Search: hieroglyphic being
Hieroglyphic Being
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...
Sarathy Korwar
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...
Rabih Beaini
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...
Lubomyr Melnyk
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,...
The Botanical Revolution / Jasper Hagenaar / Antonis Pittas / Modern Love
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...
Unearthed: An exclusive interview with Abdullah Ibrahim published by The Wire in 1984
This November, Le Guess Who? will feature a spellbinding solo piano performance by Abdullah Ibrahim, South Africa’s most eminent pianist, anti-apartheid activist and a world-respected master musician. Abdullah Ibrahim's effervescent music is instantly recognizable, taking the audience on a journey through gospel and jive, American j...
Rana Ghose x Hardi Kurda x Nikhil Chopra present: String Pulses
Three people. One will be in "character". One may not be. The former will be reacting to what the latter does sonically. The latter will be generating cues for the former to send back to him. The thir...
COSMOS Live: Rana Ghose x Hardi Kurda x Nikhil Chopra present: String Pulses
Three people. One will be in "character". One may not be. The former will be reacting to what the latter does sonically. The latter will be generating cues for the former to send back to him. The thir...
RP Boo (2018)
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...
Alanis Obomsawin performing 'Bush Lady'
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...
Les Amazones d'Afrique
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...
Visible Cloaks
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...
Mario Batkovic (2017)
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...
Surajit Das
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...
Martijn Comes
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...
Mary Margaret O'Hara
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...
Read: The Quietus on Lili Boulanger's "towering" ‘Du Fond De L'Abîme’
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. Boulanger died at the age of...
Pan Daijing presents: 'Fist Piece'
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...
Kojey Radical
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...
Listen: Dälek's new album 'Endangered Philosophies' is now up for streaming
Veteran agitators Dälek have never been ones to stick within the rigid parameters of the hiphop genre, holding the utmost contempt for conservative expectations. The trio just released their new...
Cüneyt Sepetçi
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...
Explore James Holden's curated program for Le Guess Who? 2017
(Artwork by Raimund Wong) Playing live following ‘The Inheritors’ was a complete new experience for James Holden; improvising with live drums, sax and synths opened a new world for Holden...
Watch James Holden's video for the title track of new album 'The Animal Spirits'
Following the release of first two tracks 'Pass Through The Fire' and 'Each Moment Like the First', electronic explorer James Holden now shares the video for the title track of his new album 'The Anim...
Swamp Dogg
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...
Hodan Warsame & Beverly Glenn-Copeland: A Conversation
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...
How To Be Together Otherwise
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...
Blanck Mass
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...
Jenny Hval's The Practice Of Love
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...
Jeanne van Heeswijk - Trainings for the Not-Yet
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...
Kevin Osepa
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...
Siti Muharam
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...
Tara Clerkin Trio
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...
Lucinda Chua
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...
Jessica Moss
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...
Don Melody Club
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...
Rian Treanor + Leila Ziu (live)
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...
Performance: Siti Muharam - Live at Le Guess Who? 2021
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...
Curator: clipping.
‘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...
Keeley Forsyth
Besides being a musician, North West England’s Keeley Forsyth is also an actor. This is made clear by her second LP, 2022’s ‘Limbs’. Surrounded by sparse arrangements, Forsyth&...
Pierre Kwenders
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...
Joanne Robertson
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...
Kaito Winse
Despite now being based in Brussels, Kaito Winse was raised in the village of Lankoué, in the Sourou Province of Burkina Faso. Brought up in a musical griot family, he has grown into a message...
Film: Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel
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...
Het Grote Gebeuren: De Witte Kunst
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...
Slauson Malone 1 (2022)
Slauson Malone 1 first came to be when musician Jasper Marsalis began questioning the intersection between popular music and performance art. Since 2019, his unique sonic inquiry - which takes cues fr...
Baskot Lel Baltageyya
Baskot Lel Baltageyya (meaning ‘cookies for thugs’) is a Cairo-based project headed by musician Adham Zidan and poet Anwar Dabbour. From the start, Zidan has resisted the idea of it being...
Bitchin Bajas
Bajas are back! The Chicago pysch trio, headed by Cave’s Cooper Crain, has unleashed yet another one of their kaleidoscopic creations onto the listening world with ‘Bajascillators’ l...
Randall Dunn
New York composer, sound designer, and producer Randall Dunn’s oeuvre is expansive enough to make it hard to pin down, but, still, all of his works are imbued with a specific density that distin...
Read: Jori Collignon talks running Gris Gris Records with Tânia Baldé
Having spent many years touring and drawing inspiration from many corners of the world, Jori Collignon has at last found a home in the idyllic Palmela, Portugal. It is here where you can find a home complete with a guesthouse, garden, studio, and a vibrant hub where artists from different parts of the world come together to exchange ideas...
Scene Report: Madrid, Spain
As a result of the health crisis due to COVID-19, the fractures that accuse the cultural structure of Spain have been revealed. The closure of three months due to confinement, added to the subsequent...
Scene Report: Caracas, Venezuela. Part III
Over the past few years, the alternative music scene in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, has been plummeting amid the country’s economic collapse – and the COVID-19 pandemic has just added...
Scene Report: Anzoategui, Venezuela
Collaborative, mellow sounds, a fusion of traditional Afro-Venezuelan music with jazz and hip hop: this is what Motherflowers and Orestes Gómez, two of the most vibrant Venezuelan music project...
Armand Hammer
In 2021, explosive New York City rap duo Armand Hammer (half ELUCID, half billy woods) released ‘Haram’, their collaboration with legendary producer The Alchemist. Two years later, the rec...
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet
‘Music For Four Guitars’, veteran improviser Bill Orcutt (of Harry Pussy)'s 2022 cut, has struck a chord with listeners on record. Now, the left-field LP, released in last year’s fal...
Kelman Duran (2018)
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...
Watch Alan Sparhawk debut new songs at Le Guess Who? 2023
Last November, Alan Sparhawk returned to Europe to play some select solo shows, the first being a performance at Le Guess Who?. Three decades ago, Sparhawk co-founded the band Low alongside vocalist and drummer Mimi Parker, who sadly passed away in late 2022. Their music derived elemental power from its fearless exploration of quiet, ge...
Read: Queer Ecology: Who Says Nature is Binary?
Have you ever heard of Roy and Silo, the famous male chinstrap penguins, who formed a pair at New York's Central Park Zoo? What about the red flour beetles who engage in same-sex relationships simply to practice mating? Did you know that clownfish can change their sex if needed? Or that among bonobos (who share almost 99% of their DNA wit...
Arts of Resistance x Linangan
Linangan and Arts of Resistance are hosting a multi-media exhibition combined with a public program in Bibliotheek Neude, Utrecht as a part of U?, the free program connected to Le Guess Who festival....
Talk: Sonic Bodies
Josephine Zwaan, artist, producer, researcher and founder of a platform for female and non-binary music producers named Rosetta will lead a conversation with Deborah X, one of the founders of DJ and p...
Photo series: Liliane Chlela presents I, the hybrid and the antidote at LGW24 by Juri Hiensch
I, the hybrid and the antidote, a project presented by Liliane Chlela, celebrated its world premiere at Le Guess Who? 2024. On stage, Chlela was joined by Utrecht’s string ensemble Flare Quartet, Cairo’s producer/violinist Nancy Mounir, and Montreal-based producer/musician Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. Our residential photographer Ju...
Kelman Duran
Leave it to Dominican-American booth wizard Kelman Duran to surprise listeners at every turn. The LA artist, musician, visual artist, filmmaker, and academic’s electronic abstractions derive fro...
Antonina Nowacka
Unfortunately, Sofie Birch has to cancel her performance at LGW23; Antonina Nowacka will play a solo performance instead. Antonina Nowacka is a Polish sound artist. Initially known for being pa...
Aba Shanti-I
Last year, Aba Shanti-I celebrated his thirtieth year as a resident sound system at the Notting Hill Carnival. The same year he started, the legendary producer was voted the No. 1 DJ in the World by D...
King Jammy
King or prince, this plate spinner’s name is always preceded with a royal title for good measure. The Jamaica-born dub mixer and record producer got his start as a dub master at King Tubby&rsquo...
Still House Plants
Beneath Still House Plants’s post-rock skin thumps a glowing pop heart, and this year’s ‘If I don't make it, I love u’ reveals the UK trio’s anatomy better than any previ...
Tashi Wada
‘What Is Not Strange?’ asks Los Angeles-based performer Tashi Wada on his first solo album’s title. As its name suggests, the artist’s latest work - his most ambitious and impa...
Lord Spikeheart
Vocalist Martin Kanja (or Lord Spikeheart), has become a nominal head in the Kenyan metal scene - first with speed-core group Lust of a Dying Breed, and later alongside Le Guess Who? alumnus Duma. Now...
Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Fiftieth anniversaries call for spectacular celebrations, and that is just what Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble are embarking on this year. To commemorate half a century of conti...
Crystallmess
French multidisciplinary artist, journalist, and producer Christelle Oyiri is Crystallmess, the fearless embodiment of a disco ball on fire. For Le Guess Who?, Crystallmess will treat audiences to a l...
Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou
A new wave is washing over Gnawa, the traditional North African music genre started by the Gnawa people of Morocco. Despite being an essential part of the tradition, only now are female bands appearin...
Myriam Gendron (2022)
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...
Ex-Easter Island Head (2017)
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...
Party Dozen
When Sydney’s Party Dozen (saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet) settled in Marrickville to record a new album ‘Crime In Australia’, they found the suburb&rsqu...
Gert Wessels
Driven by chance and unpredictability, Utrecht-based artist Gert Wessels creates work that emerges intuitively and reactively. In his process, form takes precedence, without being guided by a rigid th...
Seein' Red
The legendary Amersfoort hardcore punk trio Seein' Red formed around 1989 from the ashes of Lärm. The band quickly found their line-up consisting of brothers Paul & Olav van den Berg, on guit...
Beginners Graffiti Workshop by Julien King Juju and Azzurra
Graffiti is increasingly being recognized as a valuable art form in our society. Not only is it an exciting activity, but it also offers a powerful way to express yourself. In this Beginners Graffiti...
Utrecht Students for Palestine
Utrecht Students for Palestine introduces you to an educational, creative and practical space that is focused on Palestine, Lebanon and resistance. As the genocide in Gaza is escalating and expanding...
Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou (U?)
A new wave is washing over Gnawa, the traditional North African music genre started by the Gnawa people of Morocco. Despite being an essential part of the tradition, only now female bands are appearin...
Martha Da'ro
Martha Da'ro is a multi-disciplinary Belgian-Angolan artist - whose creative career spans from music, film and theater. In 2020 she released her genre-bending EP ‘Cheap Wine & Paris’,...
Abdullah Miniawy
Abdullah Miniawy, who previously graced the LGW stage with Le Cri du Caire, is an Egyptian expressionist, writer, singer, composer, who has performed worldwide at renowned venues and festivals, includ...
Exhibition: Dianne Verdonk, Michelle Vossen & Roald van Dillewijn
Dianne Verdonk, Michelle Vossen and Roald van Dillewijn present and perform their new interactive installation bromwol. Literally meaning humming wool, they have mainly experimented with carded wool m...
Playlist: Kim Deal's personal introduction to The Breeders
Gaining worldwide recognition with their smashing, gummy hit single ‘Cannonball’, The Breeders were a leading figure in the 90s grunge scene. After a ten-year hiatus, they recently release...
Julianna Barwick (2017)
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...
Kankawa Nagarra
Nobody can tell the story of Kankawa Nagarra better than the artist, educator, and activist herself. Born on the traditional lands of the Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri peoples of north-western Australia,...
Listen to 'A.R.E. Project': a collaboration between Shabaka Hutchings and Hieroglyphic Being
Last July, Shabaka Hutchings, Hieroglyphic Being & Sarathy Kowar recorded over 2.5 hours of improvised music in one studio session. Now, a selection of these recordings is released as 12" EP, enti...
Read The Guardian's intimate interview with Hieroglyphic Being
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...
James Holden added as curator + more new additions; day tickets on sale now
Electronic sound explorer James Holden is added as curator for Le Guess Who?, hosting multiple stages on Saturday, 11 November. Performing is Moroccan Gnawa musician Maâlem Houssam Guinia &...
Explore Grouper’s curated program for Le Guess Who? 2017
(artwork by Grouper's Liz Harris) Liz Harris aka Grouper is one of the most prominent and inspiring musicians exploring the space between sound and song. While mostly ambient based, her compositions...
Stream Mario Batkovic's new, self titled album
After touring with BEAK>, Bosnian accordion master Mario Batkovic was signed up to Geoff Barrow’s Invada Records, leading to the release of his latest, self titled record. You can stream the...
Listen: James Holden's brand new album 'The Animal Spirits' is out now
Today, James Holden & The Animal Spirits release their brand new album. Built around Holden's modulair synths, it is inspired by spiritual jazz and Moroccan Gnawa: "Legendary jazz band leaders&nbs...
Rabit's new album 'Les Fleurs Du Mal' is out today
Rabit just finished his work for Björk's new album, but is now also releasing his own. 'Les Fleurs Du Mal' is out now: a record that features collaborations with Chino Amobi and Elysia Crampton....
Exclusive: listen to Fhloston Paradigm's unreleased track '...THE MOON', feat. Heru Shabaka-Ra
Following this year's highly acclaimed and healing album AFTER..., Fhloston Paradigm aka King Britt gave us this unreleased track before his live solo set at Le Guess Who? 2017. '...THE MOON' feature...
Read: "Spirits Rejoice: James Holden reflects on a career spent escaping dance convention"
Leading up to his performance & curation at Le Guess Who? 2017, FACT publishes a career-spanning conversation with electronic explorer James Holden, highlighting several of his key tracks & th...
Listen to Den Sorte Skole's Mixtape for Le Guess Who? 2017
Denmark's Den Sorte Skole create magical, musical storytelling across time and space. For Le Guess Who? 2017, the duo have put together a special mixtape with artists performing at the festival. Liste...
Listen to Ben Frost's 'Selections' playlist for Crack Magazine
As a preview for his performance at Le Guess Who? 2017, Ben Frost has put together a 'Selections' playlist for Crack Magazine. As we wrote in his festival biography: "Ben Frost’s interests are a...
Rabit announces new album 'Les Fleurs du Mal' + shares first single
Houston producer Erik Burton aka Rabit just announced his second album 'Les Fleurs du Mal'. The record features vocals from Cecilia and Chino Amobi, whom Burton also collaborated with earlie...
Stream Ben Frost's new album 'The Centre Cannot Hold' in full now
Ben Frost's new album, produced by Steve Albini, is out now, and you can listen to it in full below. In his biography for Le Guess Who? 2017, we described his music as a 'huge, piercing sound: gr...
Listen to James Holden's new track 'Each Moment Like the First'
After offering a first taste of his new album 'The Animal Spirits', electronic explorer James Holden now shares the second track from the album, 'Each Moment Like the First'. Listen below. ...
Ben Frost shares 'Ionia' from new album 'The Centre Cannot Hold'
Today, Ben Frost shares a new track of his upcoming album 'The Centre Cannot Hold', which will be released september 29th via MUTE. Listen to 'Ionia' here - it follows the release of the title tr...
Listen to Brian Case's new album 'Spirit Design'
Just one year after his debut, Disappears' Brian Case is already releasing his second solo album, entitled 'Spirit Design'. The record features intense drone, combined with ambient soundscapes and con...
Nobody (aka Willis Earl Beal) releases new album 'Turn'
Willis Earl Beal releases his first record under his new moniker Nobody, entitled 'Turn': listen in full below. In a recent interview with Far Out Magazine he said: "On the street, I am known as...
Listen & relive: Sarathy Korwar live at Le Guess Who? 2022
Sarathy Korwar performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 on the night preceding the release of his new album 'KALAK'. You can now relive the full performance below, which includes tracks from that album, as well as 'Coolie', performed live together with Alabaster dePlume. AboutBorn in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Ch...
Read: Identifying the queer Indonesian diasporic community
Based between Amsterdam and Berlin, Insan Larasati is a community organizer, DJ, designer and inclusivity officer. With artist Shasti Andara they founded Nusaqueer Diaspora, an open-structured collective that focuses on community events for the Indonesian and Southeast Asian Archipelagan queer diaspora. Freshly graduated from the Willem...
COSMOS Embassy Announcement: Touching Bass (London, UK)
COSMOS x Touching Bass announce their 2024 Embassy in London, UK Touching Bass is a London-based musical movement founded by Errol and Alex Rita, comprised of a community-come-club night, record label, staple NTS Radio show, concert series and curatorial studio. Since its inception, Touching Bass has steadily established itself as...
Jacco Gardner: "Mysteriously, the things I feel connected to just find their way onto my path"
Before debuting his immersive multimedia-performance Somnium at this year’s Le Guess Who?, we had an extensive chat with Dutch musician, songwriter, and composer Jacco Gardner. About Dutch explorers, silent film soundtracks, Zambian rock legends, strange peninsula’s and of course, his upcoming LP Somnium. Jacco Gardner, sitti...
Interview: Emel Mathlouthi: "The most important thing is to be truthful"
Ahead of her performance at Le Guess Who?, we catch up with Tunisian singer, musician & artist Emel Mathlouthi while on her way to a performance in Washington DC. It became a talk about being challenged by collaborators, the Arab Spring and the role of social media, being categorized by singing in Arabic, and the importance of being t...
Tracing the Roots: Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Great Black Music, Ancient To The Future
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...
Read: Tender hearts in tough (Aussie) harnesses
Hard in style, soft in core. For Luna van der Laan (Looney Lunatic) and Carlos Kok (Boot 122), their passion for noisy, fast music stems from a broad artistic (self-)schooling, high levels of passion for music and, above all, an open mind. With a DIY-mentality, a grounded aversion of the establishment and a substance-over-style-approach,...
Read: Istanbul’s Creative Scene Unites in Times of Crisis
Interview: Ozan Tekin x IDGK “İstanbul’u Dinliyorum Gözlerim Kapalı” is the title of a poem by Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanık. It beautifully describes a city best experienced with all senses wide open. A sentiment that our 2025 COSMOS Embassy IDGK shares so much, that they’ve borrowed their name acronym from...
Read: The Hidden Artist Refuge in Remote Iceland
Interview: Seyðisfjörður Community Radio Seyðisfjörður Community Radio (SCR) is a shared digital and analogue broadcasting platform located in the fisher town of Seyðisfjörður. The platform is hosted, nurtured and initiated by an open-ended international community inhabiting various conditions and p...
Sustainability
With the motto of Listening is the Way Forward, Le Guess Who? exists to promote sounds that are often overlooked, and to platform fresh perspectives on what is possible in music. Artists from all over the world push the boundaries of expectations and offer an insight into the unprecedented diversity of human creativity. Our mission: A pl...
Listen/read: Favorite Stereolab tracks by artists from their LGW23 curation
For Le Guess Who? 2023, Stereolab have curated an eclectic program, highlighting their various interests and inspirations. We've asked artists from their curated program to choose their favorite Stereolab track, what the band means to them and/or what it means to be curated by them. Listen to the playlist by artists from the Le Guess Who...
Listen: ZONAL and Moor Mother team up on 'On The Range'
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...
Liliane Chlela presents the world premiere of 'I; the hybrid and the antidote' at LGW24
Born in Beirut and based in Montreal, Liliane Chlela is a producer, DJ and performer whose progressive sound experiments brought her to the forefront of the electronic and experimental music scene, both in Lebanon and far beyond. At Le Guess Who? 2024, Liliane Chlela will present the live premiere of I, the hybrid and the antidote. &ldqu...
COSMOS Embassy Announcement: Honiunhoni (Karachi, Pakistan)
COSMOS x Honiunhoni announce their 2024 Embassy in Karachi, Pakistan Honiunhoni is an independent production company and record label founded by musician and anthropologist Daniyal Ahmed. Rooted in the ethos of ethnographic research, Honiunhoni celebrates Pakistan's cultural richness and diversity by curating and highlighting the...
Track of the Week #1: Kojey Radical – 'If Only'
Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. First up is a current LGW office favorite, from the British-Ghanaian poet-turned-rapper who is already being ha...
LGW TV content now online, feat. Reports from Other Continents, Vunk on Vacation & more
Following the launch of LGW ON, our very own online TV channel which streamed mid-November 2020, we are now sharing a lot of programs and video content that premiered on the channel via our YouTube account. We've published the videos as part of our new Reports from Other Continents project; all episodes of our alternative travel sho...
"Angel Bat Dawid taps into the root of all black music": Chicago Reader discusses spiritual jazz album 'The Oracle'
At the age of 34, Chicago-based Angel Elmore quit her job selling high-end lingerie and pursued her childhood dream to become a musician. Now, as Angel Bat Dawid, she sings, composes, and plays keyboard and clarinet, which led to the release of her spiritual jazz album 'The Oracle' earlier this year. She recorded it over a period of more...
Introducing: BCUC's sensational Soweto Afro-psychedelia
The sensational Afro-psychedelic collective BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) started out as a social gathering in their native township of Soweto, South Africa. Even with a relatively short h...
Read: The Quietus interviews Klein about her new EP and the intensity of her music
In a new interview with The Quietus, UK producer Klein discusses being a woman and a producer, and 'Tommy'; her new EP for Hyperdub. Stream a track below, and read the interview here. "Live sho...
Interview: "Meet Sevdaliza, A Dutch-Iranian Roamer Finding A Spiritual Home In Music"
The Fader recently interviewed the Dutch/Iranian Sevdaliza about Teheran, Rotterdam, her new album, and being a plant collector. Listen to her new album 'Ison' while you dive into the interview here.&...
Slauson Malone 1 releases new album 'EXCELSIOR'
Slauson Malone 1 is the musical project and performance piece of artist Jasper Marsalis. With this project he explores the intersections of popular music and performance art. Following two critically acclaimed prior releases — 2019’s A Quiet Farwell, 2016-2018 (Crater Speak) and 2020’s Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Cra...
Le Guess Who? & U? present Sydney Lowell
Sydney Lowell is a creative spirit, human, artist and entrepreneur from Amsterdam. She mainly operates as a poet, but recently started incorporating music and movement into her creative practice. Next to that, she’s a teacher, voice actor, host, and co-founder/producer of creative platforms We The People and 2PHRASE. Sydney sees...
"If you keep something to yourself, you kill it": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Slemani, Kurdistan-Iraq
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Slemani, Kurdistan-Iraq Following their broadcast during Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of COSMOS, we talk to Space21's Hardi Kurda about the concept of illegality; the musical cacophony of Slemani; the US-led invasion of Iraq, which happened twenty years ago, and also how it led to surprising musical discoveries...
"I have these stories in my mind": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Pernambuco, Brazil
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Pernambuco, Brazil Following their broadcast during Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of COSMOS, we talk to Ana Garcia and Benke, the people behind Coquetel Molotov to discuss the local music scene in the city of Caruaru; how their involvement in COSMOS became Coquetel Molotov’s first musical incubator; and di...
COSMOS Embassy Announcement: U? (Utrecht, NL)
COSMOS x U? announce their 2024 Embassy in Utrecht, the Netherlands For the first time since its inception, U? – Le Guess Who’s freely accessible city program – enlists five Community Curators from different cities, to bring fresh new perspectives to the Utrecht’s subcultural network. What they all have in common...
Read: "One Month in My Own Brain" - Kathryn Mohr on her time in Iceland
Interview: Kathryn Mohr Recently, we’ve visited the Eastern region of Iceland for an extensive chat with our 2025 COSMOS Embassy Seyðisfjörður Community Radio. This time, we’re moving a mere 100km further to Stöðvarfjörður, another fisher village in East Iceland that doubles as a hideout for cre...
Read: Introduction to 'Curating with Care', by Elke Krasny & Lara Perry
U? is opening up a monthly reading group, not as a fixed program, but as a shared space to gather, reflect and think alongside one another. Each month, we’ll come together to explore questions that matter to the people in the room: How can we build collaborations that are non-extractive and non-hierarchical between grassroots init...
Listen: Mudhoney’s fuzz-filled voyage in Europa
Being part of the Seattle scene for three decades, grunge godfathers Mudhoney have stood the test of time. Celebrating their fuzz-filled legacy, Mudhoney released their first live album ‘LiE&rsq...
Track of the Week #15: Georgia Anne Muldrow - 'Great Blacks'
Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we zoom in on an old-school-esque hip-hop track from LA-based producer, musician and vocalist Georgia Anne Mu...
Introducing: Kelsey Lu: cello experiments turned into minimalistic, R&B-infused folk music
Raised in North Carolina, Kelsey Lu (although she prefers you just call her 'Lu') is the daughter of two devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. From a young age on, Lu was always encouraged to surround her...
Listen: Eli Keszler releases new solo album 'Stadium'
After creating a score for an award-winning visual artist, collaborating via Laurel Halo, and being part of Oneohtrix Point Never's world tour, Eli Keszler is seemingly at the top of his creative...
Stream DJINN's self-titled debut album
Newcomers DJINN are an alliance formed by musicians in Swedish outfits Hills and GOAT. The group creates a hypnotic brew of free-jazz, psychedelic music, and harmonious folk, with their name being derived from the Arab folkloristic creature of djinn, a supernatural and invisible force by the band interpreted as meaning "a being that...
Listen or read: a personal introduction to Egypt’s Mazaher, bearers of the Zar tradition, by Nadah El Shazly
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...
Listen: Gambian-British rapper Pa Salieu releases new EP 'Afrikan Rebel'
Following his recent collaboration with slowthai called 'Glidin', Gambia-born, Coventry-based rapper and BBC Sound of 2021 winner Pa Salieu is back with a new, three-song EP titled 'Afrikan Rebel'. This latest EP features guest appearances from Nigerian artists Tay Iwar, Zlatan and Obongjayar. Listen to 'Afrikan Rebel' below. The Face al...
Interview: Pink Oculus presents Before Wisdom through collaborative show where art, scenography and music become one
“Performing is a part of my identity”, says the Dutch Surinamese vocalist and producer Pink Oculus. Two years of not being able to do what she loves the most led to a brand new sound, and new music too: her forthcoming album, ‘Before Wisdom’, is expected in 2022. At Le Guess Who?, she will premiere these songs thro...
Read via The Quietus: which records would Jean-Hervé Peron (Faust) seek out at the Mega Record & CD Fair?
We're very excited that this year, Le Guess Who? will coincide again (for the first time since 2018) with the Mega Record & CD Fair (November 13 & 14 in Utrecht), which is Europe’s biggest record fair. As a preview for both the festival as well as the fair, we're collaborating with The Quietus on a new series where we...
Creating the LGW21 visuals: a video portrait of Koen Delaere by LGW & Canal180
For the 2021 Le Guess Who? artwork, the festival has initiated a collaboration with Dutch visual artist Koen Delaere. Koen will create physical, painted canvases that will collectively form the final artwork (realized in collaboration with design agency Van Lennep); its several stages to the end result will be revealed in the months leadi...
Moon Duo announce new album; share title track 'Stars Are The Light'
Psychedelic/krautrock mystics and LGW19 curators Moon Duo have risen up as one of the most intoxicating live acts of this decade. Now, the group announce their new album 'Stars Are The Light', to be released by Sacred Bones on 27 September and produced by Sonic Boom. The Oregon band’s trademark sound is as much acqu...
Girl Band and Tropical Fuck Storm join Le Guess Who? 2019
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...
Interview: DRINKS: "Nonsense is a good reaction to everything that’s going on"
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...
Mount Eerie releases new live album '(after)', recorded at Le Guess Who? 2017
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...
Breakdown: Paddy Steer's Otherworldly & Wonderful DIY Weirdcraft
To fight the ordinary, Paddy Steer does the extraordinary. Surrounded by knobs, wires, keys, and wearing self-made, Sun Ra-inspired costumes, Paddy Steer looks and sounds like a music wizard from anot...
Beverly Glenn-Copeland: “I was making music for a generation that had yet to be born”
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-...
Tracing the Roots: Vashti Bunyan and her mystical trails
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...
Watch: a portrait of Alanis Obomsawin by Charles-André Coderre (Jerusalem In My Heart)
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...
Read Bant Mag's special on Le Guess Who? 2017
Turkey's Bant Mag is one of our media partners, and they're preparing a magnificent, in-depth special on the festival which will be updated weekly. Read in full here. The first featur...
Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas interviewed by The Guardian
Having just released his fourth album ‘No Shape’, The Guardian interviews Perfume Genius with a stunning and incredibly honest talk as result. As soul-baring and emotional as his album is....
Video portraits: Elza Soares, Julia Holter, Lee Ranaldo & more at LGW16
Le Guess Who? & de Volkskrant bring you video portraits of artists performing at Le Guess Who? 2016. We meet legendary Brazilian protest singer Elza Soares before her performance, and talk...
Listen: The Wire shares Moor Mother-curated playlist for Le Guess Who? 2018
Moor Mother's Camae Ayewa has put together her own playlist as an introduction to her curated program at Le Guess Who? 2018, with some of her favorite tracks of each artist. Hosting several of h...
Listen/read: Rats on Rafts' David Fagan: "If we're gonna do a live show, let's try and do something special"
Ever the experimentalists, Rotterdam post-punk quintet Rats on Rafts bring their multi-disciplinary spectacle, Visions of Chapter 3, to Le Guess Who? for its first public-facing debut. And, as frontman David Fagan admits, there’s no telling just quite how it will all pan out…
Podcast: listen to part 3 of 'For the Record'
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 p...
Listen/read: AMPFEMININE: "Your excuse of ‘there aren’t that many good female and non-binary DJs’ is not valid"
You can also listen to this story – below or via your favorite podcast app. Words & audio by Cheri PercyPhotography by Tengbeh Kamara Rotterdam based-DJ collective AMPFEMININE scours its diverse database to bring an evening of fresh feminine energy to this year’s Le Guess Who? proving that female and non-b...
Listen/read: Pakistani qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz, by Arooj Aftab
This November, Le Guess Who? will feature a special performance by Pakistani qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz. Having been born to seven consecutive generations of qawwals (those who perform the ancient form of religious Sufi music from Pakistan and Northern India - Punjab - known as qawwali), Faiz Ali Faiz was raised on the practice. After...
Read: Antipop Consortium are hip-hop's most notorious futurists
Coming up at the turn of the century, when underground rap was all about dusty loops and intricate battle rhymes, Antipop Consortium mixed an experimental, electronically charged sound palette with lyricism sharpened on the NY poetry scene. While they quickly summoned a cult following stateside, Europe’s alternative music circuit to...
Test your sustainable or social innovation at Le Guess Who? 2023
Test your sustainable or social innovation at Le Guess Who? 2023Test jouw duurzame of sociale innovatie op Le Guess Who? 2023
Innofest x Le Guess Who? 2023
Test your sustainable or social innovation at Le Guess Who? 2023Test jouw duurzame of sociale innovatie op Le Guess Who? 2023
Announcing the first COSMOS 2024 Embassy: Santuri East Africa
COSMOS x Santuri announce first 2024 Embassy Ahead of their first-ever electronic music summit, Kilele, COSMOS sits down with Santuri co-founder and director David Tinning as well as Nairobi staples Nyokabi Kariũki and KMRU. For a full decade, the Santuri organisation has been supporting, highlighting, and releasing a mix of con...
Indofuturist Sanctuary: A COSMOS Goa Residency Recap
In the spring of 2023, COSMOS – Le Guess Who’s? global music community – organized its first artist residency in Goa, India. Over the past few years, Goa has become a sanctuary for artists and freewheeling spirits of all kinds, including REProduce-founder Rana Ghose. In collaboration with Rana, COSMOS created a space for...
"These artists have their own voice - a real one": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Cairo, Egypt
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Cairo, Egypt We speak to former LGW artist Yunis and B-62's Khaled Bargona about their highly creative film produced for the latest COSMOS edition. Here, we learn more about Cairo’s post-revolution music scene; how the artists that are featured in the film are creating a space for themselves in Cairo&rs...
"Maybe we can rebuild something here": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in China
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in China We discuss LGW Embassy: China with Ivan Zhang two days before the Chinese New Year: a talk about BIE Music’s COSMOS collaboration and the diversity found in local music scenes across China; how going back to basics can also be a way forward; and how China is not the cloistered cultural island many...
COSMOS Embassy Announcement: UMA (Detroit, USA)
COSMOS x Underground Music Academy announce their 2024 Embassy in Detroit, USA A place to learn about the past, present, and future of dance music. With the Underground Music Academy, Detroit’s own Waajeed has created a utopian space for the city's aspiring musicians. Among music fans, few places occupy a similar space in the coll...
A behind-the-scenes look into visa processes for Le Guess Who? 2024
As we near the start of Le Guess Who? 2024, we’d like to share the behind-the-scenes struggles and frustrations we are experiencing in trying to obtain visas for the artists we’ve invited to Utrecht. At Le Guess Who?, our focus and dedication has long been on developing a diverse and inclusive program, also through extensive...
Listen + watch: Alanis Obomsawin live at Le Guess Who? 2017
Filmmaker and songwriter Alanis Obomsawin performed songs from her 1985 album 'Bush Lady' live for the first time at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring music of the Native American Abenaki people. The perf...
Constellation Records reissues Alanis Obomsawin's 1985 album 'Bush Lady'
Acclaimed filmmaker and songwriter Alanis Obomsawin performed songs from her 1985 album 'Bush Lady' live for the very first time at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring original compositions as well as music...
Track of the Week #10: Devendra Banhart - 'Fig in Leather'
Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, it's a synth-driven song by singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart, with nonchalant nods to disco. ...
Introducing: Sudanese/London collective The Scorpios bring life-affirming soul & vintage psych funk
Listening to the life-affirming soul and vintage funk of London collective The Scorpios, you probably won't be surprised to find out most of its members originate from Sudan. After fleeing the fundame...
Listen to Swamp Dogg's new album 'Love, Loss and Auto-Tune'
Soul maverick Swamp Dogg has released his new album ‘Love, Loss and Auto-Tune’ via Joyful Noise Recordings. Although Jerry Williams Jr. said goodbye to the life of a conventional...
Track of the Week #18: Boogarins - 'Foimal'
Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we dive into the psychedelic, fleeting world of the Brazilian psych rockers Boogarins. Exploring their...
Video portrait: Moor Mother on free jazz as a liberation technology and curating at LGW18
"I call free jazz a liberation technology, and it’s very essential to anything that I make. It has to have that conductor running through my music for it to be successful, or for me to get acros...
ZONAL (Kevin Martin & Justin Broadrick) announces debut LP, shares 2 tracks
ZONAL is the collaborative noise, dub and industrial project of Le Guess Who? 2019 curator Kevin Richard Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) and Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, JK Flesh). The group now announces their debut full-length album, to be released this fall via Relapse Records. The first two tracks; 'Cage Version' and 'No Versio...
Nicole Mitchell & Moor Mother - Offering (live at Le Guess Who? 2018)
As part of her curation at Le Guess Who? 2018, Philly-based noise artist, activist and wordsmith Moor Mother invited flutist, composer, poet and educator Nicole Mitchell for a performance at the festival. It ended up not being a solo performance though, but an exclusive and improvised collaboration between herself and Moor Mother. No...
Listen to Suuns' newest album, 'The Witness'
Avant-rock group Suuns' relationship with Le Guess Who? goes way back; the three-piece Montreal band has always positively surprised us with their releases and their newest, 'The Witness', their first for Joyful Noise Recordings, is yet another impressive step of their sonic universe. Produced and recorded over the course of 2020 at ...
Knekelhuis Presents: four artists you don't want to miss at Le Guess Who? 2021
Knekelhuis is an Amsterdam-based independent record label that heightens the aesthetic similarities between different genres, eras, and scenes, including wave, punk, synth-pop, industrial, ambient, techno, and abstract electronics. This year, Knekelhuis is presenting an international selection of label-related artists and dear friends th...
Support Le Guess Who? with a regular or one-time donation
Le Guess Who? is an ever-changing format: we are always full of new ideas and looking for new ways to do what we do. 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. Over the past fifteen years, we have developed into a platform that showcases...
Oakland-born writer, MC, and producer Nappy Nina shares new single 'Amen'
While Nappy Nina previously made appearances on Yaeji, Quelle Chris, and Son Lux's music, her characteristic breezy flow has led her to conquer stages worldwide in her own right. For her Le Guess Who? performance, she will be joined by DJ Stas THEE Boss. Now, the Oakland-born writer, MC, and producer releases her new song, produced...
Listen to voice artist Hatis Noit's new album 'Aura'
Hatis Noit's musical awakening took place at the tender age of sixteen during a trek to Buddha's birthplace in Nepal. One morning when staying at a women’s temple she came across a female monk singing Buddhist chants whose otherworldly sounds moved her so intensely that she was instantly aware of the visceral power of the human voic...
Introducing Siti Muharam, the 'golden voice of Zanzibar' & great granddaughter of taarab legend Siti Binti Saad
Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam, the great granddaughter of famed taarab singer Siti Binti Saad, brings a modern twist to taarab on her debut album ‘Siti of Unguja'. Her show at Le Guess Who? 2021 will mark her first ever European performance. Taarab is a popular music genre in Tanzania and Kenya, combining musical elements from A...
‘A sudden, uncontrollable urge to dance’: the magic of Nyege Nyege Tapes & Hakuna Kulala Club Night
Forget Detroit, Chicago, and Berlin for a minute. Some of the most exciting electronic music records are being cut in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, and many are coming out of label Nyege Nyege Tapes. The collective is committed to shedding light on some of the best outsider music made in Kampala and all around East Africa. This Novembe...
Read via The Quietus: which records would Duma seek out at the Mega Record & CD Fair?
We're very excited that this year, Le Guess Who? will coincide again (for the first time since 2018) with the Mega Record & CD Fair (November 13 & 14 in Utrecht), which is Europe’s biggest record fair. As a preview for both the festival as well as the fair, we're collaborating with The Quietus on a new series where we...
Photo & video series Tweede Daalsebuurt: discovering Utrecht through the eyes of photographer Juri Hiensch
LGW’s resident photographer Juri Hiensch has been rediscovering the city of Utrecht lately, capturing the unique character of several neighborhoods outside the city center and offering some inspiration for your next trip to Utrecht. The first neighborhood in this photo & video series centers around the Tweededaalsedijk. Well, t...
Stream: reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson's powerful spoken word/poetry performance at Le Guess Who? 2017
Linton Kwesi Johnson's impressive body of work includes stints as reggae poet, political orator, recording artist, and author/journalist. His 1978 reggae album Dread Beat an' Blood is a statement akin to Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. A vocal personality who fights oppression against black youth, the Jamaica-born...
Stream 'Offering', Nicole Mitchell & Moor Mother's special live collaboration at LGW18
As part of her curation at Le Guess Who? 2018, Philly-based noise artist, activist and wordsmith Moor Mother invited flutist, composer, poet and educator Nicole Mitchell for a performance at the festival. It ended up not being a solo performance though, but an exclusive and improvised collaboration between herself and Moor Mother. No...
Relive Le Guess Who? with lots of exclusive audio & video recordings
Visit our recordings section for lots of exclusive audio & video recordings of Le Guess Who? performances. The first 2019 recordings are now being made available, with more to come soon, but you can also discover the performances of older editions, featuring a.o. Art Ensemble of Chicago, Saul Williams & King Britt, Kadri Gopa...
Thank you! We'd love to hear your thoughts about LGW19
So much love and gratitude goes out to each and every one of you, for being part of Le Guess Who? 2019. For your good spirits and your openness. For making it such a special moment in time. We hope you’ve had an enriching experience. There is still so much out there that deserves to be heard, and it’s our quest to bring it ou...
Today at LGW19: the European premiere of Dossier X, an immersive audio-visual performance curated by Patrick Higgins
One of this year's special projects at Le Guess Who? 2019 takes place tonight: the European premiere of Dossier X, an immersive audio-visual collaboration between composer Patrick Higgins, installation artist Matthew Schreiber, and choreographer Monica Mirabile. Inside of Matthew Schreiber’s laser sculpture, musician, da...
Listen to ZONAL's debut album 'Wrecked', in collaboration with lyrical poet Moor Mother
ZONAL is the collaborative noise, dub and industrial project of Le Guess Who? 2019 curator Kevin Richard Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) and Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, JK Flesh). Now, the group release their debut album 'Wrecked' via Relapse Records, containing several collaborations with lyrical poet (and LGW18 curator) Moo...
Bremer/McCoy share insight in their songwriting process with 'Utopia' video
Jonathan Bremer and Morten McCoy are two Danish musicians knee-deep in many different endeavours, performing under the name Bremer/McCoy. On October 18, they duo released their new album 'Utopia' via David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. Now, the group release an accompanying video giving insight into their creative processes and their way of ma...
Moon Duo release disco & groove-oriented album 'Stars Are The Light'
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,...
Watch: Sudan Archives releases 'Confessions' video, from upcoming debut album 'Athena'
Violinist, singer, songwriter and producer Sudan Archives shared the first single from her upcoming debut album, now she follows up with a stunning video for 'Confessions', whose closing section also debuts portions of new song 'Black Vivaldi Sonata'. Both tracks are from her impending debut full length 'Athena', out 1 November via S...
Zonal share title track of upcoming album 'Wrecked'
ZONAL has shared the title track to their forthcoming album 'Wrecked', which is out on 25 October via Relapse Records. ZONAL is the collaborative noise, dub and industrial project of Le Guess Who? 2019 curator Kevin Richard Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) and Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, JK Flesh). The album contains...
Machinedrum & Jimmy Edgar are J-E-T-S; listen to their collaborative album 'Zoospa'
J-E-T-S released an EP in 2012 and another in 2015, each offering a handful of soul-inflected DayGlo house and techno tracks. Now, almost seven years after their inception, they’ve returned with their debut full-length 'Zoospa'. The album not only showcases the playfulness when it comes to incorporating different styles of genres in...
Explore Melissa Laveaux's Haitian roots and native folk spirituals in The Guardian interview
The work of Ottawa-born, Paris-based musician and singer Mélissa Laveaux brims with defiance, cheekiness, and pride, combining lost traditions with modern influences like psych rock, calypso, folk pop, and punk. In an interview with The Guardian, Laveaux talks about her third and most recent album 'Radyo Siw&e...
Tropical Fuck Storm announce new album 'Braindrops'; listen to new single 'Paradise'
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...
Read: The Quietus publishes exclusive interview with Liz Harris (Grouper) about Nivhek
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...
Read: excerpt from Jenny Hval's latest novel 'Paradise Rot' + interview with Huck Magazine
Jenny Hval’s first novel 'Paradise Rot', which was released in Norway in 2009, has recently been translated into English by publishing company Verso Books. In an interview with Huck Magazine, she explains that the book is "an opportunity to understand my lyrics in a different way, and my music in a context where words have a higher...
Revealing our new satellite event: 'Untitled', featuring exhibitions, film screenings, talks & more
We are excited to present you a new satellite event during Le Guess Who? 2018: ‘Untitled’. The program focuses on all disciplines other than music and is an exploration of other artistic e...
Interview: Joe Coleman: "My performance art is always a mirror image of my paintings"
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...
Video portrait: 'Through The Eyes of Lonnie Holley: A Weekend in Utrecht'
During Le Guess Who? 2018, we spent a weekend with musician and visual artist Lonnie Holley in Utrecht. On the opening night of the festival, Lonnie performed with expressive trombone & drums duo Nelson Patton; the next day, he gave us a guided tour through the city of Utrecht, showing the many unique ways of how Holley experiences hi...
Introducing: Poema - a fixture in the life of every student in Utrecht joins LGW18
This year, Le Guess Who? will feature three new venues for the official music program: WAS., BASIS, and Poema. All of them are part of Utrecht’s buzzing nightlife and are among the most prominent clubs in town. This time, we introduce you to Poema: a fixture in the life of every student in Utrecht. Did you know Utrecht is one of th...
"Through The Eyes of Lonnie Holley": a guided tour through Utrecht as part of our Untitled program
Next week, we'll present our newest satellite event, 'Untitled', with one of the goals being 'an exploration of other artistic expressions by festival artists'. As part of Untitled, we will present a guided tour through Utrecht by acclaimed visual artist, improvising musician and 'Lover of Mother Universe' Lonnie Holley. Led by the m...
Video portrait: Swamp Dogg talks Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
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 on Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Consequently, Swamp Dogg became one of the quintessential outsider figures in American musi...
Watch FACT Magazine's 'Against The Clock' session with footwork originator RP Boo
Besides being one of Chicago’s finest producers, RP Boo is also known as the originator of footwork music. His music is of a propulsive and repetitive nature: rapid, bouncy beats have a weightless feel, floating free between abstraction and precision. Ahead of his performance at Le Guess Who?, FACT Magazine visited RP Boo in...
Interview: Future Feminism with Johanna Constantine
On a sinking ship penetrated by patriarchy, what do you “choose” to do?: Future Feminism with Johanna Constantine This year, Le Guess Who? collaborates with Turkey's Bant Mag. The independent magazine, based in Istanbul, has been bringing together new and exciting tendencies about music, film, arts and culture since 2004. Sta...
Track of the Week #23: The Scorpios - 'Mashena'
Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. As the festival is getting closer and closer, we dive deeper and deeper into this year's worldly, prismatic line-up. This week, we highlight the elated mix of Arabic rhythms, raw Eastern funk and vintage psychedelia of The Scorpios. Having fled from the...
Introducing: BASIS - a sanctuary for house/techno lovers at Utrecht's medieval canals joins LGW18
This year, Le Guess Who? will feature three new venues for the official music program: WAS., BASIS, and Poema. All of them are part of Utrecht’s buzzing nightlife and are among the most prominent clubs in town. This time, we introduce you to BASIS: an Utrechtian sanctuary for house and techno lovers. "BASIS is located at a unique v...
Blanck Mass amongst final line-up additions + announcing venue hosts
Today, we announce three final line-up additions for Le Guess Who? 2018, including a performance by British electronic musician/producer Blanck Mass. We are also sharing some venue hosts during the festival; find their descriptions below & see when/where they are hosting in our downloadable time schedules. Blanck Mass Sin...
Éliane Radigue: a personal quest in exploration of sound
On Thursday, 8 November (the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2018), French experimental orchestra ONCEIM will perform twice in Utrecht’s iconic Dom church; a collaboration between Le Guess Who? a...
Joe Cardamone shares video for new track 'East Side No One'
L.A. based experimental musician Joe Cardamone, formerly of The Icarus Line, is now performing under his own name and preparing the release of 'Holy War Collection'. He now releases a new single...
Mount Eerie announces '(after)', recorded live at Le Guess Who? 2017
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...
Introducing: Kate NV depicts everyday life in Moscow through otherworldly, playful electronica
Moscow-born Kate NV creates bustling and colorful electronic soundscapes that intrigue and inspire. Normally, she's a guitar-wielding post-punker and performer within Moscow Scratch Orchestra. But as...
Vera Sola reveals video for new song 'Small Minds'
Vera Sola is a New York-based vocalist, poet and multi-instrumentalist. Her musical endeavours in recent years have included performing with Elvis Perkins as well as writing several film and...
A Genre In Motion: Lydia Lunch & New York No Wave
Le Guess Who 2018 will host the influential Lydia Lunch and her Big Sexy Noise. How did Lunch become the revered anti-establishment figure she is today? This article offers a brief exploration of the...
JPEGMAFIA traces his eclectic childhood influences in Billboard interview
In a new interview with Billboard, experimental producer JPEGMAFIA discusses the elements from his childhood that have influenced him and his music.Including Biker Mice From Mars, Conker's B...
"Finding recovery in dancing post-punk": Loud And Quiet meet Crack Cloud
A multimedia collective that includes members from different cities, ethnicities and origins, Crack Cloud express themselves through quirky, pungent songs filled with adventurous spirit. Loud And...
Circuit des Yeux shares new video 'Falling Blonde'
Last year, Circuit des Yeux released her fifth studio album 'Reaching For Indigo'; a deeply personal record and probably Haley Fohr's most fulfilled full-length to date. Now, Circuit des Yeux has...
Podcast: Eleanor Friedberger talks Lou Reed, Guns N’ Roses, and performing like a standup comic
In Consequence of Sound's most recent 'This Must Be The Gig' podcast, Eleanor Friedberger joined host Lior Phillips to talk about her experiences touring the world with The Fiery Furnaces, a...
Listen to Gruff Rhys' full surprise performance at LGW17, via The Line of Best Fit
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...
Audio archive update: Elza Soares live at Le Guess Who? 2016
After eight decades of triumph and tragedy, Brazilian protest singer Elza Soares is lauded as queen of samba and a powerful voice against repression and injustice relating to gender, race, sexual orie...
OkayAfrica premieres Les Amazones d'Afrique's life-affirming set at LGW17
The West African collective of Les Amazones d'Afrique performed live at Le Guess Who? 2017, with Mamani Keita, Rokia Koné, and Kandia Kouyate as lead singers. Now, OkayAfrica pre...
Interview: Kane Strang go crate-digging at the World's Largest Record Fair during LGW17
The Line Of Best Fit interview Kane Strang, on 3 albums he would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Read in fu...
Listen: Orphax shares new album 'Somniatores'
Moving Furniture-founder Sietse van Erve aka Orphax is performing as part of our 12-Hour Drone during Le Guess Who? 2017 on Sunday, 12 November. Now, he shares his new album 'Somniātōrēs', the follow-...
Honoring the life & work of Alice Coltrane with a participatory experience at LGW17
The Sai Anantam Ashram Singers - hailing from the Ashram that Alice Coltrane herself founded in LA - perform Coltrane’s ecstatic music which was recorded in seclusion inside the temple. It is th...
Meet Leonie Bos; this year's Le Guess Who? Illustrator
Besides the artwork and typography done yearly by Loudmouth Utrecht, Le Guess Who? each year invites a different illustrator to design the main festival images, which evolves during multiple line-up a...
Listen to John Maus' latest track 'Teenage Witch'
Avant-pop maestro John Maus announced his new album 'Screen Memories' late August, and now, he shares the new track 'Teenage Witch' from the album. Watch the video below, featuring footage of a very y...
Watch: Le Guess Who? & Volkskrant video portrait of James Holden
Le Guess Who? & de Volkskrant bring you video portraits of artists performing at Le Guess Who? 2017. We visit James Holden in his London studio to discuss his new album 'The Animal Spirits', play...
Tom Rogerson collaborates with Brian Eno on new album; listen to 'Motion in Field'
The skills of British improvisational pianist & composer Tom Rogerson were previously on display with experimental rockers Three Trapped Tigers. For his debut album 'Finding Shore', Rogerson colla...
Oumou Sangaré cancels her performance at LGW17; Sun Ra Arkestra graces our line-up instead
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...
Ahmed Fakroun: rediscovered pioneer in modern Arabic music, live with Dutch-Turkish act Altin Gün
Ahmed Fakroun is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, raï singer (based on a form of Algerian folk music from the 20's) and pioneer in modern Arabic music. As a kid, Fakroun already developed a f...
Pharoah Sanders & Peter Brötzmann featured in Pitchfork's Best Albums of the 1960s
Pitchfork have just published their list of best albums of the 1960s - no less than 200 choices, that include jazz icon Pharoah Sanders' influential and cosmic 'Karma', as well as The Peter Brötz...
Listen to Perfume Genius' new Spotify Singles
Perfume Genius curates his very own program at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring a.o. Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Mount Eerie, Aldous Harding, Weyes Blood, and Pharma...
The Como Mamas: gospel trinity that can move and save you, lift you up & pull you through
Hailing from the small town of Como, Mississippi, The Como Mamas consist of Sisters Angela Taylor and Della Daniels together with their friend Ester Mae Smith. They have been singing together since ch...
Protomartyr announce new album, share first single 'A Private Understanding'
Detroit's Protomartyr just announced their new album 'Relatives In Descent', to be released September 29th on Domino Records, and co-produced and recorded with Sonny DiPerri (Animal Collecti...
Dutch-Turkish psych rock band Altin Gün release their first single
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...
Les Amazones d’Afrique: making a big noise for women in a world run by men
Les Amazones d'Afrique are a gathering of some of the most powerful female voices of West-Africa. These performers use their music as a weapon to address the disempowerment of women across Africa and...
OCnotes: a wildly unpredictable yet razor-sharp sound explorer, curated by Shabazz Palaces
Born in the Southwest of the United States as Otis Calvin III, OCnotes was influenced at an early age by skateboard culture and developed a fascination for cartoons, as well as receiving musical educa...
Playlist: Le Guess Who? 2019 selected by Walter Roadburn
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...
Explore Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed's curation at LGW19 with their exclusive playlist
Le Guess Who? 2019 curator Salvador Breed has personally put together a playlist for the program he curates together with Iris van Herpen at the festival. The playlist features their favorite tracks from each artist they have invited to Le Guess Who?. About:Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen is widely recognized as one of...
Le Guess Who? collaborates with Dutch Council for Refugees & NewBees for 'Grant an Entry' initiative
(Nederlandse versie hieronder) With Day Tickets and 4-Day Passes for Le Guess Who? 2022 currently being on sale, we are once again offering the 'Grant an Entry' option in our ticketing system, for which we are continuing our cooperation with the Dutch Council for Refugees and NewBees The 'Grant an Entry' initiative gives festival v...
Explore the 3rd edition of Hidden Musics at Le Guess Who? 2022, aimed at deeply localized music
In 2019, the concert series Hidden Musics originated between Le Guess Who?, Chris Eckman of Glitterbeat Records and GRAMMY Award-winning producer and writer Ian Brennan, from the shared belief that it is important to platform underrepresented artists, and magnify music produced far from the mainstream. In 2022, we are proud the present th...
Watch: Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam's European live debut at LGW21, premiered by Songlines
Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021, marking her European live debut. In 2020, she received the prestigious Songlines Awards for African Artist of the Year following the release of her album 'Siti of Unguja'. Now, Songlines premieres the concert film of Siti Muharam's performance at Le Guess Who?, featur...
South African drummer & composer Tumi Mogorosi announces new album 'Group Theory: Black Music'; listen to 'The Fall'
*Update: the full 'Group Theory: Black Music' album is out now: Ever since his debut album 'Project Elo' in 2014, Tumi Mogorosi has built a reputation of being one of the most captivating young creatives in the South African scene, collaborating with Shabaka & the Ancestors along the way. This July, the Johannesburg-bas...
Nia Archives shares new single 'Baianá'
After receiving the NME Award for Best Producer earlier this year, and being featured as "the red-hot jungle producer taking over the UK's dancefloors", prodigious UK raver Nia Archives is back with new single 'Baianá'. Watch the video for 'Baianá' below. The samples the traditional Brazilian choir Barbatuques, Nia Archives...
Listen/read: Flamenco innovator Lole Montoya: “I would not be able to sing something I’m not feeling”
Already at an early age, Lole Montoya decided that she wanted to dedicate her life to singing. But not only did she indeed become a singer, she also redefined the flamenco genre by bringing in new influences, genres and poetry. Her skill has been displayed across a long repertoire, which includes her work as part of the renowned duo Lole...
Interview: The Quietus speak to Baltimore quartet Horse Lords
In an interview for The Quietus, Jakub Knera speaks with Baltimore experimental rock quartet Horse Lords. Days before the release of their upcoming album 'Comradely Objects,' Horse Lords open up about their new record, politics and architecture in their music and how the pandemic changed the way they play. Read the full interview here, an...
Announcing U?, Le Guess Who?'s largest free day program to date
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 a...
LGW x IDFA: film program during LGW22 at Slachtstraat Filmtheater
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...
'Baskot Lel Baltageyya', debut album of musician Adham Zidan & poet Anwar Dabbour
Last month, Baskot Lel Baltageyya (meaning 'cookies for thugs'), a Cairo-based project headed by musician Adham Zidan and poet Anwar Dabbour, released their self-titled debut album. An album that serves as an extension of their phantasmagoric live show. Baskot Lel Baltageyya by Baskot Baskot Lel Baltageyya started as...
Listen/read: Cheikha Rabia: a destiny tied to the continuous reinvention of rai, by Lafawndah
This November, Le Guess Who? will feature a special performance by Cheikha Rabia, a renowned singer with over five decades of experience in reinventing rai music. Her performance will be a collaboration with Esraa Warda, a prolific dancer expert in traditional North African dance forms. Both artists hail from Algeria, but currently, Cheik...
Revisit our video portrait of James Holden in his London studio
James Holden's musical life is full of diversity, be it in roles assumed (producer, remixer, DJ, record label boss, synth maestro, band leader, mix engineer, and software developer) or in genres explored (trance, progressive house, minimal techno, IDM, synth, and jazz). His latest rave record, Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of...
Irreversible Entanglements announce new album 'Protect Your Light' via Impulse! Records
Free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements, spearheaded by former LGW curator Moor Mother, met amidst an event protesting police brutality. Since then, they have released three full-length albums, the last being 2021's Open The Gates. Now, the collective add a new offering to their catalogue; their new album Protect Your Light will...
Irreversible Entanglements release new album ‘Protect Your Light’
Irreversible Entanglements, the free jazz collective hailed by NPR as “Perhaps the most thrilling band in jazz right now,” has released their new album Protect Your Light. Released through Impulse! Records, this album marks a significant milestone in the world of experimental jazz. The group is comprised of vocalist Cama...
Playlist: LGW23 curated by Heba Kadry
As a hallmark of Le Guess Who?, the festival each year invites trailblazing creatives to curate their own dedicated programs, highlighting fellow like-minded artists and those that have inspired them. Heba Kadry, a mastering engineer born in Egypt and currently based in Brooklyn, has curated a program for Le Guess Who? 2023 that she now...
Listen to Nihiloxica’s new album ‘Source of Denial’
As Nihiloxica, musician Spooky-J and producer pq harness the full force of the Nilotika Cultural Ensemble's ancient Bugandan drumming tradition of Uganda and focus it on the contemporary dance floor through a dark lens of techno sensibility. Their new album, Source of Denial, which serves as a follow-up of their 2020 debut album Kaloli,...
Armand Hammer release new album ‘We Buy Diabetic Test Strips’
New York rap virtuosos billy woods and ELUCID, collectively known as Armand Hammer, are back with their much-anticipated album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips. This release serves as a follow-up to their 2021 cult hit Haram, produced by the Alchemist. Listeners can also expect some familiar sounds of Le Guess Who?, as the duo has invited th...
Playlist: LGW23 curated by Stereolab
As a hallmark of Le Guess Who?, the festival each year invites trailblazing creatives to curate their own dedicated programs, highlighting fellow like-minded artists and those that have inspired them. Anglo-French avant-pop group Stereolab have been hailed as one of the most influential and fiercely independent groups of the 90s. For Le...
The Quietus talk to Stereolab about their curation at LGW23
Anglo-French avant-pop group Stereolab have been hailed as one of the most influential and fiercely independent groups of the 90s. Their curation at Le Guess Who? 2023 features a.o. UK’s noted electronic artist James Holden; Nigerien Tuareg musician Bombino; composer and organist Kali Malone together with cellist Lucy Railton and gu...
Bombino releases new album 'Sahel'
Despite being raised on Hendrix and Knopfler, Omara 'Bombino' Moctar breathes new life onto his strings with the mission to earnestly share the beauty of Tuareg culture with others. The first-ever GRAMMY-nominated artist from Niger was raised amidst governmental violence and persecution, and the force of resistance is brought out in each...
Listen/read: Kamilya Jubran: Witnessing a transcendent moment on stage
This November, Le Guess Who? features a performance by Kamilya Jubran, which was curated by mastering engineer Heba Kadry. Born in Palestine and currently based in Paris, Kamilya Jubran is one of the most revered figures in the experimental and alternative Arabic music scenes. Through her multi-disciplinary work, Jubran continues t...
Listen/read: How seven trailblazing LGW artists reimagine their cultural & musical heritage
You can also listen to this story – below or via your favorite podcast app. Words by Julian BrimmersAudio by Cheri PercyCover photo by Gianfranco Bello For 16 years and counting, Le Guess Who? has strived to create a space for generations of music lovers and makers to come together. A podium, where icons of their trade n...
"It was the right place at the right time": COSMOS Goes Behind the Scenes in Montréal, Canada
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes with POP Montréal In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. Ever since Le Guess Who?'s very first edition, there's been a strong bond with POP Montréal’s 20+ year long history of platforming cutting-edge music. Fo...
"We construct a different narrative": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Athens with stegi.radio
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Athens with stegi.radio In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. The scene in Greece has undergone a renaissance of sorts, with Athens becoming a hotspot for creative minds from around the world. Needless to say, this development hasn't...
Watch: Stereolab live at Le Guess Who? 2023 concert film
Recently, we celebrated the 100th festival recording being included in our online recordings archive. Now, we are elated to share the concert film of Anglo-French avant-pop group and festival curators Stereolab live at Le Guess Who? 2023. Hailed as one of the most influential and fiercely independent groups of the 90s, Stereolab's influe...
"What does music mean in society?": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes with Sharjah Art Foundation
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes with Sharjah Art Foundation In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. Located in Sharjah’s historic Art and Heritage Areas, Sharjah Art Foundation activities and events take place throughout the year and include exhibitions featuring t...
Basilica Hudson & LGW present the return of 24-HOUR DRONE
Presented by Basilica Hudson and Le Guess Who? in collaboration with Sarah Van Buren, 24-HOUR DRONE is set to return to Basilica Hudson Saturday, May 18th – Sunday, May 19th, 2024 (noon to noon) in Hudson, New York. Tickets are available here. 24-HOUR DRONE features an international roster of musicians and sonic artists acros...
"The result is yet to be discovered": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Palestine
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Palestine Following their broadcast during Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of COSMOS, we talk to brothers Elias and Youssef Anatas, the people behind Radio Alhara, about creating a new form of public space and bringing people from different parts of the world together. Words by Beatriz Negreiros During t...
"The perfect place to run away to": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Goa, India
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Goa, India Following different collaborations with Le Guess Who?, including for LGW Embassy: Goa, India which debuted last November, COSMOS talks to Rana Ghose (REProduce) about risk-taking as a focus area; instinct as a curatorial aspect and how Goa differs from the rest of India. As one artist chimes in: "E...
"Lifting each other up to cross the finish line": COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Accra, Ghana with Oroko Radio
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes with Oroko Radio In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. Within the first two years of their existence, Oroko Radio has come from a beautiful idea to a globally renowned fixture in independent broadcasting, connecting the dots between Accr...
COSMOS Embassy Announcement: ICRN (Vilnius, Lithuania)
COSMOS x ICRN announce their 2024 Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania Bringing together DIY broadcasters from the Baltics and beyond, the Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN) has created an impactful platform that proves once more, that there is always strength in numbers. In 2022, a handful of activists and community radios from...
Tashi Wada releases first solo album 'What Is Not Strange?'
With his music, Tashi Wada explores resonance, dissonance and alternative tunings to create rich and unanticipated effects. Now, the Los Angeles-based composer and performer releases What Is Not Strange?, his first full-length solo album via RVNG Intl. The album - his most ambitious and impassioned yet - finds him rummaging through a puz...
Zsela releases debut album 'Big For You'
With her raw, vulnerable and forceful music, Zsela established herself as a singer-songwriter of cavernous depth. Anticipated by the singles Lily of the Nile, Fire Excape and Not Your Angel, Zsela now releases her debut album Big For You on which she's built a sonic landscape that flows between grandiosity and intimacy. Refl...
Le Guess Who? Reveals Program & Embassy Partners for COSMOS 2024
With the ethos of Listening is the Way Forward, Le Guess Who? is widely considered to be one of the most forward-thinking festivals around. Le Guess Who? exists to promote sounds that are often overlooked, and to platform fresh perspectives on what is possible in music. Artists from all over the world push the boundaries of expectations...
Stay Fluid: COSMOS goes Behind the Scenes in Melbourne, Australia with Liquid Architecture
COSMOS: Behind the Scenes with Liquid Architecture In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. For over two decades, Liquid Architecture has grown from a student project to Australia’s premier festival for experimental and avant-garde music. In its current form,...
U? collaborates with community curators for 2024 program
Le Guess Who? exists to bring people together through music and art. U?, its freely accessible city program, is dedicated to celebrating creativity in all its diversity. For U? 2024, we are collaborating with five different NL-based community curators who will highlight their communities and creativity at the festival. U? aims to collabo...
Volunteering applications for LGW23 now open
We got an amazing amount of enthousiastic responds to our call for volunteers, so therefore we closed the registrations for now. However, schedules always change and there is a chance that a spot will open up. That's why we opened a waiting list. You can sign up for the waiting list here.Please keep in mind that being on the waiting list...
Listen: COSMOS on Refuge Worldwide with LE 18 and Underground Music Academy
Every first Monday of the month, COSMOS broadcasts episodes of their radio show on Refuge Worldwide, highlighting their deep-running network of partners from around the world. On Monday, 7 October, from 2-4 PM, COSMOS returns with two new episodes. LE 18 For the first hour, we tapped our 2024 Embassy partners LE 18 for a guided tour thr...
Photo series: Trailblazing artists of LGW23 by Melanie Marsman & Juri Hiensch
For 16 years and counting, Le Guess Who? has strived to create a space for generations of music lovers and makers to come together. A podium where icons of their trade not just pass the baton to those that carve out a new path – but where they engage on eye-level. In 2023, Le Guess Who? once again boasted an array of young artists...
COSMOS Embassy Mix Vol. 1: Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective (HCMC, Vietnam)
This year, COSMOS once again proudly partners up with acts, institutions, and collectives from around the globe. The 2023 Embassies are located in Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Greece, UAE, Peru and Ghana. In order to introduce the amazing talents behind these collaborations, we're starting a new interview & music series call...
M(h)aol share new album and KEXP session
Through their electrifying live performances, intersectional feminist firebrands M(h)aol are fostering an environment of unity and strength, and gaining a reputation that brought them to the iconic KEXP sessions stduio. In their performance, vocalist and drummer Constance Keane fearlessly drives the trio as they tackle the systemic oppres...
Sarathy Korwar - Live at Le Guess Who? 2022
Sarathy Korwar performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 on the night preceding the release of his new album 'KALAK'. You can now relive the full performance below, which includes tracks from that album, as well as 'Coolie', performed live together with Alabaster dePlume. AboutBorn in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Ch...
Mount Eerie - (after)
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 Jacobikerk, a magnificent gothic church that dates back to the 13th century, in front of a reverent crowd. '(after)' features songs from Mount...
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Live at Le Guess Who? 2017
Linton Kwesi Johnson's impressive body of work includes stints as reggae poet, political orator, recording artist, and author/journalist. His 1978 reggae album Dread Beat an' Blood is a statement akin to Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. A vocal personality who fights oppression against black youth, the Jamaica-born...
Gruff Rhys - Live at Le Guess Who? 2017
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 took pace in the stunning Jacobikerk. The song 'Colonise The Moon' features Cate Le Bon and Sweet Baboo on piano & clarinet. The Line of...
Les Amazones d'Afrique - Live at Le Guess Who? 2017
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 force powerful enough to tear through the walls of oppression, patriarchy and disempowerment. Not only that: Les Amazones d'Afrique is a repre...
Siti Muharam - Live at Le Guess Who? 2021
Zanzibar singer Siti Muharam performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021, marking her European live debut. In 2020, she received the prestigious Songlines Awards for African Artist of the Year following the release of her album 'Siti of Unguja'. Now, Songlines premieres the concert film of Siti Muharam's performance at Le Guess Who?, featur...
Lonnie Holley feat. Nelson Patton - Live at Le Guess Who? 2018
During Le Guess Who? 2018, we spent a weekend with musician and visual artist Lonnie Holley in Utrecht. On the opening night of the festival, Lonnie performed with expressive trombone & drums duo Nelson Patton; the next day, he gave us a guided tour through the city of Utrecht, showing the many unique ways of how Holley experiences hi...
Alanis Obomsawin - Live at Le Guess Who? 2017
Filmmaker and songwriter Alanis Obomsawin performed songs from her 1985 album ‘Bush Lady’ live for the first time at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring music of the Native American Abenaki people. The performance was curated by Jerusalem In My Heart, and also included 2 never recorded songs: 'La Berceuse' & 'The Spirit Of The R...
Elza Soares - Live at Le Guess Who? 2016
After eight decades of triumph and tragedy, Brazilian protest singer Elza Soares is lauded as queen of samba and a powerful voice against repression and injustice relating to gender, race, sexual orientation and class. At Le Guess Who? 2016, Soares gave a powerful performance, presenting work from her 34th album, 'The Woman at the End of...
Selda Bagcan - Live at Le Guess Who? 2014
Selda Bağcan is a legendary Turkish singer and political activist. Her first singles, about political struggle and the demands of the working class, sold over 1 million copies. Selda’s psychedelic interpretations of traditional Turkish folk music and her political views have lost Selda her passport and caused her to be repeatedly im...
Stereolab - Live at Le Guess Who? 2023
Recently, we celebrated the 100th festival recording being included in our online recordings archive. Now, we are elated to share the concert film of Anglo-French avant-pop group and festival curators Stereolab live at Le Guess Who? 2023. Hailed as one of the most influential and fiercely independent groups of the 90s, Stereolab's influe...
Alan Sparhawk - Live at Le Guess Who? 2023
Last November, Alan Sparhawk returned to Europe to play some select solo shows, the first being a performance at Le Guess Who?. Three decades ago, Sparhawk co-founded the band Low alongside vocalist and drummer Mimi Parker, who sadly passed away in late 2022. Their music derived elemental power from its fearless exploration of quiet, ge...
Le Guess Who? 2017 Press Archive
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" 3voor12: "Kelly Lee Owens, dagdromer met kennishonger" 3voor12: "Le Guess Who? str...
Privacy statement
Version April 2025 Le Guess Who Foundation (hereafter referred to as LGW) wishes to explain how it handles and uses your personal data. LGW values the privacy of visitors, volunteers, artists, and all employees, and is responsible for all provided data, while ensuring the protection of the data being handled. We will treat data confident...
About Utrecht
"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
About Utrecht
"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
Apply for a Low Income Day Ticket
(Nederlandse tekst hieronder) In 2025, Le Guess Who? continues to offer Low Income Day Tickets. This initiative arises from the fact that we hear that the ticket price is one of the biggest barriers for people to visit the festival. We want to give people - who would like to visit the festival but don’t have the financial reso...