Lineup
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...
Lebanese-born producer and DJ Rabih Beaini (formerly known as Morphosis) specializes in grainy, imaginative analogue techno. A range of influences—improvisational jazz, krautrock, new wave, elec...
BAK presents
Maria Hlavajova, general and artistic director of BAK, basis voor contemporary art, has been interested in exploring what she calls “the art in the otherwise”. Committed to a...
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Besides being a member of The Mauskovic Dance Band, Amsterdam-based Donald ‘Donny’ Madjid is also a drum-machine-wielding story-teller, whose debut album ‘Pure Donzin’, takes i...
Hailing from Jogjakarta, Senyawa pushes traditional Indonesian music and experimental music far, far beyond their accustomed boundaries, resulting in a thrilling blend of their cultural heritage, avan...
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...
There is something odd, but at the same time staggeringly honest, about Klein’s music. Her tracks sound delightfully disheveled - ghostly R&B tracks not meant for the world to listen to. It&...
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...
Dutch multi-instrumentalist and psych pop traveler Jacco Gardner will be heading back to Le Guess Who? this year, where he premieres the ‘Somnium’ experience. This will also be the live de...
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...
Movement alters sounds, sounds alter movement, this is what Pablo Molina and Vincent Schoutsen envision behind their collaboration, Sound in Motion. They are shaping each other's realities via a micro...
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...
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...
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...
Efterklang singer Casper Clausen presents his (yet to be released) solo music, made up in a small studio by the river in Cacilhas (Lisbon). With songwriting still in progress, Casper has only played s...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
Weyes Blood's West Coast folk reverie can be as sensitive as surreal. Multi-instrumentalist and singer Natalie Mering’s inspirations range from Harry Nilsson’s pop majesty to Wolf Eyes&rsq...
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...
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...
Muddersten's ambient soundscapes make you feel like you're part of one of an archaic sci-fi flick: gyrating drones, white noise and dissonant tones orbit the brain like satellites and spaceships. The...
Many questions arise when listening to K Records’ Old Time Relijun. Is it for real? Is it ironic? When leading man Arrington de Dionyso channels his best David Byrne impression under a cacophoni...
At De Voorkamer you can learn the Syrian folk dance Dabke. Amer, who will be the teacher, is a health and food enthusiast, a body builder whose message is that everyone should stay fit and healthy wit...
Luc Bersier, Low Bat, Leonard Prochazka and Ariel Garcia may all hail from different places in Western Europe, but the Jean-Luc project drew them together to make several vibrant EPs – each...
Collaboratorium
At this year’s Le Guess Who?, drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Ben Frost, Ex Eye) will be the festival’s whimsical X-factor. One of the artists he will court is composer and for...
Besides being a captivating composer, violinist, and vocalist, Jessica Moss is also a skillful story-teller. Listening to her first solo ventures, one is immediately transported into the icy Montreal...
Berlin-based, Argentina-born noiseniks Mueran Humanos enlisted Carmen Burguess to direct a companion film for their last LP ‘Hospital Lullabies’, which will be screened before the group&rs...
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...
Another one of Knekelhuis’ exports, Patricia Kokett’s unique outlook on leftfield electronic music is in line with the Amsterdam label’s daring roster. With his 2020 debut ‘Biz...
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....
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...
If you’re on the lookout for a perfect description of Japanese duo Tenniscoats, look no further than Swedish soundscape artist Tape’s assessment: 'they literally play themselves to sleep'....
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...
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...
Brooklyn born and bred experimentalist L’Rain’s music can’t be put on just as background noise; it urges the most attention. This is because this ambitious multi-instrumentalist is l...
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...
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...
As hard as it may be to pigeonhole certain acts to a determinate category or adjective, perhaps this mission is never as hard as when trying to pin down what kind of music you can expect from a Marcel...
Girls In Synthesis is a London-based post-punk and noise rock band, that has been releasing records for 4 years and counting. With their DIY mentality they’re not afraid to experiment. Be prepar...
When you picture a professional cello player, you would be hard-pressed to imagine them on stage next to a screeching, guitar-smashing Nirvana. But that is just how wide Lori Goldston has cast her net...
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...
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...
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...
Rapper and producer Pink Siifu’s mercurial talent for intersecting styles and culture can be compared to the manifestation of a tropical storm: an unchecked force of nature that hoovers up every...
Pair Ronald Langestraat, the Dutch legend who – to quote Bandcamp’s Marcus J. Moore – “took Jazz to Outer Space” with oddball pop wonder Tim Koh – one of Ariel Pink...
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?, 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...
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...
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...
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...
Matana Roberts and Jessica Moss have been close friends and collaborators for nearly two decades. Though they have pursued different career paths, they have remained linked at heart. Because they've r...
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...
On their self-titled debut EP, released in 2019, Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio capture a unique mood through their breed of smoky jazz, chamber-pop, trip-pop, and sometimes pure experimentalism. T...
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...
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...
‘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...
For this performance, song and dance collide in a partnership between producer Rian Treanor and video artist Leila Ziu. ‘Altered States on the Dancefloor’ sees director Ziu opening doorway...
Before coming together more recently, Eddie Chacon and John Carroll Kirby may have seemed completely different characters in music. Chacon had experienced proper fame in the mid-nineties, as part of t...
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...
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...
De Schuurman’s 2021 release – ‘Bubbling Inside’, a collaboration between Kampala-based label Nyege Nyege Tapes and Rotterdam’s platform Pantropical – centers around...
‘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...
‘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...
King Hannah are Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle, a dynamic, creative duo hailing from Liverpool. “If we hadn’t found each other, we don’t know where we would be”, says Craig o...
During Le Guess Who?, Stranded FM will be hosting radioshows by renowned festival artists and gems from the Utrecht scene alike from their studio. Situated in print-studio Kapitaal, this com...
Have a look inside one of Utrecht’s biggest creative hubs. At Vechtclub Market a large number of entrepreneurs from Vechtclub XL will be showcasing their work. From ceramics and illustrations to...
This event will hit you just as hard in the face as the rest of our program. No, you don’t have to step into the ring yourself, but you will be able to marvel at several intense boxing-matches a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
[ 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...
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...
Esperanza Denswil’s alter-ego Pink Oculus began as an exercise to self-love. Since her vibrant 2013 breakthrough, the Dutch-Surinamese artist has risen to quick acclaim, thanks to her standout l...
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...
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...
Are you ready for music from Afghanistan? Ghafar Amini is known within the Afghan community in the Netherlands and plays well-known Afghan songs. Along with the music, you will be able to fully experi...
Inkhorn Controversy is a band from Utrecht that plays both Dutch and English alternative pop rock. Their sound is Britpop/Postpunk-like with some Progrock influences. With theiridiosyncratic texts the...
“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...
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...
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...
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&...
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...
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...
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...
Senegalese house producer Stephen “Ibaaku” Bassene’s dazzling debut ‘Alien Cartoon’ was originally meant to be the soundtrack of a sci-fi fashion show created by fellow c...
Indeed, the voice of Suuns has plenty more junk in his trunk. Ben Shemie’s fascination with classical music, radio art, new technologies and the free-form experimentalism of labels like Warp Rec...
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...
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...
12-Hour Drone artist Martijn Comes composition 'Eann' will be performed by Malgosia Fiebig on the Dom church carillon. He wrote it for his son, exploring themes like family, roots, saying go...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The multitalented British-Ghanaian Kojey Radical is an ever-evolving artist. Performing a sensational balancing act between UK grime, hip hop and alternative rap, this 25 year old poet-turned-rapper i...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Clarinet master Cüneyt Sepetçi and his Orchestra Dolapdere are among the greatest musicians Turkey has ever produced. Not just adept at blasting out Turkish gypsy music with firecracker fe...
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...
His impressive body of work includes stints as "dub poet", political orator, recording artist and author/journalist. His 1978 reggae album ‘Dread Beat an' Blood’ is a statement akin to Gil...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Alanis Obomsawin received worldwide acclaim as a filmmaker and visual artist. Her work is binded by crusading for the rights and well being of indigenous populations while simultaneously celebrating t...
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...
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...
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...
Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer/percussionist Han Bennink will forever be linked by Brötzmann’s 1968 fearsome album ‘Machine Gun’. Since then, both musicians have f...
Julianna Barwick’s neoclassical/ambient compositions revel in the art of reverb, a crystalline pollination of tiny sonic particles into soothing bundles that fill up entire rooms. Having such a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
UK-based musical collective Ex-Easter Island Head incorporates multiple prepared electric guitars struck with percussion mallets, creating music that explores group interplay, repetition and melodic i...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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 &...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Those familiar with acquainted acts like Meridian Brothers and Romperayo already how deliciously fun, kooky and strangely sophisticated Los Pirañas are on stage. But, to spell it out for the ye...
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...
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...
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...
Mélissa Laveaux’s most recent album ‘Radyo Siwèl’ reclaims the Ottawa-born, Paris-based songwriter’s Haitian roots with a collection of native folk spirituals. Th...
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...
Great pop songs with magic sprinkles of Eastern soundtracks, Spaghetti Western’s spacious twang and some grooving yé-yé sounds, that’s Khana Bierbood in a nutshell. Not surpr...
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...
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...
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...
Before TivoliVredenburg opened in 2014, Le Guess Who? had its headquarters at beloved pop venue Tivoli Oudegracht. This year, we are happy to return to our roots with a very special project: Collabora...
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 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...
Art Feynman is a musician and recording artist based in California. Rooted in the world’s oldest religion ‘Animism’, which asserts that all things living and inert are endowed with s...
Experimental electronic music doesn’t always have to be dark and twisted, such proves Moscow-based producer Kate NV. Normally, she’s a guitar-wielding post-punker and performer within Mosc...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Painting, dancing, baking, and a degree in neuroscience for good measure; Madeline Kenney is good at a lot of things. One of those things also happens to be music; more specifically, writing and produ...
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...
Montreal-based singer-songwriter and producer Michael Rault executes his fine-polished rock and roll perfectly, shining with swooning guitars, gorgeous vocal harmonies and a steady groove. Despite Rau...
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...
Raised in North Carolina as the daughter of two devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, Kelsey Lu moved to New York at the age of 18 to study cello. Her debut EP ‘Church’ - which gained acclaim...
With his self-taught piano improvisations and stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach, Lonnie Holley is a storyteller of the highest order. Apart from being an acclaimed visual artist, Holley also cr...
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...
So what do inventive New York-based sound wizard Sarah Hennies and avant-folk/electronic artist Jessica Sligter have in common? Well, they’re both reality-augmenters: Hennies can use any space t...
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...
Armed with a twenty-two stringed Kora (a West African cross between lute, bridge and harp), troubadour Sourakata Koite uses this traditional instrument to interpret his Senegalese roots. Moving to Par...
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...
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...
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The Netherlands
3FM: "3voor12 is op Le Guess Who?, waar basketballen tegen aan het plafond geschroefde gitaren worden gegooid"3voor12: "Eerste 67 namen voor Le Guess Who? 2017" &n...
The Netherlands
3FM: Eva Koreman nieuwe presentator 3voor12 radio 3FM: Le Guess Who? 2018: Ralph-Herman snapt niet wat Colin Stetson doet3FM: Timo op Le Guess Who: van gevoelige liedjes in een kerk t...
“With the able steer of festival curators Jenny Hval, Moon Duo, Fatoumata Diawara, and Iris Van Herpen, this year’s boundary-crossing festival Le Guess Who?? welcomed visitors from over...
Version March 2021
Since the 2018 implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Le Guess Who Foundation (hereafter referred to as LGW) is obligated to outline what personal...
The Netherlands
3voor12: Dit zijn de vijftig belangrijkste festivals van Nederland3voor12: Le Guess Who? slaat 2020 over3voor12: Beverly Glenn-Copeland blijft onverstoorbaar hoopvol3voor1...
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ENTRANCE: Le Guess Who? is only accessible with a valid wristband, unless otherwise noted.
AGE RESTRICTIONS: Children up to 12 years old are welcome to accompany their parents free of charge. We stro...
Visitors of Le Guess Who? describe the character & atmosphere of the city of Utrecht among the most important reasons to visit the festival. Words most used by our visitors to describe the city of Utrecht are friendly, atmospheric, hospitable, high-quality, open-minded and a trusted surrounding.
"Spiralling outwards from the cobbled, canal-studded streets of the old town, Utrecht is an architecturally beautiful city in the centre of the Netherlands." -
Crack Magazine
Representing the Underrepresented
During LGW18, Canal180 shot a documentary of our festival. “Who is a headliner? Everyone has his personal headliner and I think that’s what music sh...
Le Guess Who? exists to bring people together through art and music. In 2021, the international festival for boundary-crossing music and culture makes a new addition to the upcoming festival edition: U?, a new, participative and freely accessible day program created for and with the city of Utrecht.
Le Guess Who? heeft het doel om mensen samen te brengen door middel van muziek en cultuur. Daar wordt komende editie een nieuw onderdeel aan toegevoegd, genaamd U?. Een nieuw, verbindend en gratis toegankelijk dagprogramma gemaakt voor en mét de stad.
Le Guess Who? takes place across 20 locations in the city center of Utrecht; ranging from churches and galleries to theaters and pop venues. Most are within walking distance from each other. Here are a couple highlighted.
Participating locations and initiatives in 2e Daalsebuurt, Werkspoorkwartier and Cartesius: Ping Pong Club, dB’s, Hof van Cartesius, De Nijverheid, The Village Coffee & Music Roastery, NAR, De Havenloods and Jimmy’s Gym.
Deelnemende locaties en initiatieven in de 2e Daalsebuurt, Werkspoorkwartier en Cartesius zijn de Ping Pong Club, dB’s, Hof van Cartesius, De Nijverheid, The Village Coffee & Music Branderij, NAR, De Havenloods en Jimmy’s Gym.
To make sure Le Guess Who? is a safe environment for everyone involved, we ask you to follow up on the below:
BEFORE LE GUESS WHO? 2021
Please note that traveling to and from the Netherlands is the...
The full program for U?, with almost a hundred performances activities, has been revealed.
Het volledige programma van U?, met bijna honderd optredens en activiteiten, is bekend.
As a creative organization we are always looking for new ways to do what we do. As we say: Le Guess Who? is an ever-changing format. But being an independent festival, we couldn’t do it without...
Thanks to our dedicated, open-minded and adventurous audience, Le Guess Who? has grown to become a leading international festival. Over the past fifteen years, LGW has developed into a platform that showcases underrepresented sounds that are rarely presented on other stages and in other places, but deserve to be heard because we believe they enrich our worldview.
In order to keep developing the festival the upcoming fifteen years on the same level as we did the last fifteen, we could use your support.
Participating locations and initiatives in the Binnenstad (city center) are Utrecht Public Library, Akwaglot, Koffie Leute, De Utrechtse Boekenbar, Lou Oudenoord, Stranded FM and Kapitaal.
Deelnemende locaties en initiatieven in de Binnenstad zijn Bibliotheek Neude, Akwaglot, Koffie Leute, De Utrechtse Boekenbar, Lou Oudenoord, Stranded FM en Kapitaal.
COSMOS will present exclusive Le Guess Who? documentaries, interviews, visual experiences and other innovative formats to allow the audience to experience Le Guess Who? beyond Utrecht.
Click READ MORE to view the full program.
Do you want to help us to make Le Guess Who? the best experience possible? Or do you want to gain working experience at a festival? Become a part of our team as a volunteer, where you’ll meet like-minded music lovers from all over the world.
General info about U?
Algemene informatie over U?
Le Guess Who? aims to present a festival that is accessible to everyone, but unfortunately not all festival venues are equally accessible. You can find more information about the accessibility in our venue map overview.
Le Guess Who? is dedicated to boundary-crossing music from all over the world.
In 2022, the festival takes place 10-13 November in Utrecht, The Netherlands.