psychedelic folk with heavy electronics and atmospheric melodies. She gained global recognition when her recording 'Kelmti...

Despite its apparent frigid exterior, Hilary Woods’ debut LP ‘Colt’ is ultimately an inviting listening experience. Woods’ minimalist ambient pop compositions come to life with...

In 1970, soul artist Jerry Williams, Jr. radically reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg: an anti-hero who smashes the conventions of commercial R&B music, and whose subversive lyrics earned him a spot...

Once, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ guitarist Adam Ian Sykes said: “on stage is where the slaughter takes place.” This is probably the best way to describe a performance of thi...

Public Poetry takes the written word into our shared communal life in public space; it brings people together for the sake of the most intimate of verbal arts. In this session, LGW artists are invited...

Hidden Musics Ustad Saami is the last living khayál master, widely considered a precursor of qawwali music that originated in Pakistan. That’s no small distinction, as Saami’s voic...

After 15 years of performing for passersby at Paris’s Line 2 Metro, Algerian musician Mohamed Lamouri’s trademark ragged voice and buoyant Casio keyboard melodies are reaching ears all ove...

The words ‘wacky’ and ‘profound’ often walk hand-in-hand in the world of Gruff Rhys. The Welsh artist is best known as spearhead of perpetually wry pop oddballs Super Furry Ani...

A true scion of the experimental noise scene, Lasse Marhaug embodies the term noisenik and then some. The Norwegian artist frequently applies a brutalist heavy metal sensibility to his potent and loud...

With her enrapturing deviations of electronic music, R&B, jazz and all-out pop, Sudan Archives - born Brittney Parks - doesn’t just bend the rules, she breaks them. Her innovative take on th...

In the vocabulary of Icelandic artist dj. flugvél og geimskip – translation: ‘dj airplane or spaceship’ – the notion of choice is pretty overrated. Why not rapturously e...

Listed by NPR as one of the Top 100 Young Composers of today, Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab carries in her music a seasoned tranquility that inspires calm to whoever listens. Inspired by the work of Su...

For a number of years, LA-based musician Shannon Lay played both for the post-punk number Feels and on her own. She released an array of critically acclaimed solo records which were praised for their...

This summer, The Mauskovic Dance Band’s Nic Mauskovic introduced the wonderful world of Nicolini with ‘Penni’s Palace’, released by Amsterdam label South of North. Picture this...

Dutch media artist Mark IJzerman and French sound designer Sébastien Robert team up to present ‘As Above, So Below’, an exploration of the changing landscape of La Araucanía...

The solo project of Luxembourgish-Finnish musician Maria Rossi has been described as one of the most striking ones to emerge from Glasgow’s underground scene in a decade. Conjuring simple yet ot...

Peach Tree, Ambiguous is a research project mapping production processes of value and meaning in the spiritual void around luxury goods. Simulating a tribalized department-store, the exhibition shows...

Sisters with Transistors is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produ...

Treasure of Grundo had many different configurations, but is now back to its original form, just Yannick Tinbergen in a room full of synthesizers. Between the debut and the sophomore album, a lot of c...

Prepare for a giant meeting of improv artists. The copper horns of Stichting BUI, a celebrated gathering of titans of improv, will come shoulder to shoulder with poetry performer Wordbites and beatbox...

Chicago stalwart Tim Kinsella initially made his mark with emocore trailblazers Cap ’n Jazz. Over the past twenty years, Joan Of Arc has been the primary instrument of his limitless imagination....

A Pear of Pairs follows vocalist Ian William Craig and composer Daniel Lentz in Santa Barbara, California for the making of their 2020 album, In a Word, for FRKWYS, RVNG Intl’s intergenerational...

When Alogte Oho was a boy, all he ever dreamt of was to join the church choir. When he turned thirteen, he did so and quickly ascended to stardom as a Frafra-Gospel artist. But in his twenties, a seri...

Les Amazones d’Afrique are a gathering of some of the strongest artistic voices of West-Africa campaigning for gender equality. These musicians and vocalists have joined together to create a for...

With Sons of Kemet, sax wizard Shabaka Hutchings takes cues from Afro-Caribbean carnival to contemporary UK grime and hip hop. This is music played with punk drive, the immediacy of club music and rid...

“Ceramic popcorn exploding in craniums.” This is just one of many lyrics that encapsulates Orchestra Of Spheres’ strange but infectious experimental pop, sounding like a Moebius sci-...

The art of storytelling gives you an imaginative experience and a great opportunity to connect, learn, share, exchange and have fun. Accompanied by music and photographs, Women of De Voorkamer will pr...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure As a culmination of the two-day program, Lynnée Denise and Edward George play tracks and music that manifest the strangeness and wonder of sound system culture...

During the summer of 1997, Mark Nelson, guitar player and singer of US post-rock outfit Labradford, wanted to explore the possibilities of sampling and computer technology as well as his interests in...

South London-based TONE created his most recent body of work, this year’s ‘So I Can See You’, during the pregnancy and birth of his daughter. Basil Anthony Harewood decided to captur...

In partnership with REProduceA hub of seasoned Indian creatives looking for a new way to be, to reconsider and reassert the India they grew up with and forged: this Embassy aims to present Goa as it e...

In partnership with REProduceA hub of seasoned Indian creatives looking for a new way to be, to reconsider and reassert the India they grew up with and forged: this Embassy aims to present Goa as it e...

France’s Aquaserge shape their own fantastic musical planet, sprouting out lush prog workouts, weirdo pop and meditative dance grooves. Comprised of a rotating cast of characters from acts like...

Monolithic and majestic, elusive Montreal guitar drone wanderer Thisquietarmy presented a whopping forty releases over the past twelve years. One of the more recent, ‘The Democracy of Dust&rsquo...

Though a prosaic name like Circuit may not jump at you on a festival poster, this bunch’s modus operandi epitomises all kinds of absurd. Circuit isn’t so much a band as it’s a lab of...

Fela Gucci and Desire Marea are on a mission. As performance art duo, FAKA could just as easily be labeled as a cultural movement. With a combination of sound, live performance, literature, video and...

Joe Coleman is a performance artist, collector and painter whose hyper-detailed works depict celebrities, historical figures and artists with the same graceful iconography as the Gods and prophets of...

With ‘Devotion’, UK-based producer and songwriter Tirzah has created one of the most critically-acclaimed and downright magnetic debut records of 2018. A childhood friend of Mica ‘Mi...

Equally adept at noisy, feedback-laden jams as spaced-out, repetitive voyages, Mythic Sunship's self-styled "anaconda rock" has been described as one of the most riveting movements of the European psy...

Jazz musician and poet Alabaster dePlume is Le Guess Who? 2021’s Artist in Residence. DePlume can be described as many things: a cleric of the written word, a maverick of sound, a conductor of c...

Velvet-Rebel’s dynamic and energetic sounds carry an important message of living fully with a mysterious dark edge. His use of a tight rhythmic spine of drums combined with bass with acceleratin...

Kaap De Goede Hoop builds a landscape of warm analog tones, crackling beats and disorienting voices. The live set is always different, reacting to the environment and atmospheres in the room. In a war...

Producer and musician Cate Le Bon creates a unique vocabulary of freak folk, post-punk and psych pop. Thanks to her jagged guitar playing and Welsh diction, Le Bon is the definition of elusive. Behind...

Bolstered by diverse global sounds and powerful female vocals, this thrilling Tokyo-based tribal-psych trio draws from each of the member’s distinct musical influences to create a dreamy tale so...

An affectionate portrait of this Cape Verdean singer with a deep, melancholic voice, using archived footage, live recordings, and interviews to capture the life of a woman who never betrayed her humbl...

Kalaallit Nunaat, founded in 2018 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, combine their love for noise, post-punk, shoegaze and krautrock into a hypnotizing wall of sound. With music best enjoyed in a cold and...

WUDU SJON is like a horror B movie: a minimal budget, full of shock value, and best to watch around midnight. Mixing together a number of various styles, such as progressive rock, synth-punk, and Ethi...

‘I think I was always more, like, a type of active, sport type guy…’ muses a voice at the head of EIGEN RISICO’s second outing, ‘Eigen Risico 2’, released in 2020...

De Witte Kunst, consisting of multi-instrumentalist Lyckle de Jong and writer/singer Koen van Bommel, craft songs about dreams of a better world, the fear of being touched and just how to carve out a...

Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux funnels the spells of black metal into howls of Tom Waits-esque juke joint blues. Suffice to say, results are nothing short of spectacular. Debut album ‘De...

Renowned for her work with guitarist Sonny Sharrock in the 60s and 70s, Linda Sharrock has become a leading light in the world of experimental jazz and avant-garde. Her vocal delivery is a hallmark of...

In her enigmatic avant-pop excursions, Jenny Hval breaks free from rigid concepts of sex, mortality, biology and pop culture. Her concept album ‘Blood Bitch’ occupies a fractured but heroi...

Jazz musician, composer and visual artist Matana Roberts nosedives in concepts of ancestry and creative expression. The stories she tells through music; of human experiences, spirituality, improvisati...

Noise brutes Sex Swing violently grasp the listener with a probing sense of acute danger. You can expect no less from an alliance of musicians from bands like Part Chimp, Bonnacons Of Doom, Dethscalat...

Jamal Moss, better known as Hieroglyphic Being, is one of the most distinct figures from Chicago's rave scene. Throughout his impressive output, Moss’s glitchy style draws from the roots of spir...

Anatolian psych folk revivalists Altın Gün are, most simply put, a power pact between members of Jacco Gardner and Jungle By Night, who wound up crossing paths with musicians Erdinç Ecevit...

Dälek’s signature corroded rap experimentalism bubbled up with masterpiece ‘Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots’, released on Mike Patton’s Ipecac label. These veteran agitat...

Sonic tinkerer Paddy Steer dives into the realms of lo-fi pop, new age, acid jazz and cosmic funk like a kid with a new box of crayons. With a multitude of instruments at his disposal, this Manchester...

Born and raised in China and currently residing in Berlin, Pan Daijing is a groundbreaking artist, composer and storyteller who creates a raw and rare mixture of noise music, performance art, dance an...

The ‘Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales’ (ONCEIM) is an orchestra of 34 musicians dedicated to the art of creation and experimenta...

Once labeled as one of the greatest songwriter of his time, California-based artist Cass McCombs has made quite a name for himself. On his ninth studio album ‘Mangy Love’, the  songwr...

Co-founder of celebrated poly pop duo Cibo Matto and collaborative partner of influential acts as Gorillaz and The Beastie Boys, Miho Hatori is a rare and inimitable talent from New York City. As prol...

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leonardo Campelo Gonçalves, stage name Negro Leo, stands out from Brazil’s flourishing experimental music scene, without a doubt. By adding ele...

Before our very eyes, the mysterious Yves Tumor suspends set expectations of music and performance into a vortex of sheer disbelief. His unforgettable show at last year’s Le Guess Who? was a bre...

Composer Howie Lee’s greatest triumph isn’t even his immediately satisfying jumbling up of the traditional and futuristic. It’s how he channels such giddy enthusiasm into each one of...

As one of the many groundbreaking brainchilds of renowned Philly producer and musician King Britt, Fhloston Paradigm will return to Utrecht to host a DJ set featuring impulsive experimentation, cosmic...

In collaboration with Future Feminism This screening event dives into the performance archives of Future Feminism, giving an insight in the project’s history of creating explicit and extreme pe...

Japanese musician and sound artist Haco received international recognition as the founder, singer, and composer of legendary avant-pop group After Dinner. Hailed as one of the first female proponents...

Minyo Crusaders breathe new life into traditional Japanese folk songs (‘minyo’) by merging them with Latin, African and Caribbean rhythms and flourishes of exotica. By doing so, the 10-pie...

Hidden Musics If it makes any sense – mystical phenomena rarely do – Octavia Mendoza Anario, aka La Bruja de Texcoco (‘The Witch of Texcoco’), reinvigorates the canon of Mexic...

Príncipe Discos presents, hosted by FACT DJ Marfox’s raves are like spinning a Ferris wheel of Afro-Caribbean beats, Kuduro, footwork, grime and urban electronics until it goes supersoni...

Spazio Disponibile presents Crossing Avenue is one of the central projects of Donato Dozzy's and Neel's Spazio Disponibile label. Debut EP ‘Malandra’ provides a taste of what to expect: a...

Blazing Suns is an ever-evolving entity of artists, musicians, audiofreaks and sound explorers orbiting around it. At Le Guess Who?, the quartet of Salvador Breed, Boris Acket, Nick Verstand and Maart...

Le Guess Who?-curator Patrick Higgins, visual artist Matthew Schreiber and choreographer Monica Mirabile will present the European premiere of their awe-inspired audiovisual project DOSSIER X, immersi...

Like Stereolab and Broadcast exemplified so fervently before them, Empath’s offbeat brand of guitar pop turns discord and noise on their upside, turning and twisting  them into agents of jo...

Mega Bog instills a wonderful and somewhat disorienting kind of confusion on her stunning latest LP ‘Dolphine’, conjuring a nautical journey of seventies folk, soft rock, new age and psych...

Having become somewhat of a mainstay in Utrecht, Stranded FM celebrate and share music from all over the globe, becoming the city’s bastion for discovering fresh sounds. During their four-year r...

Serrated guitar assaults, check. Sinister bass rumble, check. Piercing drums, check. And a sardonic sneer that oozes pure misanthropic disdain, well, check. Indeed, Italia 90 checks off a lot of boxes...

The duo Ko Shin Moon are entertaining in a similar way as back when you changed the instruments of sample tracks on a keyboard, just out of sheer curiosity how it would sound. Musicians Axel Moon and...

Collaboratorium With Brian Chippendale and Greg Fox – two figures of drum royalty – are in the neighborhood, we felt a deep urge to bring them together in the same room. Both artists have...

Collaboratorium Step inside the tractor beam, because at Le Guess Who?, Mythic Sunship will organize a momentous assemblage of wondrous sound. Of course, this Copenhagen quartet has room aplenty for...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Centraal Museum  Initiated in 2015, Elegy is a long-term commemorative performance project by South African artist Gabrielle Goliath. Staged in various locations...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & BAK - basis voor actuele kunst Le Guess Who? and Jeanne van Heeswijk connected the Chicago-based pianist, clarinetist and composer Angel Bat Dawid with visual artist,...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver A selection of short films of Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series curated by GRAMMY-winning record producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison...

Before Vicky Chow's performance in TivoliVredenburg's Hertz (curated by Patrick Higgins), the Canadian piano virtuoso will perform at Domplein as part of the Keys of Light project,...

On Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam’s shoulders rests the legacy of her great-grandmother, taarab music legend Binti Saad. Saad is credited as a true trailblazer, being the first woman in East Afric...

John Surman’s career recently entered its sixth decade, an impressive feat of which this composer, one of the most prolific to emerge from the British Isles in recent memory, can be proud of. Ma...

Zeldzame likes to make high-energy music and uses both his sense of humour and the frustrations of everyday life. A melting pot of different aspects of his personality, pressed together into a style l...

An international musical threesome made up of members from Ukraine, Catalunya, Turkey, and, all of them also, the Netherlands, comes together in Trio SonCe, who present 'Five Seasons' – a fascin...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure Radical Spectrality is a session that features a new sound work by Laura Grace Ford, articulating what Grace Ford calls “social forms of “radical spectral...

Music platform Front hosts live sessions of Anna van Rij and Private Banking in the Marnixzaal, a hidden gem on Utrecht’s famed Dom Square. Pop noir singer, songwriter and producer Anna van Rij...

This February, Australian post-punk, atmosphere, and dub-inspired band EXEK released their album, 'Advertise Here', via Castle Face Records. The cheekily-titled record echoes the work of forebearers H...

‘We are many, they are few!’, GNOD’s Chris Haslam cried out once. The Manchester’s collective constitution is indeed ever-growing. For their current line-up, they are joined by...

Although this Ireland-centered collaboration between Paddy Shine of GNOD and Phil Masterson of Los Langeros, Damp Howl, and Bisect, is technically “new folk”, the listener should tread car...

In the trusty words of DJ Fitz; ‘DJ Quesadilla is a living legend. I should stop there, but I won't. Born in the Industrial Heartland of North Portugal, in the city of unnecessary bridges and tu...

Although this Belgian composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist’s debut album, ‘Addio’, has only seen the light of day last month (released via Nicolas Jaar's label Other People)...

Through the Buurt tour, you will explore the neighborhood Lombok and discover some favorite spots of De Voorkamers’ community members. They will match Dutch speaking with non-Dutch speaking part...

Via Use Knife, Stef Heeren, Kwinten Mordijck and Saif Al-Qaissy master the hard art of cooking up a genuine musical melting pot, offering an unique sonic current made up of Western underground music i...

Dazzling self-portrait of a New York filmmaker who explores her Latin and African-American heritage in this revealing glimpse into her turbulent youth and family history.IDFA (International Documentar...

Singer, performer and artist Niño de Elche is renowned for his groundbreaking vision of flamenco. Playfully provoking his audience, he invites them to consider a question: What can flamenco be?...

Discover what De Voorkamer is all about: come along and take part in all kinds of creative 'mini' activities. These activities will give you a good impression of everything that takes place at De Voor...

Frank Bosma is a creative developer who aims at offering people meaningful experiences that they can discover while playing, whether that’s online or offline. From sites to apps, and Augmented R...

At times fragile, at others outrageously explosive, Delwood takes listeners on a cinematic voyage where organic and electronic components merge. Undoubtedly, their music will remind you of Tortoise, D...

A Misfit Cyberpunk Act. Bodyscan 223 is a media-dance-event that focuses on our conflicting ideas of technology, accesibility and queer-identity. Robin Nimanong presents his queer body as a witness to...

Cervus plays a mix of heavy stoner, doom and 70’s hard rock with intermittent sidesteps into psychedelics. The band’s many influences ensure an immersive and daring blend of stomping, slur...

Due to visa denial, this performance will be on distance and projected on screen in the venue. Named after a mysterious spiritual realm in ancient Himalayan myths, Olmo Lungring is the solo side-proj...

The Amsterdam-based artist Nemo Vos (Tibor de Jong) graduated from St. Joost School of Art & Design, Breda, in 2015. You may know him from his digital video work for Obey Clothing or the animated...

Finnish experimental metal band Dark Buddha Rising combines ghostly drone music, sinister guitar currents and shamanistic singing to startling effect. A constantly evolving beast, Dark Buddha Rising d...

Ekin Fil's ambient compositions sound like eerie, disintegrated remnants of a Cocteau Twins tune. Istanbul-based musician and composer Ekin Üzeltüzenci happily chooses full-on abstraction ov...

Lebanese legend Abdel Karim Shaar is the last of his generation still performing classical ‘Tarab’ repertoire: a musical form that expresses a state of emotional transition. Shaar develope...

The music of improvisational collective Oiseaux-Tempete is bred from places in turmoil, be it Greece, Turkey or Lebanon. Oiseaux-Tempete embraces the freedom of improvisation, as well as the communal...

In his 45 years as a musician, Japanese sound wizard Keiji Haino devoted himself to one constant: to never repeat himself. To this day, Haino has done just that, always walking the unexplored passages...

Maybe it’s because of their location changes throughout the years (New York – Berlin – Los Angeles), but like the best method actors, Liars take up an entirely new set of tricks and...

Born Otis Calvin III, OCnotes has been an artist, musician, DJ, author, motivational speaker and vibrant figurehead within Seattle’s music scene since the turn of the decade. An ever-curious art...

As kaleidoscopic as tUnE-yArDs manages to sound, it's always remarkable how she seems to pull sounds out of the hat by sampling a modest drum set, a small detuned ukelele or her own elastic vocals. On...

Under supervision of surrealist filmmaker and spiritual guru Alejandro Jodorowsky, King Khan and Game of Thrones-designer Michael Eaton created ‘The Black Power Tarot’. The cards are depic...

Lost Horizons is a new collaborative dream-pop project formed by Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins and Richard Thomas of instrumental quartet Dif Juz. The duo's upcoming album 'Ojalá', released o...

Roy Montgomery has been a staple artist of Kiwi imprint Flying Nun. The native of Christchurch lives in an environment often struck by natural disasters, which could be why his work generally has a su...

Coby Sey is a NTS Radio DJ and musician who released a 5-track record on Young Turks' sub-label Whities this year. A long time collaborator of Mica Levi and Tirzah, Coby now forges his own path as pro...

Han Bennink will engage in a sonic tête-à-tête with none other than Thurston Moore. Moore claimed fame as co-founder and singer/guitarist of influential noise rockers Sonic Youth. A...

Charles-André Coderre is a Montréal-based filmmaker dedicated to working with analog techniques. Coderre is a member of the Montreal collective of experimental cinema Double Negative and...

There is plenty of intrigue surrounding Buenos Aires-based musician Juana Molina. At the height of her popularity as a TV host, she fully immersed herself into her prime interest: music. Over a two de...

Innerwoud is the moniker of Ghent-based double-bass player Pieter-Jan Van Assche. His music is often described as ambient, drone and neoclassical. Drones are layered on top each other, revealing a vas...

The music of visionary Dutch/Iranian-born Sevdaliza is an open and safe arena for human expression. For this Rotterdam-based artist and musician, rigid concepts of sex, gender, image and ethnicity are...

Brian Case’s debut solo album ‘Tense Nature’ consists of abstract ambient tracks depicting a dark environment, built around tape loops and repetitive grooves. The Disappears-frontman...

Dutch musician/composer Martijn Comes specializes in new media, sound design and electronic-acoustic compositions. Some of his harmonies sound as if they’re being exhumed from the dregs of harsh...

Ashtoreth is the solo moniker of Belgian musician Peter Verwimp. As Ashtoreth, Verwimp draws heavily from the power of shamanism, to adapt and incorporate influences from other religious and spiritual...

Willis Earl Beal has gone incognito as a new masked superhero persona: Nobody. By leveling everything all the way back to zero, Nobody can continue to captivate with the idiom of his previous guise: a...

The Violent Magic Orchestra (VMO) is an offshoot of Japan’s brutal orchestra of everything Black, Vampillia. In collaboration with Pete Swanson (ex-Yellow Swans) and French composer Paul R&eacut...

Luka Productions is the bedrock of Mali-based producer, multi-instrumentalist and rapper Luka Guinda, responsible for 2017’s more mysterious and downright sensational releases. ‘Fasokan&rs...

Le Mini Who? presents the contemporary (Dutch) underground, in collaboration with independent local stores, shops and bars. It transforms Utrecht's city streets into a festival area, with more than fi...

Rabit is the moniker of Houston producer, composer, DJ, and record label owner Eric Burton. He combines industrial, hip hop, noise, and sound collage to foster sonic spaces for the exploration of sexu...

Listening to Proto Idiot is listening to Bass, Drums and Vocals, like they’ve come straight from the 80’s, as a missing link between the likes of Gang of Four, Wire, and Swell Maps. But ac...

In early 2015, free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements first came together to perform at the Musicians Against Police Brutality event in New York. Drawn from the instrumentalists’ indivi...

Oft-sampled though never imitated, Italian composer Gigi Masin’s deft ambient collages first entered our consciousness in the 1970s. Masin finally earned recognition with his 1986 LP ‘Wind...

As a former member of legendary Tokyo-based psychedelic band Yura Yura Teikoku, Shintaro Sakamoto became a cult star in his motherland of Japan. In his solo work, Sakamoto creates post-apocalyptic exo...

Belgium’s STUFF. is much more than your typical jazz quintet. Adding dazzling layers of hip-hop, funk and electronic sounds to their jazz foundation, the group forges an energetic storm of instr...

Although best known for his work evoking the sounds of classic country music, Daniel Romano has always been a free and restless spirit, as well as a gifted and masterful musician. His new brainchild i...

In the early 00s, Eleanor Friedberger became known as one-half of indie sibling duo The Fiery Furnaces. Since their hiatus in 2011, Eleanor Friedberger unleashed her true songwriter capabilities and h...

Even though the four members of Bo Ningen originate from various regions in Japan, the band was originally formed in London. With their fiery stir of psychedelic experimentation, vigorous noise and se...

L.A. based experimental musician, producer, auteur and artist Joe Cardamone, formerly of The Icarus Line, stated ‘he doesn’t care about bands anymore’, so he began his own solo proje...

Gaining reputation as an ‘all-round musical badass’ and self-proclaimed Synth Queen, SASAMI (Ashworth) is a prolific contributor to the L.A. music scene. On top of that, she’s a musi...

In early 2017, modern art rock outfit FACS rose from the ashes of Chicago band Disappears. Joined by Cat Power’s Alianna Kalaba, FACS use minimalism and space to constitute a darker and more bru...

Hailing from Brixton, vocalist and producer GAIKA developed his own take on the numerous currents of London’s contemporary music scene. With Jamaican and Grenadian roots, GAIKA creates a sonic b...

In one corner, the shamanistic Saul Williams, actor, screenwriter and renowned harbinger of noise poetry and hip hop futurism. In the other corner, cleric of eclecticism King Britt, accomplished Phill...

With his nimble improv playing, composer Eli Keszler can make an average drum kit sound like electronic textures. It’s not much of a surprise that sonic contortionists such as Oneohtrix Point Ne...

When her 1983 album Through The Looking Glass was reissued last year by WRWTFWW/Palto Flats, Japanese composer Midori Takada received a new surge of recognition. Takada has remained very productive th...

Emerging from Bristol’s thriving artistic community, the four lads of LICE create a rather peculiar and inventive crossing of rockabilly and post-punk, featuring in-your-face lyricism covering s...

In collaboration with Casco Art Institute Throughout Beverly-Glenn Copeland’s extraordinary 74 years on this planet, he has consciously and constantly dealt with his process of becoming and bei...

Foundation De Pastoe Fabriek presents De Pastoe Fabriek promotes the objective of good design from an aesthetical and corporate social responsibility perspective, stimulating designers to appreciate...

Every year, Le Feast invites you into a living room in Utrecht, to enjoy a feast together with people you don't know (yet). Many Utrechtian home-chefs will transform their living room into a cozy brun...

Cellist and composer Mariel Roberts plays her instrument of choice like an actor performs a scene, completely engrossed and enraptured within the composition’s totality. As both solo performer a...

Composer and cellist Leila Bordreuil grew up in rural Aix-en-Provence, France, before moving to Brooklyn in 2012. Having composed in silence for most of her life, the bustle of Broadway didn’t d...

Caspar Brötzmann has embraced a similar vocation as his father, free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann: disrupt conventions through the virtues of noise, innovation, and chaotic physical performan...

Few musicians are as versatile, risk-taking and compulsively explorative as Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. This nomadic musician redefined math and noise rock with 90 Day Men and helped spearhead druidic dr...

As Lone Taxidermist, musician, performance artist, costume maker and provocateur Natalie Sharp relishes in the grotesque. Her unruly and flamboyant electro-punk performances make audiences an active p...

Vivian Wang is one of the founders and multi-instrumentalists of Singapore-based art rock ensemble The Observatory. After initially honing her skills as a classically trained pianist, Wang approaches...

With her signature Southern drawl, bold experimentalism and whip-smart lyrics, Tennessee-based artist Bbymutha has established herself as a bona fide hip-hop truther. As one of the most refreshing rol...

Along with Shy Girl and Sega Bodega, French artist and producer Coucou Chloe is the co-founder of burgeoning label/collective NUXXE. Her malformed take on pop music is as mind-melting as it is urgent,...

Composer Maarten Vos is what you’d call a voyager: he transforms traditional instrumentation into newfangled sounds and wields technology like something intricately human. Known as much for his...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Centraal Museum James Merry is a visual artist, originally from Gloucestershire in the UK, who is now based in Iceland where he has been living and working with Bj&ou...

Príncipe Discos presents, hosted by FACT DJ Firmeza is a member of the Príncipe Discos crew, one of the most interesting and landmark-shifting movements within the modern European club...

Lightning Bolt’s floor shows are the stuff of myth and legend, unleashing a hailstorm of noise that would leave every venue smoldering in dust and vapors for weeks. Two decades after their accla...

Sarah Louise Henson operates from the roots of Appalachian folk music, but is likewise influenced by spiritual jazz, contemporary classical music and even new age. Her music has never sounded as penet...

Group Listening is a joint project by UK-musicians Stephen Black and Paul Jones. Black and Jones met at music college before their respective paths strayed. Reconnecting years later after various ende...

Hidden Musics Grammy-winning producer and author Ian Brennan has accumulated a resume that would make anyone in his fields blush. Brennan’s most pertinent and important work, however, isn&rsquo...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & De Utrechtse Boekenbar Within the setting of one of Utrechts’ finest curated bookstores, our artistic director Bob van Heur will discuss with Grammy-winning pro...

Every year, Le Feast invites you into a living room in Utrecht, to enjoy a feast together with people you don't know (yet). Many Utrechtian home-chefs will transform their living room into a cozy brun...

Chicago-born clarinetist and saxophonist Matana Roberts describes their work as “panoramic sound quilting”: think loops, field recordings, chanting and snippets of spirituals. As their amb...

Revolt comes in all shapes and sizes for São Paolo-guitarist, producer and songsmith Kiko Dinucci. He cut his teeth in various punk and hardcore bands, filtered that subversive spirit through t...

True child prodigy, German musician, curator and radio host Felix Kubin first began experimenting with synthesizers at the tender age of twelve. Of course, such a keen interest in sound and music coul...

Meant to perform at last year’s LGW OFF event, in 2021 Gebroeders Dieleman van Eeckhout join the main line-up of Le Guess Who?. This project is carried out by unorthodox duo Colin H. van Eeckhou...

At only 24 years old, Pa Salieu is already being noticed by cultural gatekeepers like Dazed, i-D, GRM, The Fader, Complex, and many more for his show-stopping, dynamic singles, which blend his Gambian...

Despite being a relative newcomer, South London artist Lucinda Chua is blessed with a singular sensibility for music and artistry. Chua utilizes little more than her voice, a cello and an array of eff...

Pianist and producer Jamael Dean and singer Sharada Shashidhar were already jazz prodigies in their own right, even before getting together to make more wondrous music. Dean, the grandson of legendary...

Kamiel Thomas is an indie songwriter and former member of the avant-garde dark rock ensemble GOLD. Kamiel's songs are worthy of arthouse films while also creating a sense of home. Kamiel Thomas i...

presented by Jongerentheater Link Discrimination, prejudice, exclusion, racism; these subjects are all up for discussion at Open Podium West. Hear and meet people of all ages from the neighbourhood,...

Rotterdam-based, eclectic Kraut collective Smudged blends elements of hypnotic synth patterns, garage drums, fuzz guitars and kraut basslines resulting in a scuzzy mix of energetic garage and electron...

Be it through stumbling, decaying melodies, or menacing flurries of percussion, Mexican singer and sound artist Camille Mandoki explores the wildest shores of catharsis. Her voice may very well be her...

This will be the première of Aurélie Poppins (Cocaine Piss) and RomanOwitch (Detroit Underground) newest project. IDM scented alchemy of dirty, wet concrete-like hip-hop; acid synthesize...

While working on his blog “Is Your Clam in a Jam?”, Italian film director, script writer and producer Gio Arlotta started a DIY video project capturing underground rock bands' performances...

Music as Spectral Infrastructure Music for Airports, Playlists, and Other Rent-Seeking Platforms discusses the consumption and production of electronic music today, and how music has become both an e...

Norwegian-German saxophonist Bendik Giske has likened his art to the one of a machine, but, still, through his music - most recently his second solo album, 2021’s ‘Cracks’ - there is...

On Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam’s shoulders rests the legacy of her great-grandmother, taarab music legend Binti Saad. Saad is credited as a true trailblazer, being the first woman in East Afric...

Emerging from a tangled background, Bint7alal is a rapper and producer now based in London. Her music career was launched in 2020 and her music relies heavily on her ever-present voice - often molded...

Nearly a hundred years after the birth of surrealism in Europe, folk artist Anastasia Coope is keeping it alive and well in upstate New York. Both disruptive and whimsical, this nineteen-year-old pain...

Contradiction alone could describe this Copenhagen-based composer, producer and viola player - but it wouldn’t be enough. Inspired by postmodern and minimalist music, singing in a choir and play...

Is it true you never forget your first love? It certainly is for Berlin-based producer Patric Catani, who became enamored with video games before becoming known for his techno, gabba, and breakbeat se...

Melika Ngombe Kolongo is Nkisi - DJ, producer and co-founder of NON Records, a collective of experimental African artists and of the diaspora. Born in Congo, she adopted the moniker after moving from...

Holy Scum is the feedback-drenched, bludgeoning improvised rock collaboration between Peter J Taylor (formerly of Action Beat), GNOD's Chris Haslam and John Perry (also of Suck). The final piece...

Bristol’s Batu, as well as his tight-knit Timedance label, have become staples of the city’s night sound. Treading new ground relentlessly has become the producer and his label’s sig...

French filmmaker Vincent Moon is the quintessential maverick music documentarian. He was the main director of the Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows, a web-based series based on field work music vide...

Outsider music pioneer Brian Leeds (also known as Pendant, Huerco S., Loidis, and Royal Crown of Sweden) got his start playing for punk and metal bands while growing up in Kansas. In the quest for the...

Three years after their first concert, flamenco icon Estrella Morente and Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra are coming together again for a magic showcase of warmth and pleasure. The daughter of world-fa...

In partnership with Coquetel MolotovRecife’s Coquetel Molotov teamed up with music producer Benke Ferraz (Boogarins) and launched a musical incubator for artists outside Pernambuco’s capit...

Rotterdam-based, eclectic Kraut collective Smudged blends elements of hypnotic synth patterns, garage drums, fuzz guitars and kraut basslines resulting in a scuzzy mix of energetic garage and electron...

In 1975, family group The Staples Jr. Singers released their first and only album: ‘When Do We Get Paid’ - recorded when the gospel band’s youngest members were in their early teenag...

Last year, Kevin Martin released his first non-collaborative full-length LP in seven years. 'Fire', brought out into the world via Ninja Tune, is maybe his heftiest yet, and already a landmark in his...

The adventurous, innovative Dutch band The Ex have defied categorization ever since their origination in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have...

Don’t think about the elephant. Don’t think at all.We can only be in this moment. Not thinking.How do we not-do?We do other. Let’s get ourselves to do.The elephant in the room is our...

In the shed of the Ping Pong Club, the former factory for ‘Werktuigen en Spoormaterieel’ - tools and railway equipment, is the home for the annual Wisselspoor Photo Competition. This year'...

Originally formed by Pixies’ Kim Deal and Throwing Muses’ Tanya Donelly, The Breeders are back in rumbling, restless style. Gaining worldwide recognition with their smashing, gummy hit sin...

The Late Frique Show, hosted by Arp Frique, is a late night talk show highlighting the music and artists you need to discover in order to grow and glow. The Dutch synth funkster making waves in the in...

Brazilian Funk goes beyond the sound we all know. The different layers that compose the culture enchant everyone who experiences the dance, the places and its surroundings in a constant game of unstop...

The Wire is an independent, monthly music magazine celebrating and interrogating the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past an...

In 1979, The Raincoats helped shape the timeless notion that punk is what you make it to be—an act of raw expression, not any one sound. Their anarchy was poetic. The group’s debut album &...

The Fire Harvest balances beautifully between slow core, country-noir and post-rock. They master the art of dosage, of giving substance to their music in the right way so that tension is preserved. Wh...

The tour if full. You can sign up for the waiting list via this form.Le Guess Who? and Triomf invited nine artists to present their work in the public space of Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2021....

London-based blues outsider Jonny Halifax summons swamp blues, cosmic jazz, and more for this year's consciousness-expanding 'Acid Blüüs Räägs : Vol. 1'. It might not be a coincide...

Two seemingly very different collections meet in Double Act: the monumental video installations by the American Kramlich family on the one hand, and the 17th-century paintings of Centraal Museum on th...

Originally from the forests of a mountainous region in East Bohemia in Czech Republic, Please The Trees is grounded in the psychedelic riffs and motorik beats of krautrock, striking out with mesmerizi...

In their four-decade career, The Ex have experimented with countless styles and ideas. They are revered by many of their guitar-wielding peers, notably Sonic Youth, Tortoise, and Steve Albini. But the...

Ever since Phil Elverum began releasing records as the Microphones and Mount Eerie, he has been continuously moving the goalpost of musical storytelling to new and exciting horizons. The Microphones&r...

The hurdy-gurdy is an instrument few play and less master, but Valentín Clastrier does. The French musician’s career started out eclectic, as he picked up on choral singing, the cornet, a...

In 2021, Kenyan sound artist Joseph Kamaru (KMRU) and French digital alchemist Niamké Désiré (Aho Ssan), were invited by Berlin Atonal to collaborate on a project for the festival...

Noori's musical journey began far before Ostinato Records scouted his mysterious band in late 2021. In the nineties, the then eighteen-year-old came across a guitar neck in Port Sudan. Forging it with...

Cirkel om de Haard is an initiative started by Avan Omar, Ali Authman and a group of Kurdish musicians – most of whom live in Overvecht. At this concert Ali Authman plays the violin and the viol...

The 22 year old producer, vocalist, and artistic director IGOR began behind a computer screen in his attic room at the farm, where the internet was his introduction to the outside world. The utopian f...

Dutch artist Marijke van Warmerdam spent an extended time in Rome from 2017. During this period she recorded the city in her typical way, resulting in a series of films in which the present, the past...

Straight / Wandering is a sound installation specially created by composer, sound artist, live performer and sound engineer Renato Fiorito, and architect and Post-Doc researcher Chiara Mazzarella, for...

Born and bred in the isolated, outstretched emptiness that's the Mojave desert, The Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez projects equally desolate imagery to voice his darkest fears. Each album peels away a...

Electronic explorer James Holden is not only a musician, he’s also a producer, remixer, and the founder of the Border Community label, where he releases the music of equally genre bending electr...

The Star Pillow is a drone/ambient moniker of Italian guitar impressionist Paolo Monti. Monti's craft is mainly informed by his research on the relation between sound, space and human emotion. On stag...

Do you know what total destruction sounds like? It’s sounds like MC/singer Miss Red, aka Sharon Stern, and producer The Bug, alias Kevin Martin, hitting the stage. The Bug’s monstrous, all...

Angel Bat Dawid’s first album ‘The Oracle’ provides a new radical benchmark for contemporary jazz music, capturing a unique mystique within its economical recording methods. Meditati...

Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver This heart-warming road movie, directed by Philippe Godeau, follows the titular protagonist, the 13-year-old Senegalese Yao, in his quest to meet his hero...

In cooperation with Gaudeamus Ivan Vukosavljević’s brand new work arms Ensemble Klang with an array of deconstructed electric guitars, the ensemble reborn as prepared/tabletop/eBow guitarists....

The cult album Faust IV was the fourth studio album released by the German krautrock group in 1973. Listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, where it is referred to as a "krautrock...

“It’s not about the stories you know, it’s about the stories you don't know.” Reports from Other Continents is a platform for people to tell their own story. After the overwhe...

Few contemporary rock bands inspire as much mystery as Swedish fusion group Goat. The collective boasts a ghostly presence on the music scene, preferring to move outside the public consciousness - to...

Grit is something Lisbon-based Maria Reis has in spades, which captured the attention of Animal Collective’s Panda Bear. After the success of Pega Monstro, the punk band created with sister J&ua...

Innovative hip hop artist Ido Hoogendoorn is working hard to become a pioneer in the next rap generation.  His style is intense, intriguing, melancholic and sometimes on the dark side. His lyrics...

It doesn't matter whether you are musical or not, everyone can make tones in the Sound Garden. One day they just started building an interactive music machine. They have one limitation: all instrument...

On the quays at De Nijverheid you will find the annually renewed open-air art exhibition KunstKoers. Prick up your ears as you wander along the art works, so you won’t miss out on composer and s...

At De Havenloods you’ll be able to visit an art exhibition made for the Le Guess Who? Education Program. The exhibition features work made by five classes from three high schools from Utrecht: X...

At last year's Le Guess Who?, British jazz stalwart Shabaka Hutchings performed with free jazz futurists The Comet Is Coming. This time around, Hutchings seeks out ghosts of the past with his South Af...

Alexander von Schlippenbach is the founder of the famous free jazz super-ensemble Globe Unity Orchestra, which at different points featured Peter Brötzmann, the late Jaki Liebezeit, Paul Rutherfo...

India-born, The Netherlands-based sitar player Surajit Das is a savant in the canon and exploration of Indian Classical Music, having studied under Kashinath Mukerjee and vocalist Chinmoy Lahere. Mast...

Alanis Obomsawin is a renowned filmmaker and visual artist. Before she released her album 'Bush Lady', which she will perform in full for the first time at our festival, she made Incident at Restigouc...

Islam Chipsy’s hyperactive keyboard mashing and drum duo EEK’s chaotic bliss rev up crowds into utter frenzy. This mighty Egyptian alliance is without question one of the most rowdy live a...

Renowned for her extraordinary vocal range, The Chicago Reader described Maja S. K. Ratkje as “one of the most astonishing singers on the planet.” Even more of an accomplishment when you t...

The Avonden is the brainchild of prolific Dutch musician and visual artist Marc van der Holst (ex-Hospital Bombers and Spilt Milk). Debut LP ‘Nachtschade’, issued on Subroutine Records, ta...

YĪN YĪN is a jam-packed romp of South East Asian psych pop, funk, disco grooves and electronic music. The project was conceived by Kees Berkers and Yves Lennertz, two familiar faces in the Maastricht...

Priscilla Telmon & Vincent Moon are a collaborating multidisciplinary artist duo working as independent filmmakers and sound-explorers. Together they produce ethnographic experimental films and mu...

Adrift somewhere in purgatory between Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt, the immense spacious beauty of Ed Dowie’s debut LP ‘The Uncle Sold’ can’t be overstated enough. Drawing insp...

Claron McFadden and Matthew Wright’s Thrift Hybrids exist halfway through sonic and visual domains; the project, presented by The Hague group Ensemble Klang, intends to bridge the gap between pa...

Berlin-based, Spanish-born musician Adrián de Alfonso has collaborated with names like Lydia Lunch, El Guincho and Le Guess Who? curator Lucrecia Dalt. However, it is on his own that...

Automatic is a fairly recent Stones Throw export, and the positive attention captured by their debut, 2019’s ‘Signals’, prove they are a successful gamble for the left-field label. T...

No one does softness - so gentle it brushes moving – like Ichiko Aoba. The Japanese singer has been a staple of the country’s acoustic folk scene since her debut ‘Kamisori Otome...

Juan Juan taught his girlfriend to play the drums to his own songs, which draw on the music of Devendra Banhart and The Velvet Underground. His debut album ‘New Mexico’, recorded on a four...

Take a tour around the Ulu Mosque in Lombok. This is one of the biggest mosques in the Netherlands, and possibly also one of the most striking ones. When your train pulls into Utrecht Central Station...

Lubomyr Melnyk doesn’t like being called a composer; ‘I don’t know what I am’, he says. But the seasoned Ukrainian pianist certainly brought something novel to the instrument,...

Oki Kano’s (A.K.A OKI)’s identity, as a part of Japan’s northernmost indigenous people, is central to his person and his art - as he says: ‘I might travel on a Japanese passpor...

Phoenix rap trio Injury Reserve’s momentum, fostered through their eponymous 2019 record, was put on hold in 2020 when rapper and member Stepa J. Groggs tragically passed away. In 2021, rapper R...

For a decade and a half, Mary Ocher has been weaving thought-provoking and often challenging art concerning authority, identity, and conflict. The artist's musical output encompasses everything from t...

Late last year, Dutch four-piece band PNEM unveiled the first chapter of a two-part homage to the systems that keep our day-night cycles in check, 'Circadian Rhythms'. This spring, the part krautrock,...

Coral City Flourotour documents the highly fluorescent corals living near the Coral City Camera site at PortMiami in Miami, Florida. These urban corals are not just survivors, but pioneers who have se...

Spain’s history can be heard in Lole Montoya’s voice. Uncontained by the categories of ‘singer’ or ‘cantaora’, she emotionally discharges her spirit with unseen cou...

Álvaro Romero is William Burroughs in the middle of a flamenco rave; Pedro da Linha is Lisbon’s well kept secret, bubbling beneath the city's cobblestones. Through their 2022 collaboratio...

Asmae Amaddaou shares her keen yet velvety soft observations and experiences from her book ‘De wereld is van ons’. For the book, the 20-year-old Gouda-based, Moroccan-born writer drew from...

The Utrecht based Onegg is a synthesizer collective led by twins Ewa and Marysia Saras, with band member Mariette Huls by their side. The band produces hauntological, synth based electronica. Melody a...

An instrumental post-rock project by English musician Pete Barnes. Having toyed with the idea of writing atmospheric instrumental music for a while, Barnes was left bedridden following a serious cycli...

It’s obvious why Caila Thompson-Hannant chose the moniker Mozart's Sister. Like that ersatz sibling, the Montreal musician has a swift ear for bubbly, uplifting melodies. In hyperkinetic and gle...

The Israel-born, Switzerland-based Omri Ziegele is a self-taught alt sax player, honing his skills in London and at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Ziegele has performed in theatre and with the cir...

Still the crudest, strangest and loudest band from Atlanta. On their eighth LP, the cheekily titled 'Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?', the band unrolled an 18-song epic revelling in Wall Of Sound grand...

New York musician/composer Lea Bertucci threads the needle between the physical and abstract. The soothing movements she creates with alto saxophone, electronics and bass clarinet interact with device...

“The Jimi Hendrix Of Africa” Sekou Kouyate is a renowned Kora-player, a free radical with one leg planted into the tradition of his homeland Guinea. The other travels out and about into mo...

As a transgender, Katey Red was one of the first openly gay artists within the masculine bounce hip hop-scene. Red became known for her rapid, machine gun-like beats and her explicit, gender fluid lyr...

We welcome 69-year-old Kadri Gopalnath, saxophone maestro and pioneer from India. Gopalnath’s life’s work is to incorporate the woodwind instrument into the classic South Indian Carnatic m...

Rock ‘n Roll revolutionary and punk veteran Ian Svenonius is back in town. The mythical performer, author, and filmmaker is currently taking the world by storm with his solo project Escape-Ism....

Fronted by Kenia-born musician Ajay Saggar, King Champion Sounds are an impetuous, eight-headed band from The Netherlands and England. Fronted by the inimitable G.W. Sok (former singer of the iconic D...

Yonatan Gat became known as a member of revolutionary Israeli punk band Monotonix, as well as an acclaimed recording artist. After powwow drum group the Eastern Medicine Singers initially turned down...

The Graindelavoix ensemble from Antwerp is notorious for their daring and alienating performances that embrace the imperfections of what it means to be human. Now, they presents the four-hour piece &l...

RVNG Intl. presents; dir. Misha Hollenbach & Johann Rashid ‘Sunshine Soup’ is a documentary about the making of the FRKWYS recording ‘We Know Each Other Somehow’ by Robert...

Cate Le Bon, Tim Presley & H. Hawkline present Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley form the musical duo DRINKS, but also practice other arts and crafts as a means to enter a different headspace. Together...

Curated by Shabaka Hutchings; dir. Marc Levin ‘SLAM’ is an 1998 independent film starring actor, screenwriter, noise poet and hip hop futurist Saul Williams. The film tells the story of R...

For eclectic London-based group The Heliocentrics, musical boundaries are invisible. This collective has the ability to fluently string together a broad spectrum of genres, including jazz, hip-hop, ps...

Since its inception a decade ago, King Midas Sound’s gloom-ridden transmutations of dub, lover’s rock and ambient music have made an unyielding impression. Producer Kevin Martin (The Bug)...

One famous sci-fi film once sported the tagline ‘in space no one can hear you scream’, but Prison Religion put that hypothesis to the test and then some. This Richmond, Virginia-based coll...

Xylouris White is firmly rooted in the past and future: a tight alliance between Greek musician and songwriter Georgios Xylouris and drummer Jim White. Xylouris White reconciles not only the tandem&rs...

Russian collective Shortparis is all about tension, friction and disruption, obscuring the boundaries between audiovisual theatre, techno raves and punk rock performance. Whether it’s shattering...

Presented by SPRING Performing Arts Festival Happiness explores the area where man and artificiality converge, where synthetic substances help us to re-humanise, maxi-humanise or, for a while, abando...

Jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements came together in the wake of the killing of Akai Gurley by a police officer in 2015. Their sonic poetry, which echoes not only black struggle but also black...

This avant-rock group's relationship with Le Guess Who? goes way back; the three-piece Montreal band has played the festival time and time again. This year, it only made sense to mark our return to fo...

On her new album ‘Acquainted with Night’, Lael Neale is looking to untangle the paradox that is the difficulty of thinking, speaking and singing simply. The Virginia-raised, LA-based artis...

Equipped with an unorthodox vision of a centuries-old tradition, singer, producer, NTS radio host and engineer Arushi Jain has made waves with her music, which re-imagines North Indian ragas with the...

Petersburg is one of the most mysterious and unique indie bands in the Netherlands. The band, formerly known as Petersburg Orderer and consisting of Camiel Muiser, Erik van de Paardt, Boris de Klerk (...

The Flare Quartet, with violinists from the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, was founded in 2020 by a group of master students from the Utrecht Conservatoire. They are joining the  Palestinian, Syr...

The Amsterdam-based, but born and raised in Incheon, Korea, Sun-Mi Hong has a unique perspective of life. With a signature of rooted groove in combination with well-tempered outbursts, Sun Mi has plac...

With their latest record ‘Oh Yeah?’, New York free-jazz quartet Sunwatchers released their most accessible & melodic work to date. Their aesthetic is best described through the acknowl...

Despite drawing inspiration from multiple musical lineages, Laurel Halo’s consistency has allowed her to form her own signature sound, recognizable to both long-time and short-time listeners. Th...

Although musician upsammy and multidisciplinary artist Sjoerd Martens’ A/V performance originated in the Netherlands, it reflects something profoundly universal. Meandering through digital and a...

When describing the cultural shapeshifter Kode9, there is no easy place to begin. A restless sound explorer, Steve Goodman has taken on many roles throughout his career. Not only is he the founder of...

Born to an artist and an architect, German musician and artist Lena Willikens was raised on art; even though she is Amsterdam-bound, her creative impulses have rendered her influence global. Be it pil...

As The Garbage Man, Liz Harris of Grouper DJ’s odd tunes and scavenged mash-ups of obscure pop, classical, noise, and field recording on vinyl and cassette. This year, she is cordially invited b...

Eco-friendly-Afro-futuristic-punk-assemble would only scrape the surface in describing this artist collective based in the Congolese capital city Kinshasa. In order to understand, one must immerse the...

The future is heard whenever DJ Travella steps into the booth. The nineteen-year-old producer, born Hamadi Hassani, has reinvented the high-speed Tanzanian dance music sound, singeli, by injecting int...

After having spent the past six years recording traditional music and soundscapes across Asia, Oceania, and Africa (as well as releasing them on his label Les Cartes Postales Sonores), Julien Hairon,...

The Amsterdam-based, but born and raised in Incheon, Korea, Sun-Mi Hong has a unique perspective of life. With a signature of rooted groove in combination with well-tempered outbursts, Sun Mi has plac...

‘To carry you from melancholia to utopia’ was how NPR described the effect of Asher Gamedze’s 2020 bandleader debut ‘Dialectic Soul’. Behind the drum set, the Cape Town c...

Cheikha Rabia and Esraa Warda both hail from Algeria, but today, they live in opposite corners of the world. Rabia, a renowned singer with over five decades of experience in keeping Bedouin vocal trad...

Cultural appropriation, misogyny, racism, post-colonialism, and political correctness are not usually themes heard on the dancefloor; but Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul rebel by inviting the...

Few have a bond as vital with Le Guess Who? as Irish psych master DJ Fitz. Only having missed the festival's very first edition in 2007, he has been a recurring presence at the event ever since. Thus,...

Lucas Kloosterboer plays the trombone, is a drummer and text performer, and has a degree in Dutch language. Others have described him as a 'freejazz-faun', 'iconoclast', 'slightly down in the mouth',...

Claudia C. ten Hoeve creates art for children aged 1 to 111. She playfully explores how everyone can make a difference in the world. For U? she wants to turn Ravenoord (at Rotsoord) into Hartenoord, a...

Freetekno: stories of a subculture from 1988 to 2022, is a documentary especially made for Le Guess Who? en U? by Utrecht-based photographer Juri Hiensch. To further explore autonomous spaces, there w...

Mabe Fratti’s second album, 2021’s ‘Será que ahora podremos entendernos’ (‘will we be able to understand each other now’) is an exploration of the challenges...

The breakdance and hip hop group Utrecht Connaisseurs Crew (UC Crew) was founded in early 2018. That same year, they won the first prize at the National Breakdance League. The crew consists of dancers...

Jamaican-American rapper, producer, and performer Ojay Morgan's alias Zebra Katz came through his thesis project - and morphed into a genre-defying extension of his interest in theater and cultural st...

Best known for his famous four-part masterwork ‘The Disintegration Loops’, William Basinski has been a vital figurehead in the New York art scene for over three decades. Starting his music...

South Korean outfit Jambinai performs a thrilling mix of post rock, noisy jazz, dreamy ambient, electro and metal. Their traditional rock instrumentation is given quite the upgrade with electronics, e...

Canadian artist Sarah Davachi's creates immersive soundscapes with a playful exchange between ancient acoustic instrumentation and analogue synths. Davachi is a real sonic thrill-seeker who enjoys pus...

You could describe Detroit’s Protomartyr as a post-punk outfit, but then again, the foursome could probably care less about what genre you stick to it. ‘A flaying intensity’ might be...

On one of her newer songs, Cut Connection, Jesca Hoop tries to reconcile a love with the words "be the drummer in my heart". The magnetic Hoop laces her distinct anti-folk with likewise playful lyrici...

Founder of the Moving Furniture label Sietse van Erve has been composing under his Orphax-moniker for the better part of the past two decades. Van Erve wields his minimalist music as a stream-of-consc...

‘’7: Triptychon - Dreamtime' is an interdisciplinary project: a combination of dance / performance, a three-dimensional art installation and a magical ritual that makes Nicole Beutler phas...

Jerusalem In My Heart invites friends from Beirut and Montreal to take over the decks to fill the night to the wee hours of the morning with some badass music. Dress sharp...

Justin 'KUTMAH' McNulty was born in Brighton, England to an Egyptian mother and Scottish father. After moving to the United States at twelve years old, KUTMAH ultimately made a name for himself as an...

The sensational Afro-psychedelic collective BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) started out as a social gathering in their native township of Soweto, South Africa. BCUC is an alliance of guitari...

Gregory Shorter Jr., also known as Ras_G, is an instrumental hip-hop producer, DJ and afrofuturist. Active in L.A.’s avant-garde beats scene since the early 2000’s and associated with the...

With her wistful, feathery voice as your guide, Shannon Lay channels the turmoil and fears of seeking out an unconventional life. Her 2017 album ‘Living Water’ was produced by The Cairo Ga...

Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1970 album, reissued by Super-Sonic Jazz this year, is a lush folk-jazz album in the vein of peers such as Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell. After a twenty year absence, th...

Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1970 album, reissued by Super-Sonic Jazz this year, is a lush folk-jazz album in the vein of peers such as Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell. After a twenty year absence, th...

Using the drums as his main outlet, Greg Fox is a multi-instrumentalist, interdisciplinary artist, and teacher based in New York. Attaching sensors to his acoustic drum kit, Fox triggers sequenced syn...

As former choir-boy suppressing his queer feelings, New York producer and songwriter Josiah White unleashes his true nature in the boundary-breaking project Serpentwithfeet. Creating an elaborating, e...

Manchester-based synth pop duo Virginia Wing fully embrace the perfect counterbalance of the considered and the superficial. Wrapped in catchy, playful synth tunes and upbeat drum loops, their latest...

While some records appeal to the brain’s immediate pleasure zones, other music trickles down the subconsciousness like a warm and alleviating light. Swedish duo Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet&rs...

British collective Seefeel straddled that chasm between experimental rock and ambient techno long before artists like Radiohead and Broadcast – and even later, Dirty Beaches and Caribou –...

Across decades, Neneh Cherry traversed and transcended every known faction of the music world; from bona fide pop stardom to the peripheries of punk rock, club music and jazz. Even more recently, Cher...

Formed in 1997, Endless Boogie is an American rock band who are living up to their own band name. They’re well known for their seemingly infinite, minimalist jams, onstage as well as on record....

Norwegian-born, Berlin-based artist Stíne Janvin has the special ability to morph and manipulate her vocals into beautiful sound abstractions, to the point even where you forget it’s a vo...

Music derived from Rastafarian sound system culture has known many incarnations over time, but Jah Shaka remains true to its spiritual roots and essence. He arrived as teenager from Jamaica in London...

French sound sculptor Félicia Atkinson once curiously speculated that “music always existed, even before humans appeared." She might be onto something: under her spell, a seemingly random...

After notable stints as Inga Copeland and Hype Williams (the latter with Dean Blunt), Alina Astrova once again brandishes her signature Baudelairean hybrid of pop and stripped-down tech...

Oorutaichi takes the word ‘fun’ into hyperdrive. This Japanese producer shakes the rules of techno, electro pop and sampling like a can of soda and lets things fly with contagious enthusia...

In the late 80’s, Doug Hream Blunt moonlighted music with a job at a care home in San Francisco. As a relative late bloomer at age 35, he started writing songs after attending a How To Start A B...

For a band whose name translates to “Trees, Grass and Stone”, obviously, these lionized Swedish innovators have upheld their utopian ideals both in ethos and sound since the early 70&rsquo...

Over the past decade, Mali rapper Master Soumy has been a key figure within the West-African nation’s youth movement. Along with his peers, Soumy’s sharp-witted lyrical mastery became the...

Whether it’s the early, more electronic-driven beginnings or excavating field recordings at an abandoned settlement in the Arctic Circle, these Danish pop adventurers express boundless enthusias...

The most riveting, template-shifting music often comes from a state of displacement or transience, and the Luxembourg-based, Cape Verde-born ensemble Grupo Pilon is certainly no exception. Founded by...

Presented by Centraal Museum Alles is Rond (All Is Round) was made in the city where Louis Andriessen and Madelon Hooykaas both grew up: Utrecht. Both artists have worked together before, but this is...

Mazaher are a small group of mostly women musicians and singers who play Zãr music: chanting songs and playing hypnotic polyrhythms used as a purification and exorcism ritual to help pacify and...

The past and the future wage a perpetual dialogue with one another and Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble could be considered a testament to that very notion. What started as Damon Locks proce...

Oren Ambarchi’s love for obscure and unexplored soundscapes has led him to join forces with fellow Le Guess Who? alumni, such as master experimenter Keiji Haino. This year, the man once named &l...

Much of John Dwyer’s curatorship for this year’s Le Guess Who? reflects his attraction for music that is as exciting as it is mad, loud and potentially deafening. All these attributes can...

Chicago-bred singer and producer KeiyaA may be a newcomer to R&B, her airy yet thoughtful 2020 debut, ‘Forever Ya Girl’ may very well be her ticket to being spoken in the same breath a...

Spirit Fest is the avant-pop supergroup we all fantasize about having by our bed-stand to sing us to sleep every night. Featuring members of The Notwist and Tenniscoats, this dream collective delivers...

French label Versatile Records prides itself on encouraging artists to stray far from the norm. ‘Jours De Grève’, helmed by French folk muse Emmanuelle Parrenin and German electroni...

After attending a workshop in deejaying and music producing by East African platform Femme Electronic, model Anita Kevin decided to try it herself. Watching her do her thing as DJ Turkana, we would be...

'Le Poème du Feu' is perhaps Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s most recognizable work. The ghostly symphonic piece, loosely based on the myth of Prometheus, even gave way to new music...

Does OSEES leader John Dwyer ever sleep? The prolific musician has added a new entry to his never-ending catalog this May - Bent Arcana’s sophomore effort, ‘Moon Drenched’, courtesy...

It is no wonder that this Spencer Clark project is inspired by eighties cult horror movies, such as ‘Hellraiser II’ and ‘Pin’. Every album released under Typhonian Highlife sou...

The guitar has always occupied a special place in Spanish music - namely in flamenco, where players often perform with complicated and acrobatic techniques. But Madrid-born Víctor Herrero rose...

University Challenged are Ajay Saggar (Bhajan Bhoy), Oli Heffernan (Ivan The Tolerable) and Kohhei Matsuda (Bo Ningen). The trio, which splits itself between the Netherlands and the UK, is also glorio...

Mónika Lakatos was the first ever Romani singer to win the popular Hungarian television talent show Ki Mit Tud? in 1996 - to which she was enrolled in without her knowledge! To this day, she co...

This fascinating collaboration marks the novel encounter between experimental Tuvan singer Sainkho Namtchylak and Belgian installation artist and filmmaker Jochem Baelus’ Slumberland. When...

Two full decades after their debut, punk group OvO sound just as hardcore as they did back then. Their latest record, 2020’s ‘Miasma’, sees the savage band seeking to represent...

On Zwangere Guy’s debut album ‘Wie is Guy?’, there is a swagger in his flow that displays confidence usually only found in rappers who have been around for a while. It is perhaps thi...

Made up from an ensemble cast of Finish rock musicians – with members hailing from bands like Speedtrap, Maailmanloppu, Perikato, and Kylmä Sota – Kohti Tuhoa is hailed as a...

Howart is operating in the psychedelica, kraut and noise pop realm. The project was founded by Anneke Nieuwdorp and has been her vehicle for experimenting, exciting art for the past ten years. The ban...

Insert Blank Records is very proud to present to you their very first real-life showcase event. The new record label worked hard to build a diverse and joyful organization that represents the exciteme...

Collective Stadwevers explores new grounds together with you to discover how we can experience the city in various and different ways. I Let’s Walk Make Sense / 12:15PM - 1:00PMGet to...

Le Guess Who? will host a special lunch at LOU Oudenoord. A place for conversation, reflection, relaxation and great food. Engage in talks with your fellow festival visitors about all the things you&r...

Artists community NoEsUnaGaleria NL is organising a program with live painting sessions and performance art by artists Ricardo Saga and Mario Gildardo from Mexico and Harmke Datema-Chang and Laur...

Location: TivoliVredenburg Ginta Tinte Vasermane studied audiovisual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. She works in the field of motion...

Location: Korte Minrebroederstraat AKMAR is a multidisciplinary artist working with a range of disciplines, from video and computer generated work to physical sculptures. Vanitas is about digital tra...

Today, Rotterdam's noise pop revisionists The Sweet Release Of Death make their much-anticipated return with third LP 'The Blissful Joy Of Living', out now via Subroutine Records. The album could be considered a playful counter-statement to their own name. Over the span of six songs, it offers an acute glimpse of a band mired in tota...

Rotterdam's beloved The Sweet Release of Death have announced their return with new album 'The Blissful Joy Of Living', out October 10th, via Subroutine Records. The album finds the band reaching for their core instincts, channeling the brimming energy of their live shows. You can now listen to new single 'Sick Girl', which is a...

Following the announcements of the curated programs by Fatoumata Diawara, Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed, Jenny Hval, Moon Duo, Patrick Higgins, and The Bug, we are now proud to reveal the full program for Le Guess Who? 2019. New additions include the premiere of AEAEA (Patrick Higgins & Nicolas Jaar), Aldous Harding, Deerh...

If there's one festival in The Netherlands that we feel a spiritual connection with, then surely it's Roadburn, who continue to challenge and rediscover themselves which each new edition. Now, Roadburn's main man Walter Hoeijmakers has collected some of his favorites from the Le Guess Who? 2019 line-up in a personal playlist for you to di...

*Update: Goat have now released their new album 'Oh Death'. Stream below: Goat announce the release of their upcoming album ‘Oh Death’ and share one of the tracks entitled ‘Under No Nation.’ A fascinating blend between 70s funk and 80s post-punk, ‘Under No Nation’ transports listeners to a colourful,...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, it's a song from Ghanaian Highlife legend Ebo Taylor. Over the last six decades, 81-year-old Ta...

'Altid Sammen' is the fifth album from Danish pop adventurers Efterklang, marking their first release in seven years. It's a record full of sonic experimentation, which the trio are known for, and examines the relationships that connect us from nature to death and much more in between.  'Altid Sammen', out now via 4AD, is the t...

EIGEN RISICO is a Groningen-based experimental art project that switches form- from one day to another without regards to genre whatsoever. Now, the group release 'Divine Intervention Ceremony' the first single from their new mixtape that will be released soon. The track was produced by EIGEN RISICO & Gerrie Hendrix and is released by...

A classical singer. A multi-instrumentalist. A transgender artist. An experimental pioneer of electronic music. A children’s show composer and actor. A Buddhist practitioner. A psychotherapy co-...

For their upcoming tour, Rotterdam-based band Lewsberg has put together a unique, extremely limited cassette tape 'Sweets', featuring two new indie pop gems. To accompany the catchy 'Sweets' song, Lewsberg also pieced together a sweet, captivating DIY video that's assured to lift you up.  While the track 'The Playground' offers list...

Mount Eerie has announced the release of '(after)', a new live album recorded live at Le Guess Who? 2017. The performance was curated by Perfume Genius for the festival, and took place at the Jacobike...

This November, Le Guess Who? will feature a rare performance (their first European show in over 15 years) of Egypt’s Mazaher: a small group of mostly women musicians and singers who play Zar music: chanting songs and playing hypnotic polyrhythms used in a ceremonial event to cleanse the spirits and to clear away illness and discomfo...

Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled 'For the Record', exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.

In this new series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.

Today, Tropical Fuck Storm release their new album 'Braindrops' through Joyful Noise. It is the sophomore full length LP from the Australian band featuring Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, formerly of The Drones. If you appreciate the combination of chaotic guitars, grooving bass lines and fickle drum patterns, you are in for...

Mount Eerie has released his new live album '(after)', which was recorded in full at Le Guess Who? 2017. The performance was curated by Perfume Genius for the festival, and took place at the Jaco...

The Irish first class agit-rock outfit Girl Band and the extraordinarily abrasive yet undeniably catchy Australian psychpunkers of Tropical Fuck Storm will join Le Guess Who? 2019 in November. Girl Band also just announced their new album ‘The Talkies’; listen to the first track from the album below. Girl Band Prep...

Recently, Danish pop adventurers Efterklang released their fifth studio album 'Altid Sammen'. The day after the release, they debuted the record live in its entirety at the iconic Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg during this year’s Reeperbahn Festival. The trio was joined on stage by Øyunn on drums,...

In the mood for some sweet, melancholia-filled folk music? In that case, you should definitely give Valley Maker - aka Austin Crane - a spin. Today, he released his second full-length a...

Following our initial line-up announcement in May, we're now pleased to reveal the full curated programs by Fatoumata Diawara and Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed for the festival, as well as new additions for Moon Duo, Patrick Higgins, and The Bug curations. We're also announcing Príncipe Discos and Spazio Disponibil...

Six years after the release of his last album, avant-pop maestro John Maus finally returns. He now announces his new album 'Screen Memories', to be released 17 October via Ribbon. A first taste is giv...

Under the moniker of Dedekind Cut, Fred Warmsley occupies that sweet spot between contemporary hip hop and Brian Eno’s ambient experimentations. The Sacramento native just released his new...

Norwegian singer, producer, novel writer and Le Guess Who? 2019 curator Jenny Hval has released a new song called 'High Alice'. It is taken from her upcoming album 'The Practice of Love', which will be released in September. In a statement accompanying the release of the song, Hval says that 'High Alice' felt like the narra...

Under the name Nivhek, Liz Harris (Grouper) recently released double album ‘After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house’, consisting of opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes, and broken FX pedals. It ranks among Harris’ most stark, primordial work: fragile, feverish, ominous, an...

The musical trademark of Danish trio Efterklang is a tapestry of acoustic and electronic elements. The group will release their new album 'Altid Sammen' on September 20th via 4AD; now, they share the third single from the album, titled 'Uden Ansigt'. 'Altid Sammen's songs are about belief and togetherness,' frontman Casper Clausen s...

Ahead of Le Guess Who? 2021, Turkey's Bant Mag. hosted a Zoom chat between irreverent saxophonist and LGW21 curator Matana Roberts and LGW18 curator and musician/activist Moor Mother. During their conversation, the artists talk about new ways to reinvent and produce music during the pandemic, the music industry and Black Lives...

Located inside a shipping container and overlooking the river Thames, FACT Magazine paid the studio of producer, DJ and Death in Vegas-founder Richard Fearless a visit. In this video, Fearle...

Last year, Australia's Tropical Fuck Storm (with Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, formerly of The Drones) released their debut album 'A Laughing Death in Meatspace': nine seething and addictive tracks and subsequently, a live show which saw the band being described as "a force of nature". Now, the group is already gearin...

Ahead of his performance at Le Guess Who?, shamanic painter Joe Coleman gives us a glimpse into his immersive work process. “Computers are very odd to me,” Brooklyn-based painter and perf...

Le Guess Who? 2019 is almost upon us! There is an abundance of performances and activities happening this week, so we can imagine that some acts or activities may have slipped through the cracks. Therefore, we've selected 10 things you might not have discovered (yet) in the LGW19 program.  1. Three-day Film Festival at Springha...

This year's Le Guess Who? features a project which is like nothing we ever brought to you before. Choreographer Nicole Beutler directed '7: Triple Moon': an interdisciplinary project with a combinatio...

Last week, the mastermind behind Death in Vegas Richard Fearless returned to the NTS studio to deliver a relaxing live set filled with dub, reggae and roots. Listen to the one-hour set below...

DRINKS are set to return to Le Guess Who? with a fresh batch of offbeat psych pop vignettes. We linked up with eternal nomads Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley via FaceTime to talk about living off the grid...

Dive deep into the mystical trails and the long, weary road that made Vashti Bunyan's career even more mythical. After a hiatus lasting over thirty years, her musical career finally got back on t...

With roots in both Venezuela and L.A., Devendra Banhart has been making highly singular music for a long time. Over the decades, he has shown us that he is an eclectic artist capable of both reinventi...

Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, visual artist and record label owner John Dwyer was one of the curators for Le Guess Who? 2021, presenting his personal program with inspirations and fellow like-minded artists. As part of the curation, Dwyer also performed twice himself on the final day of the festival: first with jam-loving c...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, it's 'Corner Shops' by Tim Presley (White Fence) and Cate Le Bon, who together form the pleasan...

Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we dive into Cüneyt Sepetçi's rowdy take on Turkish gypsy music. Hailing from the dist...

After recently covering each other's music, Devendra Banhart and Joan Of Arc's Tim Kinsella now discuss Kinsella's novels, Banhart's poems that originated while ashram-hopping in India, spir...

Welsh musician, composer, producer and author Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) was one of the artists to give a surprise performance at Le Guess Who? 2017. It was an an intimate solo show which t...

Besides lending her bow and fingers to a vast number of musicians and bands (including Nirvana) over the years, Lori Goldston has created a name for herself with her varied solo discography, in which she replicates her influences, from folk to jazz. Now, the experimental cello player and composer collaborates with Earth's Dylan Carls...

Every year in our visitors survey right after the festival, we ask you what your favorite performance of the festival. Below are your 17 choices of Le Guess Who? 2017. We're pleased to also share the...

We're very pleased to present you the curators and initial line-up for Le Guess Who? 2018. A gentle reminder: current 4-Day Festival Passes are available until Thursday, 7 June, and will increa...

U? is Le Guess Who’s participatory and freely accessible day program, made for–and with–the city of Utrecht. With U?, Le Guess Who? extends its mission to enrich people through music and culture even further to the city. From 10 to 13 November 2022, U? returns for its second edition.

This year, even more neighborhoods are taking part in the U? program. Aside from the city center, Lombok, 2e Daalsebuurt, Werkspoorkwartier, Transwijk and Cartesius, U? will expand to Overvecht and Wittevrouwen. The programs are made with, or even entirely by, Utrecht residents, local initiatives, entrepreneurs, social institutions and neighborhood centers. Residents and local initiatives were invited to participate by means of an open call, which resulted in a large amount of diverse and exciting submissions.

This year, LGW is collaborating with IDFA, one of the world's leading documentary events. IDFA believes in the power of documentary film as a high-quality, artistic form of information and reflection. We’re presenting a film program on Friday, Saturday & Sunday during LGW22. This program is screened at Slachtstraat Filmtheater...

Le Guess Who? 2021 will see the festival joining forces with the esteemed Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1945. It's not the first time we're collaborating though: in 2017, the orchestra performed Lili Boulanger's towering 'Du Fond De L'Abîme' at our festival. This year, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra will honor...

In 2018, Portuguese platform Canal180 traveled to Utrecht to capture a film about Le Guess Who? and the city of Utrecht. Titled 'Representing the Underrepresented', it reveals the story and ideology behind festival and is available to watch online for your home-viewing. The film touches on subjects like presenting mus...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we pick Ancient Shapes, a new project fronted by songwriter Daniel Romano. Always having been a...

2017 marks our biggest Drone yet, as our series also expands to Salford, UK, and Malmö, Sweden. An immersive event and all-encompassing experience, 24-Hour Drone is a roving, international serie...

During Le Guess Who? 2018, the Portuguese platform Canal180 traveled to Utrecht to capture a film in collaboration with the festival. Titled 'Representing the Underrepresented', it reveals the story and ideology behind Le Guess Who? and, following its March 29 premiere at MIL Festival in Lisbon, the film is now available to watch online....

Philly-based noise artist, activist and wordsmith Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) returns to Le Guess Who? for the third consecutive year. After being curated by Jerusalem In My Heart (2017), and being a festival curator herself (2018), she now teams up with ZONAL, the project of Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Goldflesh, Napalm Death) and Kevin M...

As part of Perfume Genius's curated program, Mike Hadreas has invited Canadian singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara to Le Guess Who? 2017 for a very rare live appearance. Besides Per...

Starting out with the intention to "make horrible noise" as their first concept, Petbrick, the duo of Wayne Adams (Big Lad/Death Pedals/Johnny Broke) and Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulwax/Mixhell) have now arrived at a destination where they combine electronic experimentation, hardcore attitude, dystopian dread and in-the-red de...

Le Mini Who? is a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?. It transforms many of Utrecht’s shops and bars into improvised venues for (mainly) Dutch underground bands to play, where people jostle for...

We regret to inform you that Oumou Sangaré has to cancel her performance at Le Guess Who? 2017. But we’re also pleased to announce that Sun Ra Arkestra will grace our line-up instead, bri...

Working from her base in Philadelphia, Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother, has taken a wide range of influences and distilled them into an essential, idiosyncratic sound best evidenced on last year’s...

Daniel Romano's frantic power pop project Ancient Shapes will release the follow up last year's self-titled album on 5 October via You've Changed Records. Entitled 'Silent Rave', the album was pr...

Following the release of 'Field Recordings in the forest of Colombia' last year, experimental producers and sound artists Lucrecia Dalt & Aaron Dilloway now release their new collaborative album called 'Lucy & Aaron'. The duo met each other 10 years ago at a festival and have been fans of each other ever since. 'Lucy &a...

Japanese 10-piece ensemble Minyo Crusaders gave a glorious and life-affirming performance at Le Guess Who? 2019 as part of their first ever European tour, following the release of their debut album 'Echoes of Japan. Now, Mais Um Discos release the recordings of the performance as digital album, available to stream or download. ...

For a very special, one-time performance at Le Guess Who? 2018, Circuit des Yeux's Haley Fohr enlisted an eight-piece ensemble featuring members of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. With this performance, Fohr further expanded the captivating compositions of her latest, acclaimed album ‘Reaching for Indigo’, which c...

Ever since the release of their debut album 'World Music' in 2012, Swedish psych/fusion group Goat remain a mystery and ghostly presence on the music scene. However, shortly after the release of the album, public and critical praise quickly caught up with them, with Happy Mag naming the record one of the greatest psychedelic rock albums o...

Today, psych/kraut mystics and Le Guess Who? 2019 curators Moon Duo release their new album 'Stars Are The Light' via Sacred Bones. Taking disco as its groove-oriented departure point, the album shimmers with elements of ’70s funk and ’90s rave. 'Stars Are The Light' is one large hallucinogenic, repetitive trip,...

West Coast-based hip-hop trio clipping. have refined their horror-inspired sound through multiple acclaimed releases over the years. In November, they will not only take the stage at Le Guess Who?, but they have also put together a personal and eclectic program for the festival ranging from rap to noise, from footwork to doom. ...

Even after thirty years of pioneering the grunge movement, the Seattle icons of Mudhoney still got enough fire left in them; a big, raging wildfire, in fact. Mudhoney's 10th studio album 'Digital Garb...

Having fled from the fundamentalists in their home country of Sudan, the original members of psychedelic group The Scorpios established themselves in London during the 80s. After releasing their self-...

Using South East Asian music from the 60s and 70s as their main inspiration, Dutch psych/funk group YĪN YĪN combines these influences with disco, funk, and electronic music for a blend that they like to call "Thaichedelic". After two remarkable singles released through Bongo Joe Records, they now announce their new album 'T...

More than two decades after Lightning Bolt's acclaimed self-titled LP, they still know how to pulverize and pummel listeners into submission with their deafening interpretation of noise rock music. Today, the Rhode Islanders release their seventh LP 'Sonic Citadel' via Thrill Jockey. Bassist Brian Gibson and drummer/vocalist Bri...

Earth Girl Helen Brown Center For Planetary Intelligence Band (or E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B) is an inclusive, expansive, non-discriminatory communicative platform with a primary objective of directing and energy and capital toward organizations and causes committed to longevity, peace, popular intelligence, responsib...

Catalan vocal duo Tarta Relena have released a new song called 'Las alamedas'; the first single of their new upcoming album 'Fiat Lux', with a release date for the album to be announced later. 'Las alamedas' was based on a poem by Spanish poet, writer, theater director and one of the key figures of the 20th-century Spanish lite...

Richmond, Virginia-based collage-rap/noise duo Prison Religion show that the heaviest of music is often-times economical and raw in its execution. Following the release of their 2018 EP 'O Fucc Im On The Wrong Planet', the group is set to release their new album 'BEACHHEAD' in July. The new album is characterized by "an avant-club me...

In the mid-1960s, Art Ensemble of Chicago sprung from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Ever since, they have been celebrated as one of the most remarkable free ja...

Jerusalem In My Heart is an audio-visual happening with roots in both Montréal and Beirut, combining the best of both worlds. Figurehead Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has been nursing the craft of...

Filled with whimsical forays into glossed up afro-funk, psychedelic disco and sprawling electronics, New Zealand's Orchestra Of Spheres have released their new, bewildering album 'Mirror' via Fire Records. Opening with the almost-ten-minute-long title track, their album is a mainly instrumental exploration of energies and atmospheres...

In March 2018, Shabaka Hutchings and his comrades of Sons of Kemet released their new LP ‘Your Queen Is A Reptile’ on the prestigious Impulse! label, known for jazz greats like John Coltra...

Tunisian singer-songwriter and producer Emel Mathlouthi combines the vibrant sounds of psychedelic folk with heavy electronics and atmospheric melodies. Following the release of her album 'Ensen' last...

The Brother Moves On is the captivating South-African performance art ensemble from Johannesburg, famous for the way the artists masterfully draw from past, present and future within music. Now, the group releases an uplifting and inspirational new album entitled '$/He Who Feeds You…Owns You' via Shabaka Hutchings' Native Rebel Rec...

Flore Laurentienne announces the release of his new album 'Volume II' and shares the first single 'Navigation IV'. With this single, the composer reveals the mood and concept of the new album. Flore Laurentienne is the project of Canada-based composer Mathieu David Gagnon. His score-like string compositions meet analog synthesizers in an...

Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul are a Belgium-based duo famous for exploring topics such as cultural appropriation, racism and post-colonialism through their music. They prove themselves to be rare tale-tellers in electronic music, funneling the zeitgeist into playful synth concoctions.  Now, the duo release a new kaleido...

Oiseaux-Tempête gave an overwhelming and immersive performance at Le Guess Who? 2019. For Bandcamp Friday, the cross-cultural, multi-genre improv group now officially release the recordings of Oiseaux-Tempête & Friends live at Le Guess Who? 2019.  For this special performance, titled Oiseaux-Tempête & Frien...

Chicago's Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble have released a new song from their upcoming album 'NOW', to be released on April 9th. With a mix of pulsing trumpet sounds, 'Keep Your Mind Free' originated from the reflection that Covid-19 has different outcomes for each group of society, especially for people in prison...

Following the release of their track 'An Episode' last month, UK post-punk outfit Italia 90 now share new song 'Road To Hell' from their upcoming EP 'Italia 90 III', to be released on Friday, 15 November. 'Road To Hell' shines more light on the brutalist tendencies of the "EP III" package: galloping bass and manic guitar li...

With 2020 - finally - coming to an end, John Dwyer's Osees manage to squeeze in one more release: 'Panther Rotate' is a remix version of their album 'Protean Threat', which was released in September. The album is out today; stream it below. KEXP offer an exclusive interview with John Dwyer, in which he talks about Osees’s insp...

Bristol-based group Tara Clerkin Trio have announced the new EP 'In Spring', to be released October 1st. It is the second release by the experimental trio that draws from jazz, folk, modern composition, trip hop and downtempo electronica, yet evading all of those categorisations. The EP's title track was released alre...

Daniel Romano has always been a free and restless spirit, as well as a gifted and masterful musician. His new brainchild is Ancient Shapes: a fast and rebellious punk poetry outfit. Now, the...

K Á R Y Y N is a producer, composer and vocalist who makes textured and emotional music, counting Björk among her admirers. Now, she shares the third installment of her 'QUANA'-series: a t...

*Update: Personal Trainer have released their debut album 'Big Love Blanket' in full, listen below: Big Love Blanket by Personal Trainer Just a week before Le Guess Who? 2022, Personal Trainer will release their debut album 'Big Love Blanket'. It's as euphoric, energetic and colorful as the band itself is, and to whet your appetite, the...

The enigmatic seven-piece band Black Country, New Road have released their long anticipated debut album 'For the first time'. It was recorded with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine) and is released via Ninja Tune. In anticipation of the album release, The Quietus spoke to four of the members about what really...

Girl Band will release their sophomore album, 'The Talkies' on 27 September via Rough Trade. The Irish post-punk group already shared 'Shoulderblades' and 'Going Norway' from the record, now they are back with new track 'Salmon Of Knowledge'. The track is named after a creature from Irish mythology, and was once in the running for the tit...

The Bug (Kevin Martin) and Burial (William Bevan) have once again teamed up. Their new two-track EP 'Dive/ Rain' was released under the moniker Flame 2. 'Dive/Rain' is The Bug and Burial's second joint release, following last year's 'Fog/Shrine' (Flame 1). You can listen to 'Dive/ Rain' below. Dive / Rain by Flame 2 "Flame 2 sees the ve...

Earlier this year, Cate Le Bon collaborated with Deerhunter to produce their new album, 'Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'. Now, their collaboration continues, with Cate Le Bon & Deerhunter's Bradford Cox uniting on a new collaborative EP 'Myths 004', to be released via Mexican Summer on November 1st. Fo...

With their last record 'Love and Hate in a Different Time', released earlier this year, neo-soul sensation Gabriels seek to address hate, hardship and war, but most of all how to push through. The album received praise from the likes of Elton John, Gilles Peterson, and Virgil Abloh. The group, featuring vocalist Jacob Lusk ...

Model Home is a hip-hop formation from Washington D.C. Instigated by rapper NAPPYNAPPA and producer Pat Cain, the duo is known for their experiments in liberated sound. On November 5th, the group will release their new album 'both feet en th infinite' via Don Giovanni Records.  Completed in just two days and designed with live perfo...

Gustaf are New York's 'hardest working…and most reliably fun bands' according to BrooklynVegan. Now the five-piece announce their new album 'Audio Drag For Ego Slobs', out October 1st via Royal Mountain Records. As a result of their magnetic live show, the band caught the attention of a.o. Beck (who had the band open...

Chicago-based songwriter and guitarist Ryley Walker and Japanese psych-rockers Kikagaku Moyo gave a special collaborative performance at Le Guess Who? 2018. Now, the artists release the recordings of that show called ‘Deep Fried Grandeur’; two lengthy, kaleidoscopic jams featuring a revolving cast of folk jazz, acid rock, and...

ZONAL, aka Kevin Martin (The Bug) and Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, JK Flesh) release their first single 'System Error', featuring vocals by Moor Mother. The track is taken from their upcoming debut album 'Wrecked', which will be released on 25 October via Relapse Records. Besides 'System Error' the album contains several collaborations wit...

Pan-Asian group TENGGER's ‘new age drone magic’ sees them adding flourishes of harmonium, drum machine and vocal improvisation to the drone/ambient genre. Following the premiere of their new album earlier this week via The Fader, the band now release 'Spiritual 2' officially: seven tracks deeply inspir...