Lineup
The famous Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares ('Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices') is comprised of 22 members. Performing in traditional clothing, the varying voices of the cho...
The tour if full. You can sign up for the waiting list via this form.Le Guess Who? and Triomf invited nine artists to present their work in the public space of Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2021....
It was at Le Guess Who? 2016 that Niger quartet Les Filles de Illighadad made their European debut - and, six years later, after incessantly touring the world, they are back to Utrecht with a brand ne...
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Brewpub De Kromme Haring is the house brewer of Le Guess Who?. Visit the brewpub and see where the festival beer is made, drink a pint of the LGW Yuzu Pale Ale or try YAYA's non-alcoholic Kombucha. Th...
During Le Guess Who?, Stranded FM will be hosting radioshows by renowned festival artists and gems from the Utrecht scene alike from their studio. Situated in print-studio Kapitaal, this com...
This event will hit you just as hard in the face as the rest of our program. No, you don’t have to step into the ring yourself, but you will be able to marvel at several intense boxing-matches a...
De Nijverheid is a cultural freeport full of artists from all kinds of disciplines. Over fifty artists call this their second home, making De Nijverheid an artistic hub that sparks new creativity, une...
Le Guess Who? will host a special lunch at LOU Oudenoord. A place for conversation, reflection, relaxation and great food. Engage in talks with your fellow festival visitors about all the things you&r...
The performative character of the work of painter Koen Delaere can be compared to experiencing a live music performance or to making music in which meaning evolves while listening and playing. A spont...
Meant to perform at last year’s LGW OFF event, in 2021 Gebroeders Dieleman van Eeckhout join the main line-up of Le Guess Who?. This project is carried out by unorthodox duo Colin H. van Eeckhou...
Peach Tree, Ambiguous is a research project mapping production processes of value and meaning in the spiritual void around luxury goods. Simulating a tribalized department-store, the exhibition shows...
Through live interviews and performances, listening sessions, art exhibitions and all things print and sound, Kapitaal, Utrecht’s beloved independent print workshop, will transform into a three-...
An intimate portrait of the circumstances surrounding the creation of Jerusalem In My Heart’s live recording of “Wa Ta’atalat Loughat Al Kalam” (The language of speech has brok...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & De Utrechtse Boekenbar
Within the setting of one of Utrechts’ finest curated bookstores, our artistic director Bob van Heur will discuss with Grammy-winning pro...
After attending a workshop in deejaying and music producing by East African platform Femme Electronic, model Anita Kevin decided to try it herself. Watching her do her thing as DJ Turkana, we would be...
Berlin-based, Spanish-born musician Adrián de Alfonso has collaborated with names like Lydia Lunch, El Guincho and Le Guess Who? curator Lucrecia Dalt. However, it is on his own that...
Theater Kikker x U? presents The EarIn the 30-minute one-on-one performance Sensory Sensation Series No.1 – The Ear, the ear of the participant is central. The participant, the ear and the...
De Witte Kunst is a Dutch musical ensemble consisting of multi-instrumentalist Lyckle de Jong and songwriter and singer Koen van Bommel. In their songs they dream about a better world, resulting in a...
Take a tour around the Ulu Mosque in Lombok. This is one of the biggest mosques in the Netherlands, and possibly also one of the most striking ones. When your train pulls into Utrecht Central Station...
Kaap De Goede Hoop builds a landscape of warm analog tones, crackling beats and disorienting voices. The live set is always different, reacting to the environment and atmospheres in the room. In a war...
Wanderwelle & Floor van het Nederend present their debut graphic novel ‘De Duizendpoot’ (The Millipede). The Wanderwelle duo is known for their electro-acoustic compositions and more....
The art of storytelling gives you an imaginative experience and a great opportunity to connect, learn, share, exchange and have fun. Accompanied by music and photographs, Women of De Voorkamer will pr...
When De Ambassade first began dropping music unannounced, the Dutch scene noticed and proceeded to ask for more; and so, there came more cold and distant synth-wave tracks, whose reverb wrapping made...
Through the Buurt tour, you will explore the neighborhood Lombok and discover some favorite spots of De Voorkamers’ community members. They will match Dutch speaking with non-Dutch speaking part...
Rotterdam’s new livewire post-punk act Tramhaus have quickly carved out their own space within the iconic Dutch port city. On stage Tramhaus create shell-shocking havoc, with fragments of unfort...
As a resident photographer for LGW and a resident of Utrecht, Juri Hiensch has been rediscovering the city of Utrecht. He has captured the unique character of several neighborhoods outside the city ce...
Petersburg is one of the most mysterious and unique indie bands in the Netherlands. The band, formerly known as Petersburg Orderer and consisting of Camiel Muiser, Erik van de Paardt, Boris de Klerk (...
De Schuurman’s 2021 release – ‘Bubbling Inside’, a collaboration between Kampala-based label Nyege Nyege Tapes and Rotterdam’s platform Pantropical – centers around...
La Double Vie de Véronique is a story of two women that go by the same name and share the same hopes and dreams, even though the one lives in Poland and the other in France. Unaware of the exis...
Kleine Crack is the only Belgian artist signed to Burning Fik. The cult-rapper and his producer-teammate Slagter create ominous hip-hop, set to heavy beats. In their hometown ANNA (Antwerp) they are s...
Lili Boulanger (1893) is a unique and prodigious case studies in music history, taking up singing, organ, piano, violin, cello and harp at the premature age of five. In 1913, she became the first woma...
As a full-time member of Utrecht-based folk/slowcore formation I Am Oak, Dutch musician Robby de Selby is a versatile talent with an ear for both delightful melodies and foggy atmospherics. De Selby h...
Somewhere close to the sounds of trains leaving and entering Utrecht Central Station, you can find the Ping Pong Club. Ping Pong & DJ’s will take place in this industrial former warehouse. P...
Have a look inside one of Utrecht’s biggest creative hubs. At Vechtclub Market a large number of entrepreneurs from Vechtclub XL will be showcasing their work. From ceramics and illustrations to...
Le Feast returns to Utrecht! On Sunday 14 November, Le Feast invites you into a living room in Utrecht, to enjoy a feast together with people you don't know (yet). Many Utrechtian home-chefs will tran...
At the Lombok Food Market you will encounter a world of flavours. Local entrepreneurs and residents are serving delicious food all day; from masoesa to tulumba and from hummus to mash. Fill your plate...
In collaboration with Centraal Museum
The Colombian ambient producer Lucrecia Dalt composed a commissioned piece for the exhibition De Line Up, which displays a rich overview of the power of drawing...
Joey van der Kaaij and his neighbor Nuno Monteiro began experimenting recording together in a studio in a student building in de Bijlmer, Amsterdam. That collaboration has transformed into Ayman Maas...
Location: Korte Minrebroederstraat
AKMAR is a multidisciplinary artist working with a range of disciplines, from video and computer generated work to physical sculptures. Vanitas is about digital tra...
At De Voorkamer you can learn the Syrian folk dance Dabke. Amer, who will be the teacher, is a health and food enthusiast, a body builder whose message is that everyone should stay fit and healthy wit...
Location: Vredenburgplein
Aïda Gómez is an urban artist based in Berlin. Working with language games and the playful replacement of social codes in our everyday environment, she finds a w...
Hailing from the town of Agadez, which is known as “the gateway to the desert”, Etran de L’Aïr capture the pulse of everyday life at weddings, baptisms, political events, outdoo...
Hidden Musics
If it makes any sense – mystical phenomena rarely do – Octavia Mendoza Anario, aka La Bruja de Texcoco (‘The Witch of Texcoco’), reinvigorates the canon of Mexic...
Location: Weerdsluis
Boneless, brainless and bloodless. Jellyfish are fascinating creatures that can survive in various aquatic environments. They can thrive in the ice-cold depths of the Arctic as w...
The Amsterdam-based trio Marathon started out as a psychedelic shoegaze band, until they got a taste of the exuberance of garage punk. This discovery eventually led to the sound that characterises Mar...
Le Mini Who? is a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?. It turns venues, cafes, art spaces and even a fire station of the fast-developing and creative area Cartesius into improvised venues for (mainly)...
As a spin-off festival of Le Guess Who?, Le Mini Who? transforms many of Utrecht’s local bars, restaurants, venues and warehouses into improvised venues for (mainly) Dutch underground bands to p...
Le Mini Who? presents the contemporary (Dutch) underground, in collaboration with independent local stores, shops and bars. It transforms Utrecht's city streets into a festival area, with more than fi...
Producer and musician Cate Le Bon creates a unique vocabulary of freak folk, post-punk and psych pop. Thanks to her jagged guitar playing and Welsh diction, Le Bon is the definition of elusive. Behind...
KULTUS, a solo project by Otto Kokke, is exploring the lines dividing music from sound. Stripped of all rhythm and melody, KULTUS songs are all about creating a physical sound that is much larger than...
Haley Fohr’s Circuit des Yeux creates an unprecedented deep and rich sound. On Fohr’s latest, acclaimed album Reaching for Indigo, she combines 50s & 60s avant-garde with drone, experi...
Location: Vredenburgviaduct
Climate change is destroying our planet, but nature has no voice to protest it or warn us. In their poetic art project Letters from Nature, Jeroen van der Most and Peter v...
French label Versatile Records prides itself on encouraging artists to stray far from the norm. ‘Jours De Grève’, helmed by French folk muse Emmanuelle Parrenin and German electroni...
Howart is operating in the psychedelica, kraut and noise pop realm. The project was founded by Anneke Nieuwdorp and has been her vehicle for experimenting, exciting art for the past ten years. The ban...
Aestrid is a three-piece veteran post-rock band from Utrecht. They're well-known for their intense live performances as well as their post-hardcore mentality; they wear their hearts on their sleeves.&...
This will be the première of Aurélie Poppins (Cocaine Piss) and RomanOwitch (Detroit Underground) newest project. IDM scented alchemy of dirty, wet concrete-like hip-hop; acid synthesize...
DUTCH CULT/CAMP TV, THINGS THAT DRIVE YOU MAD, AND NOISY GRINDPUNK!!!!!! ZALM IS A NEW EINDHOVEN-BASED ONE-MAN BAND THAT BRINGS UNPREDICTABLE SCREAMS AND DEEP, DARK GRUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ZALM IS FOR...
Since 2012 Big Hare has been creating electronic mantras about things like internet phenomena, awkwardness and masquerades. In late 2019 they launched their second LP 'Lucky Dip' with Blowpipe Records...
Insert Blank Records is very proud to present to you their very first real-life showcase event. The new record label worked hard to build a diverse and joyful organization that represents the exciteme...
Are you ready for music from Afghanistan? Ghafar Amini is known within the Afghan community in the Netherlands and plays well-known Afghan songs. Along with the music, you will be able to fully experi...
Common Frames and Radio Einstein present Greet & Meet: films, podcasts, photographs, talkshows and art, about and by newcomers from Utrecht and the surrounding region. In the wooden trailer you ca...
Ambient drones, cowboy psychedelia and fuzz folk - that's how singer-songwriter Bart de Kroon AKA Homemade Empire from Utrecht describes the sounds with which he takes us back to the future. With his...
Velvet-Rebel’s dynamic and energetic sounds carry an important message of living fully with a mysterious dark edge. His use of a tight rhythmic spine of drums combined with bass with acceleratin...
The Amsterdam-based, but born and raised in Incheon, Korea, Sun-Mi Hong has a unique perspective of life. With a signature of rooted groove in combination with well-tempered outbursts, Sun Mi has plac...
Every year, Le Feast invites you into a living room in Utrecht, to enjoy a feast together with people you don't know (yet). Many Utrechtian home-chefs will transform their living room into a cozy brun...
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...
Every year, Le Feast invites you into a living room in Utrecht, to enjoy a feast together with people you don't know (yet). Many Utrechtian home-chefs will transform their living room into a cozy brun...
Before TivoliVredenburg opened in 2014, Le Guess Who? had its headquarters at beloved pop venue Tivoli Oudegracht. This year, we are happy to return to our roots with a very special project: Collabora...
U? is Le Guess Who? participatory and freely accessible day program created for and with the city of Utrecht. During U?, programs are made with, or even fully by, local initiatives, entrepreneurs, soc...
Cate Le Bon is celebrated for her playful lyricism, and her inventive pop melodies combined with post-punk takeoffs. Last year, the Welsh avant-pop songwriter released her most tantalizing record yet...
Le Bazarre is a renowned and travelling market inspired by quality vintage, second hand and indie craft. It hosts curated vendors and takes place on a new, inspiring location within the city of Utrech...
'Le Poème du Feu' is perhaps Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s most recognizable work. The ghostly symphonic piece, loosely based on the myth of Prometheus, even gave way to new music...
Colombian artist Julián Mayorga reminds us how freeing it can be to not take ourselves too seriously. Upon graduating from a Masters degree in electroacoustics and algorithmic composition in Ma...
Foundation De Pastoe Fabriek presents
De Pastoe Fabriek promotes the objective of good design from an aesthetical and corporate social responsibility perspective, stimulating designers to appreciate...
Shoko Igarashi, born in Yamagata prefecture, Japan, took her talent for the saxophone and flute all over the world, from New York to Brussels. Shoko has dabbled in a variety of musical genres, includi...
Location: TivoliVredenburg
Ginta Tinte Vasermane studied audiovisual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. She works in the field of motion...
Location: TivoliVredenburg
Wilhelmusvlug is a contemporary artist whose main focus for the last 15 years has been on monumental light art and video art installations. All My Colours is a light art in...
Location: Neude
What happens when you embrace noise? FROM NOISE is an audio-visual sculpture consisting of countless noise frequencies. The noise is used as a building block in an abstract landscape...
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...
Rotterdam-based, eclectic Kraut collective Smudged blends elements of hypnotic synth patterns, garage drums, fuzz guitars and kraut basslines resulting in a scuzzy mix of energetic garage and electron...
Dutch composer Wouter van Veldhoven explores the possibilities offered by archaic magnetic sound recording, processing and playback. He uses refurbished/adapted tape recorders, wire recorders and disc...
The Fire Harvest balances beautifully between slow core, country-noir and post-rock. They master the art of dosage, of giving substance to their music in the right way so that tension is preserved. Wh...
Right nextdoor to the chaos of Utrecht Central station is Perron West, an old train car revamped to serve as a get-together. Party by day in the Stiltecoupé; a channel serving silent disco by l...
Three veterans from the Dutch hardcore scene bring you an intense and melodic form of post-hardcorepunk in the vein of Wipers, Black Flag and Bad Brains. With two full-length albums under their belt,...
Foundation De Pastoe Fabriek presents
De Pastoe Fabriek favours a new international counter-culture to break the hegemony of the global financial institutions and to reverse the tide of narrow-minded...
19-year-old Nelcon is THE rapper from Utrecht. He recently dropped his debut album Nelconic on one of the most interesting independent labels in the Netherlands, Burning Fik. An album filled with fres...
Originally a punk band, Lola’s Dice have evolved into a tropical, funk, and psychedelic rock rhythm machine. With sounds that are rooted in Latin American percussive music, Lola’s Dice is...
Kamiel Thomas is an indie songwriter and former member of the avant-garde dark rock ensemble GOLD. Kamiel's songs are worthy of arthouse films while also creating a sense of home. Kamiel Thomas i...
I Think I Think is a dreampop duo consisting of Aurelia Wurfbain and Silva Westera. With the technological testcases in their music, like using computer controlled hammers/solenoids, tape loops and li...
The Flare Quartet, with violinists from the Netherlands, Spain and Canada, was founded in 2020 by a group of master students from the Utrecht Conservatoire. They are joining the Palestinian, Syr...
Combo Qazam is a post-punk band from Utrecht that relies heavily on grooves and eerie vocal harmonies. On their well-received debut Flight Music (2020), they link this to 90s indie, math rock, prog an...
Collective Stadwevers explores new grounds together with you to discover how we can experience the city in various and different ways. I Let’s Walk Make Sense / 12:15PM - 1:00PMGet to...
Artists community NoEsUnaGaleria NL is organising a program with live painting sessions and performance art by artists Ricardo Saga and Mario Gildardo from Mexico and Harmke Datema-Chang and Laur...
Luc Bersier, Low Bat, Leonard Prochazka and Ariel Garcia may all hail from different places in Western Europe, but the Jean-Luc project drew them together to make several vibrant EPs – each...
Jasper Boogaard has felt at home in Rotterdam all his life, but to find his musical peers he needed to look elsewhere – in Philadelphia, home to bands like Hop Along, Alex G and Algernon Cadwall...
For a decade and a half, Mary Ocher has been weaving thought-provoking and often challenging art concerning authority, identity, and conflict. The artist's musical output encompasses everything from t...
Le Bazarre is a renowned and travelling market inspired by quality vintage, second hand and indie craft. It hosts curated vendors and takes place on Utrecht’s famous Domplein (Dom Square), locat...
Tunisian-Belgian artist Ghalia Benali has been on the receiving end of many descriptors - perhaps none as fitting as ‘a maker of her own myths’, as said by the New York Times. Benali&rsquo...
The audio-visual happening of Jerusalem In My Heart has roots in both Montréal and Beirut, also combining the best of both worlds. Figurehead Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has been nursing the craft of...
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...
COSMOS is a hybrid stage that aims to bring the Le Guess Who? experience to the world, and the world to Le Guess Who? COSMOS is a sanctuary for experimentation and inspiration, taking place from...
Presented by Le Guess Who?, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, No Seat At The Table, BAK - basis voor actuele kunst, Urban Futures Studio (Utrecht University), RAUM
“In urban social...
Blazing Suns is an ever-evolving entity of artists, musicians, audiofreaks and sound explorers orbiting around it. At Le Guess Who?, the quartet of Salvador Breed, Boris Acket, Nick Verstand and Maart...
Kelman Duran presents‘To The North II’ is an experimental documentary by Dominican producer, multimedia artist and filmmaker Kelman Duran. It is the follow-up to ‘To The North I&rsqu...
Cycle or walk through Utrecht suburb Lombok's main street, and you're immediately welcomed by Turkish and Moroccan grocery stores, bakeries, the smell of kebab, and huge piles of colorful fruits sold...
Le Guess Who? curator collective CURL is made up of sonic eccentrics Mica Levi, Brother May, and Coby Sey, among others. A tightly-knit community of artists and musicians from the London underground,...
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...
Cate Le Bon, Tim Presley & H. Hawkline present
Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley form the musical duo DRINKS, but also practice other arts and crafts as a means to enter a different headspace. Together...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, tells the time-traveling tale of the mystical musician and vocalist - who gave a very rare performan...
Through live interviews and performances, listening sessions, art exhibitions and all things print and sound, Kapitaal, Utrecht’s beloved independent print workshop, will transform into a three-...
Through live interviews, listening sessions, art exhibitions with select LGW? performers and all things print and sound, Kapitaal will transform into a three-day meeting place for craftsmanship and de...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & BAK - basis voor actuele kunst
Le Guess Who? and Jeanne van Heeswijk connected the Chicago-based pianist, clarinetist and composer Angel Bat Dawid with visual artist,...
“It’s not about the stories you know, it’s about the stories you don't know.”
Reports from Other Continents is a platform for people to tell their own story. After the overwhe...
As Moor Mother, Philly-based noise artist, activist and wordsmith Camae Ayewa shapes the vocabulary of hip hop and energy of punk rock into a musical tour de force. Informed by history, Afrofuturism a...
Singer-songwriter Immen has a warm, intriguing voice and knows how to evoke a dreamy atmosphere with a dark edge. While most of her songs are written in English, she sometimes reverts back to her Fris...
Through sampling and re-sampling of pre-recorded material and live performed pieces, Jos Smolders (modular synthesizer) and Guido Nijs (saxophone and other wind instruments) are trying to find new way...
Originally from Uganda, Daniel Okiror is an ethno-fusion musician and change-maker passionate about telling the ‘true’ African story. His performance, accompanied by other musical instrume...
Utrecht’s own synther-songwriter BoterBoter uses his hilarious, absurdist and poetic Dutch-language super-disco as a coping mechanism for his existence in this bizarre world. His unpolished but...
Juan Juan taught his girlfriend to play the drums to his own songs, which draw on the music of Devendra Banhart and The Velvet Underground. His debut album ‘New Mexico’, recorded on a four...
Visit two art installations at Hof van Cartesius.Boomhut & FriendsBoomhut is an Utrecht-based collective and they focus on interactive and immersive art installations. Their works are not only abu...
The ‘Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales’ (ONCEIM) is an orchestra of 34 musicians dedicated to the art of creation and experimenta...
In the Ubuntuhuis you can listen to Ubuntustemmen (voices) Part 1 & 2. In Part 1 you will hear Roos and Amara. Amara plays traditional Guinese kora music and djembé. Roos adds a layer of te...
This experimental duo, born from members of Dutch dream-pop ensemble Bird On The Wire, has been telling vivid stories with their music since 2017, the year in which they released their debut EP. Altho...
The ‘Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales’ (ONCEIM) is an orchestra of 34 musicians dedicated to the art of creation and experimenta...
Centraal Museum presents
Utrecht artist Robbie Cornelissen creates films, drawings and installations and was one of the main curators of the Centraal Museum exhibition De Line Up. Cornelissen is know...
We all share similar yet different life stories, our goal is to get you to Speak UP about this during our event. We’ll talk about topics ranging from environmentalism to making friends abroad. T...
In the late 80’s, Doug Hream Blunt moonlighted music with a job at a care home in San Francisco. As a relative late bloomer at age 35, he started writing songs after attending a How To Start A B...
Efterklang singer Casper Clausen presents his (yet to be released) solo music, made up in a small studio by the river in Cacilhas (Lisbon). With songwriting still in progress, Casper has only played s...
Loui Lind (Louise Lindskov), a Danish Amsterdam-based artist, combines indie-folk/rock genres with her expressive high range vocal and storytelling. Loui Lind was inspired by musicians such as Mitski,...
Many questions arise when listening to K Records’ Old Time Relijun. Is it for real? Is it ironic? When leading man Arrington de Dionyso channels his best David Byrne impression under a cacophoni...
Keys of Light is a piano installation for everyone; it allows the audience to co-create the work by playing the piano. Every note that is played creates a pulse of light or visual element th...
Inkhorn Controversy is a band from Utrecht that plays both Dutch and English alternative pop rock. Their sound is Britpop/Postpunk-like with some Progrock influences. With theiridiosyncratic texts the...
burger service is a solo project by Jan Tromp that combines lofi, punk, Dutch, and wave. burger service is een soloproject van Jan Tromp waarin hij lofi combineert met punk, Dutch, en wave. ...
The ongoing project Nonsense Note began with several pages of notes with instinctive drawings. The album is a collaborative work composed of sounds and videos created by various musicians from around...
The Late Frique Show, hosted by Arp Frique, is a late night talk show highlighting the music and artists you need to discover in order to grow and glow. The Dutch synth funkster making waves in the in...
presented by Jongerentheater Link
Discrimination, prejudice, exclusion, racism; these subjects are all up for discussion at Open Podium West. Hear and meet people of all ages from the neighbourhood,...
After attending a workshop in deejaying and music producing by East African platform Femme Electronic, model Anita Kevin decided to try it herself. Watching her do her thing as DJ Turkana, we would be...
Location: TivoliVredenburg
Charlotte Roger is a visual artist based in Utrecht, evolving in the field of experimental photography. Her work explores the concepts of archives, remembrance and individu...
Hidden Musics
Christopher C. King’s relationship with the folk traditions of Epirus, a mountain region connecting Greece with the southern parts of Albania, occupies a special place in his hear...
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1970 album, reissued by Super-Sonic Jazz this year, is a lush folk-jazz album in the vein of peers such as Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell. After a twenty year absence, th...
Le Guess Who?-curator Patrick Higgins, visual artist Matthew Schreiber and choreographer Monica Mirabile will present the European premiere of their awe-inspired audiovisual project DOSSIER X, immersi...
In cooperation with Gaudeamus
AEAEA is the new duo from composers and performers Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar. Utilizing instrumental performance and live digital resampling, the aim of the group...
Having become somewhat of a mainstay in Utrecht, Stranded FM celebrate and share music from all over the globe, becoming the city’s bastion for discovering fresh sounds. During their four-year r...
The Wire is an independent, monthly music magazine celebrating and interrogating the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past an...
Charles-André Coderre is a Montréal-based filmmaker dedicated to working with analog techniques. Coderre is a member of the Montreal collective of experimental cinema Double Negative and...
In Utrecht’s suburb Lombok, you're immediately welcomed by Turkish and Moroccan grocery stores, bakeries, the smell of kebab, and huge piles of colorful fruits sold in the streets. The impressiv...
Madensuyu have always been charmed by the mysterious and esoteric, the notion that two mortal souls can inhabit a stage and conjure something bigger than themselves. Their angsty, sprawling brand of n...
Deerhoof is one of those fantastic beasts the world has been lucky to find, an anomaly of a band that can twist any crunch of noise into saccharine hook-heavy pop euphoria. Their wide-eyed trial-and-e...
Priscilla Telmon & Vincent Moon are a collaborating multidisciplinary artist duo working as independent filmmakers and sound-explorers. Together they produce ethnographic experimental films and mu...
Maâlem (or ‘master musician’) Houssam Guinia is the son and successor of the late Mahmoud Guinia, an emblematic figure in the practice of West-African Gnawa music. Gnawa is an extens...
Phil Elverum's latest Mount Eerie album ‘A Crow Looked At Me’ opens with the words "Death is real/someone's there and then they're not". The album is a deeply personal document of grief, h...
In cooperation with Utrecht Early Music Festival
Olga Pashchenko, one of the world’s most accomplished piano and keyboard virtuosos, will bring a unique take on one of the most famous horror so...
Under supervision of surrealist filmmaker and spiritual guru Alejandro Jodorowsky, King Khan and Game of Thrones-designer Michael Eaton created ‘The Black Power Tarot’. The cards are depic...
Collaboratorium
The cartoon physics of Brooklyn experimental outfit Zs, the Lovecraftian doom tandem Ex Eye with Colin Stetson, the blast beat barrages of Liturgy; Greg Fox has an uncanny knack for t...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Centraal Museum
James Merry is a visual artist, originally from Gloucestershire in the UK, who is now based in Iceland where he has been living and working with Bj&ou...
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1970 album, reissued by Super-Sonic Jazz this year, is a lush folk-jazz album in the vein of peers such as Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell. After a twenty year absence, th...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
This heart-warming road movie, directed by Philippe Godeau, follows the titular protagonist, the 13-year-old Senegalese Yao, in his quest to meet his hero...
Hidden Musics
Ustad Saami is the last living khayál master, widely considered a precursor of qawwali music that originated in Pakistan. That’s no small distinction, as Saami’s voic...
Hidden among the rabble-rousing tourists and historic canals, Red Light Radio (RLR) is an online seminal DIY radio booth squat and international music platform based in the middle of Amsterdam’s...
Dutch multi-instrumentalist and psych pop traveler Jacco Gardner will be heading back to Le Guess Who? this year, where he premieres the ‘Somnium’ experience. This will also be the live de...
Armed with a twenty-two stringed Kora (a West African cross between lute, bridge and harp), troubadour Sourakata Koite uses this traditional instrument to interpret his Senegalese roots. Moving to Par...
While the festival’s numerous performances spread all over the city of Utrecht, there will be one moment we all come together, and that is at the afterparty. The line-up will feature dub-king Ke...
Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Goldflesh, Napalm Death) and Kevin Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) initially consolidated their mutual love for abrasive noise, dub and industrial as Techno Animal. If that...
In 1979, The Raincoats helped shape the timeless notion that punk is what you make it to be—an act of raw expression, not any one sound. Their anarchy was poetic. The group’s debut album &...
Before our very eyes, the mysterious Yves Tumor suspends set expectations of music and performance into a vortex of sheer disbelief. His unforgettable show at last year’s Le Guess Who? was a bre...
This year, Le Guess Who? will host a special collaboration between Chicago-based songwriter and accomplished fingerstyle guitarist Ryley Walker and Japanese psych-rockers Kikagaku Moyo. With both arti...
Quintessential Ethio-groove performer Ayalèw Mesfin has joined forces with the renowned US-based ensemble Debo band for his first European live performance ever, and in truth, few collaboration...
‘Carefree’ doesn’t even begin to describe the music of DRINKS. Untroubled by anything resembling internal logic, White Fence’s Tim Presley and Cate Le Bon indulge in deliciousl...
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is the true originator of simigwa-do, a Ghanaian fusion of afro funk, soul and jazz. His work with the Uhuru Dance Band and the The Apagya Show Band (the latter with one-time mento...
As Olan Mill, UK sound artist Alex Smalley’s work holds a sublime measure between the realms of modern neo-classical composition and ambience, with tender and elegant clusters of sound. His late...
Joe Coleman is a performance artist, collector and painter whose hyper-detailed works depict celebrities, historical figures and artists with the same graceful iconography as the Gods and prophets of...
Oiseaux Tempête’s cross-cultural, multi-genre improv rock has a tendency to unfold in places of turmoil, recording records in Greece, Turkey and Lebanon in the past. The core duo of Fr&eac...
Johanna Constantine presents "Rise"&Kembra Pfahler and the Girls of Karen Black present "Fuck Island"
Founded by New York-based artists Kembra Pfahler, Johanna Constantine and Anohni, Future Femi...
FRKWYS is a series initiated by Brooklyn-based independent record label RVNG Intl.; aimed at an ambitious and unique pairing of modern artists and their musical predecessors for the creation of a coll...
FRKWYS is a series initiated by Brooklyn-based independent record label RVNG Intl.; aimed at an ambitious and unique pairing of modern artists and their musical predecessors for the creation of a coll...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
Lutz Gregor’s documentary Mali Blues takes a vivid look at the West-African nation’s rich and diverse musical fabric, following folk star Fato...
California, 1970. While the youth engages in the sexual revolution, anti-government protests, and the Vietnam War, a different kind of battle takes place underground. Vet Lauren Gray tracks down magic...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver, hosted by John Doran (The Quietus)
Hream follows the 25+ year career male nurse and adult music student Doug Hream Blunt as he embarks on a world tour, p...
Collaboratorium
At this year’s Le Guess Who?, drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Ben Frost, Ex Eye) will be the festival’s whimsical X-factor. One of the artists he will court is composer and for...
Leisha Thomas is Alpha Maid, a guitarist, vocalist, and producer hailing from South East London. Her first solo release on the C.A.N.V.A.S. collective label, 2021's 'CHUCKLE', garnered significant cri...
This Baltimore quartet has been reshaping the face of what is easiest to call indie rock since the dawn of the new century. Their 2022 return, ‘Time Skiffs’, the band’s first album i...
Le Guess Who? welcomes ‘Dykegeist’ - a new choreographic work from UK performance-maker Eve Stainton, with live sound conceived and performed by musician Mica Levi. ‘Dykegeist’...
A perennial figure in the New York abstract hip-hop scene, billy woods has been defined by his association with Cannibal Ox's Vordul Mega and as half of both Super Chron Flight Brothers and Armand Ham...
Each moment that passes on this avant-garde trio’s music is an excuse to take a left turn - making every song, record, and concert a unique, unrepeatable experience. Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storl...
Oakland-born writer, emcee, and producer Nappy Nina cut her teeth in the Bay Area scene before uprooting to Brooklyn, where she released her 2019 debut album ‘The Tree Act' to much acclaim. Havi...
'BRASS', released at the end of 2020, is an ingenious joint effort between New York rapper billy woods (also one-half of Armand Hammer) and avant-garde poet and musician Moor Mother. The album is as m...
Bolstered by diverse global sounds and powerful female vocals, this thrilling Tokyo-based tribal-psych trio draws from each of the member’s distinct musical influences to create a dreamy tale so...
At last year's Le Guess Who?, British jazz stalwart Shabaka Hutchings performed with free jazz futurists The Comet Is Coming. This time around, Hutchings seeks out ghosts of the past with his South Af...
On a quest for the awakening of true beauty on stage and all around us, Mathieu David Gagnon conjures up in Flore Laurentienne’s chamber music the lushness of vintage film, blossoming spring, an...
‘What do you do when your band has crafted such a unique signature sound and the aim is to maintain things at this superlative level without repeating yourselves?’, asked Christoph Clö...
Much has been said about Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand) - the master pianist and Cape Town anti-apartheid activist gracing Le Guess Who? with a spellbinding solo piano performance. Nelson Ma...
Having participated in pretty much every edition of the festival thus far, internationally recognized DJ Fitz, is by now basically Le Guess Who? royalty. One of the world’s primary authorities o...
The documentary 'Before Wisdom' follows the journey of Pink Oculus, the alter ego of Amsterdam based artist and producer Esperanza Denswil, in presenting her debut album 'Before Wisdom' at the Le Gues...
Tunisian-Belgian artist Ghalia Benali has been on the receiving end of many descriptors - perhaps none as fitting as ‘a maker of her own myths’, as said by the New York Times. Benali&rsquo...
In Eavesdrop with Christine Kakaire, the Berlin-based writer, editor, teacher and speaker invites artists performing at this year’s Le Guess Who? for live interviews, discussing the inspirations...
[ THUS TIME GOES BY ] is a new durational sound work by Midori Takada, consisting of four parts, created especially for the Jacobikerk and Le Guess Who?.
1 – THUS TIME GOES BY is based on...
Girls In Synthesis is a London-based post-punk and noise rock band, that has been releasing records for 4 years and counting. With their DIY mentality they’re not afraid to experiment. Be prepar...
Esperanza Denswil’s alter-ego Pink Oculus began as an exercise to self-love. Since her vibrant 2013 breakthrough, the Dutch-Surinamese artist has risen to quick acclaim, thanks to her standout l...
Oren Ambarchi’s love for obscure and unexplored soundscapes has led him to join forces with fellow Le Guess Who? alumni, such as master experimenter Keiji Haino. This year, the man once named &l...
This avant-rock group's relationship with Le Guess Who? goes way back; the three-piece Montreal band has played the festival time and time again. This year, it only made sense to mark our return to fo...
Taking his name from a spot near to his heart and home, Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and The Microphones makes music heavily imbued with that foggy green mood of Washington state. But far from limiting...
With over twenty releases under a closely-related variety of names – Orinoka Crash Suite, OCS, Orange County Sound, The Ohsees, The Oh Sees, and Thee Oh Sees, and now just Oh Sees – f...
Colombia-born, Berlin-based experimental producer and sound artist Lucrecia Dalt has developed an enigmatic sound marked by tactile and hypnotic layers, synthesizers and vocoding. With compositions th...
Durban native Menzi has been a steady presence in South African electronic music for a number of years. After producing for several notorious acts, like Babes Wodumo, Moonchild Sannelly, and Mahotella...
Tunisian-Belgian artist Ghalia Benali presented her new project ‘Hadret Ishq’, or the Sufi Project, live at Le Guess Who? 2021. The video premiere of the performance can be seen during thi...
Collaboratorium
Step inside the tractor beam, because at Le Guess Who?, Mythic Sunship will organize a momentous assemblage of wondrous sound. Of course, this Copenhagen quartet has room aplenty for...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical genius who nearly slipped away. Director Jeff Feuerzeig exquisitely depicts a perfect ex...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Centraal Museum
Initiated in 2015, Elegy is a long-term commemorative performance project by South African artist Gabrielle Goliath. Staged in various locations...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & 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...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Utrecht University
In the wake of his recently published fifth book ‘Silenced by Sound: the Music Meritocracy Myth’ and driven by his ongoing field-record...
Sons of Kemet’s latest record, ‘Black to the Future’, was released in May – mostly recorded after the murder of George Floyd. For The Guardian’s Kitty Empire, the album f...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
Franco Rosso’s Babylon had its world premiere at Cannes in 1980 but was deemed “too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension”...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
The directorial debut from Boots Riley presents an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, California, when telemarketer Cassius Green finds himself in...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Centraal Museum
As co-creative director for Björk on visuals, mask-maker James Merry is primarily known for his hand embroidery on sportswear, but he also create...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
A selection of short films of Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series curated by GRAMMY-winning record producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
The Burial Of Kojo follows the story of Esi, as she recounts her childhood and the tumultuous relationship between her father, Kojo and her uncle, Kwabena...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
In this genre-defying film, Zerzura follows a young man from a small village in Niger who leaves home in search of an enchanted oasis. His journey leads h...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
Following the footsteps of Islamic mystics on the Indian subcontinent of Pakistan, the Swiss director Annette Berger managed to document the spiritual eve...
Presented by Le Guess Who? & Springhaver
Part film, part baptism, in Black Mother director Khalik Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and...
Lombok Festival, one of Le Guess Who?’s satellite events, returns on Friday 8 November. The freely accessible festival is a celebration of the cultural diversity of this city’s district, i...
John Surman’s career recently entered its sixth decade, an impressive feat of which this composer, one of the most prolific to emerge from the British Isles in recent memory, can be proud of. Ma...
Jazz musician and poet Alabaster dePlume is Le Guess Who? 2021’s Artist in Residence. DePlume can be described as many things: a cleric of the written word, a maverick of sound, a conductor of c...
Much of John Dwyer’s curatorship for this year’s Le Guess Who? reflects his attraction for music that is as exciting as it is mad, loud and potentially deafening. All these attributes can...
Does OSEES leader John Dwyer ever sleep? The prolific musician has added a new entry to his never-ending catalog this May - Bent Arcana’s sophomore effort, ‘Moon Drenched’, courtesy...
Born to missionaries in Atlanta, Angel Bat Dawid followed her family from Georgia to Kentucky to Kenya – and when they settled in Chicago, she took up clarinet and music education. Nowadays...
Rotterdam’s Rats on Rafts’ most recent album, ‘Chapter 3: The Mind Runs A Net Of Rabbit Paths’, is proof of their ambition - and even more so is their one-off performance at Le...
After performing at the festival with her band, Grup Simsek, in 2017, this Hamburg-based singer and multi-instrumentalist is returning to Le Guess Who? on her own, making Anatolian folk the focus of h...
Born Ana Lucia in Mexico, Coco Maria grew up surrounded by music. She soon set out on a mission to share it with others - which she continues to do on 'Club Coco', her show at WorldwideFM, and across...
Near Stoic is Skander Ben Yahia’s alias, in which he becomes a storyteller. Experimenting with tapes, modular synths, field recordings and archives, the Tunisian musician makes use of every mate...
On ‘miu’, a song from ‘Pripyat’, Marina Herlop’s first record with PAN released this May, the audience is introduced to this classically trained musician’s intricat...
‘Erratic Weather’, the digital art project of French digital artist Mathieu Le Sourd (Maotik) and Dutch cellist, composer and producer Maarten Vos, is a sonic picture of the chaos of clima...
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, better known as Jerusalem In My Heart, has been nurturing the craft of contemporary Middle Eastern music for over a decade. In 2017, he was one of the guest curators for Le Guess...
Ian Brennan is a GRAMMY-winning producer and author. He has released seven books and has produced over thirty-eight international records in the past decade from across four continents including the c...
It will come as no surprise to those who have witnessed Keiji Haino’s dramatic performances that the Japanese underground legend actually got his start in the theater. A flair for extravagance h...