Search: mozart's sister

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

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

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

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom performed at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of Animal Collective's curation, following the release of their latest album 'Reset'. Relive the performance below with our concert film, which features the songs Everyday, Edge of the Edge, Danger, and Livin’ in the After.  AboutSix years ago, Peter Kember,...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

“KNOW THE PAST. CHANGE THE FUTURE.” Operating under this slogan, Detroit’s Underground Music Academy is a place to learn about the history, creation and business behind electronic mu...

Amirtha Kidambi’s music is grounded by a deep commitment to social practice. The composer and her ensemble Elder Ones confront and resist systems of oppression with compositions of sonic activis...

France’s Aquaserge shape their own fantastic musical planet, sprouting out lush prog workouts, weirdo pop and meditative dance grooves. The collective now releases their fifth album 'Laisse &cce...

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

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...

Music has always been missed in Amman… Or at least this is what we thought to be true. Amman is not a musically loud city; it's not Cairo and definitely not Beirut. The music scene changed afte...

With their podcast, U?TCAST showcases street culture talent from Utrecht along the full width.MokerjongCrow NesstybeatsWith Nesstybeats we have one of the most active connectors in the Utrecht sc...

Maurice, AKA Mau’s Acid Machine, is a Rotterdam based performer and DJ. Combining a passion for tinkering and electronic music, Maurice was put on a path of patching and modulating to build his...

Because of the eagerness in broadening the intersectionality of the punk scene and approaching a more interdisciplinary approach, community curator Bibi Bannink has invited, in collaboration with dB's...

“KNOW THE PAST. CHANGE THE FUTURE.” Operating under this slogan, Detroit’s Underground Music Academy is a place to learn about the history, creation and business behind electronic mu...

Long captivated by Jaar’s music, Ali Sethi found a space in their collaboration for sonic exploration that seduces, challenges and redefines identities. Composer and performer Sethi blends tradi...

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...

In a new in-depth interview with Fractured Air, bass sax virtuoso Colin Stetson details the making of his captivating soundtrack to Ari Aster’s debut horror film 'Hereditary', alo...

A transcendental opening ceremony took place at the start of Le Guess Who? 2024, thanks to a special collaboration between the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra and visual artist Arion de Munck, who presented the world premiere of Hadra Immersive at the festival.  The Hadra is an ancient northern Moroccan ceremony that leads participan...

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...

As part of her curation at Le Guess Who? 2024, experimental cellist and vocalist Mabe Fratti performed live at the festival together with London-based vocal group Shards. Watch the concert film of the performance, featuring the tracks Kravitz, No Se Ve Desde Acá and Desde el Cielo: With her hypnotic pieces, Mabe Fratti comb...

This event will hit you just as hard in the face as our music and arts program. No, you don’t have to step into the ring yourself, but you will be marveled at several intense matches. Various ty...

Too many birds exists on the precipice of music and nature. Music writer Ruben van Dijk (Front, OOR, et al.) is drawn to sounds that renegotiate our relationship to the world around us and blur the li...

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...

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

“With the able steer of festival curators Jenny Hval, Moon Duo, Fatoumata Diawara, and Iris Van Herpen, this year’s boundary-crossing festival Le Guess Who?? welcomed visitors from over 60 countries and proved that even in times of political divide, music and art can bring us together into a more hopeful future.” - The...

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

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

Earlier this week, Brooklyn-based, Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab won the GRAMMY Award for Best Global Music Performance for her song ‘Mohabbat’. She performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021, the international festival for boundary-crossing music & culture, as part of her first ever European tour. Arooj Aftab is the first Pakis...

Le Guess Who? exists to bring people together through music and culture. U? is its participative and freely accessible city program celebrating local and creative communities. ⁠ Le Guess Who? heeft het doel om mensen samen te brengen door middel van muziek en cultuur. U? is het gratis toegankelijk stadsprogramma van Le Guess Who? met een...

Buenaventura is located in Colombia's southern Pacific Coast. The city is not only located in one of the most impactful economic regions in the country, but also hosts one of Colombia’s most imp...

‘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...

As part of Slauson Malone 1's curation at Le Guess Who?, New York City rapper MIKE performed live at the festival with tracks from all across his discography and an emphasis on material from his 2022 album Beware of the Monkey and its follow-up, Burning Desire. Tune in below.  "A magnetic stage presence fused with one of the most...

Kim David Bots and Lyckle de Jong met in the water-basin of one of the earliest concrete structures in the Netherlands, a bunker that was part of Amsterdam’s defensive line, built around the 189...

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...

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,...

Shards’ Kieran Brunt has been singing William Byrd since his college chapel choir days, and, in a sense, had been unconsciously setting up to release ‘Byrd Song’. The London band&rsq...

Driven by an appetite for boundless experimentation, producer and composer Ziúr has always been subverting expectations, corkscrewing through hardcore, metal and punk before veering towards electronic music's turbulent fringes. Today, the Le Guess Who? 2025 guest curator announces her upcoming album Home, out on September 5th via K...

When electronic producer, DJ, and performer Liliane Chlela relocated from Lebanon to Canada in 2021, she was faced with a tough choice; as an artist from the diaspora navigating a mostly white music m...

Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle sits between the mountainous regions of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. The locals call it Sop Ruak - miles and miles of rocks, and, well, opium. London’s Sex Swing...

Istanbul’s one and only wildflower Haossaa’s music will hit you like a ton of bricks. The spirited three-piece will make everyone in attendance want to scream, mosh, and pick up a guitar t...

This year, U? will have it’s very own ‘sustainable’ merchandise station. No one other than Utrecht’s infamous Birdguy, who created this year’s U? artwork, has designed a...

S*an D. Henry-Smith is a poet, photographer, performer and collaborative practitioner, engaging the legacy of Black diasporic experimentalisms.This performance is part of the program curated by Raziya...

Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle sits between the mountainous regions of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. The locals call it Sop Ruak - miles and miles of rocks, and, well, opium. London’s Sex Swing...

Japanese-American musician and composer Patrick Shiroishi is best known for the new ways he bends notes out of the saxophone’s mouthpiece, both in a band setting (The Armed, Wild Up, and Upsilon...

Utrecht's independent print workshop Kapitaal, once again hosts the official Le Guess Who? Hangout through all things print and sound. The program is a culmination of print, live music, DJ's, pizza's...

Ben Frost’s interests are as vast as his output is, creating music for dance companies and films, and collaborating with visual artists and poets. Frost’s music is influenced by classical...

Weyes Blood's West Coast folk reverie can be as sensitive as surreal. Multi-instrumentalist and singer Natalie Mering’s inspirations range from Harry Nilsson’s pop majesty to Wolf Eyes&rsq...

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

The Line Of Best Fit interview Jane Weaver, on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Featuring...

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

DJINN, an alliance formed by musicians in Swedish outfits Hills and GOAT, has quickly flourished into a marvel in and of itself. Extracting sonics from the fabric of Alice Coltrane’s astral jazz...

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...

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

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

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

Australia's Tropical Fuck Storm, with former The Drones members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, have released a new song and video from their upcoming album 'Braindrops'.  'Who's My Eugene?' is the third single from their new album, to be released 23 August via Joyful Noise/Flightless Records. You can watch a...

Cate Le Bon performed live at Le Guess Who? 2019, following the release of her latest album 'Reward'. You can now relive the performance with a video of Cate Le Bon performing 'Home To You' from her latest album, as well as the songs 'Love Is Not Love' and 'Wonderful' from 2016's Crab Day. Additionally, you can stream the full performance...

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

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

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

Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021. Curated by Matana Roberts for the festival, it marked the group's European live premiere. Now can now relive the performance with this video of the ensemble performing 'The Body Is Electric' from their latest & acclaimed album 'NOW'.  AboutThe past and...

Palestinian-born, Paris-based musician Kamilya Jubran, one of the most revered figures in the experimental and alternative Arabic music scenes, performs at Le Guess Who? 2023, curated by Heba Kadry. Relive the mesmerizing performance with our concert film.  About Raised by her music-loving parents in Galilee, for 20 years she was...

Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, visual artist and record label owner John Dwyer is one of the curators of Le Guess Who? 2021. One of the artists he invites to the festival is German krautrock group Faust, who will perform their iconic album 'Faust IV'. Earlier this year, Dwyer's main band OSEES played a l...

Ugandan record label Nyege Nyege Tapes will present its own Hakuna Kulala club night during Le Guess Who? 2021. Now, Hakuna Kulala announces a new white label vinyl series, and kicking off the series is festival artist Menzi; a steady presence in South African electronic music for numerous years.  On August 27th, Hakuna Ku...

In partnership with Underground Music Academy.  “KNOW THE PAST. CHANGE THE FUTURE.” Operating under this slogan, Detroit’s Underground Music Academy is a place to learn about the past, present, and future of dance music. A utopian space for the city's aspiring musicians, created by a team of idealists brought toge...

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…

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...

Join us for a short video about the trials and tribulations of a non-profit record archiving initiative, Irama Nusantara, and its employees during the pandemic. Irama Nusantara is a non-profit foundat...

Since its founding in 1975, Venezuela’s System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras called “El Sistema”, has used music education as a vehicle for social change. It cultivates an...

Powerhouse duo Lightning Bolt performed live at Le Guess Who? 2019 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, marking the 25th Anniversary of the band. The performance was curated by Patrick Higgins. Now, we're pleased to help you relive this intense show in both video and audio, captured at 2AM on Friday night at the festival. Listen + watch more Le...

Sunshine often underscores Ugandan music - both literally and figuratively. Nihiloxica’s sound, however, is positively pitch-black. On their 2020 LP debut, ‘Kaloli’, the driving Ugan...

The Good Ones will surprise you, delight you, and break your heart, says The Independent. This one-of-a-kind quartet’s music is embedded in pain, as the band formed as a healing process followin...

One would be hard-pressed to not be spellbound by Rəhman Məmmədli’s effervescent playing. The guitarist’s blazing practice sprung from one of Azerbaijan’s most tumultuous and transfo...

In Astrid Sonne's music, electronic experiments coexist with baroque approaches, and there is space for improvisation amongst composition. Following her album 'Ephemeral Camera Feed' which was released earlier this year, Astrid Sonne now releases her new song 'How Far' as part of The Hearing Experience, a new series of singles from Londo...

Richard Dawson has been busy time-traveling. The British folk master began his journey in 2017’s pre-medieval ‘Peasant’, continued onto the present day with ‘2020’, and h...

British-Armenian producer Hagop Tchaparian did not walk into dance music in a straight line. Rather, he was previously most known for playing guitar in the short-lived British pop-punk band Symposium....

Lewsberg, hailed as "Rotterdam’s answer to The Velvet Underground" by NME, performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2022. We now share the track 'The Corner' from that performance (taken from their 2021 album 'In Your Hands') just as the band are about to go on an international tour which will bring them to Germany, USA,...

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,...

Poet and spoken word artist Sydney Lowell is not afraid of tackling big themes and challenges. She is also known as a cultural agitator. In her show, a journey through time and space in which spoken w...

Poet and spoken word artist Sydney Lowell is not afraid of tackling big themes and challenges. She is also known as a cultural agitator. In her show, a journey through time and space in which spoken w...

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom performed at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of Animal Collective's curation, following the release of their latest album 'Reset'. Relive the performance below with our concert film, which features the songs Everyday, Edge of the Edge, Danger, and Livin’ in the After.  AboutSix years ago, Peter Kember,...

Anh Phi is a Vietnamese-French music producer, DJ, and filmmaker, co-founder of Saigon-born collective Nhạc Gãy.Raised by Vietnamese parents in the suburbs of Paris, he later moved to Ho Chi Mi...

This event will hit you just as hard in the face as our music and arts program. No, you don’t have to step into the ring yourself, but you will be marveled at several intense matches. Various ty...

With their podcast, U?TCAST showcases street culture talent from Utrecht along the full width.MokerjongCrow NesstybeatsYou may know Crow, aka Dark Ryat  for his music, but he's also a talent...

Anh Phi is a Vietnamese-French music producer, DJ, and filmmaker, co-founder of Saigon-born collective Nhạc Gãy. Raised by Vietnamese parents in the suburbs of Paris, he later moved to Ho Chi...

De Saffier en Kaffeetaria will get wild! Together, they are showcasing their most valuable gemstones on their own stage. They will host an extensive and eclectic collection of singer-songwriters, DJs,...

V2X represents a new generation of Vietnamese creatives shaping their own identities. Operating as an independent media company on the intersection of art, music, culture, V2X highlights creative comm...

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...

Thrilling experimental pop artist Lido Pimienta spent the past few years studying European classical music to embark on a new ambitious journey. Shifting far from her previous electro pop sound, she remains as captivating and exuberant as ever. Influenced by the solemnity of early Christian hymns, her new album La Belleza is a grand orc...

‘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...

As part of Calm Roots, rising London label Touching Bass is curating for this year’s Le Guess Who? a showcase of Cameroonian-born, Paris-based artist Astrønne. Astrønne’s dou...

Bedouin Burger’s 2022 single ‘Nomad’ showcases how Lynn Adib and Zeid Hamdan’s musical collaboration is pure lightning in a bottle. We are treated to the Syrian vocalist, compo...

RP Boo (sometimes spelled Arpebu), or Kavain Space, is widely considered to be among the fathers of footwork, the Chicago-based, fast-paced, genre-leaping electronic music genre. Online crate digging,...

As Dawuna, multi-disciplinary artist Ian Mugerwa drops his first and last name in favor of his middle name to focus on music. Calling Prince and D’Angelo, but also Jim O’Rourke and George...

Europe-based booth maverick Nazar is heading to Le Guess Who? for an impactful hybrid set. The Angolan producer coined the term ‘Rough Kuduro’ - a combative reading of the Angolan music an...

There is something urgent about the music of Luz luz luz!, one of Mexico City’s most exciting experimental punk exports. Artists and collaborators Clothing and Emiliano Cruz pull us inward, maki...

London’s Lunch Money Life has gone dark; their social media displays only a stoic 2025 date. Before then, however, they will play their single show of the year at Le Guess Who?. The band is boun...

Egyptian singer and composer Dina El Wedidi was brought to the world’s attention through her participation in 2012’s The Nile Project, a 14-musician collaboration linking African artists l...

A crossover between American duo The Body, who have been tinkering with noise and metal since 1999, and Berlin-based DJ, producer, and vocalist Felicia Chen (AKA Dis Fig) was bound to make the earth s...

This Sierra Leone-born artist’s approach is threefold; Lamin Fofana is as much a DJ and music producer as he is a philosopher of sorts. His work’s socio-cultural depth cannot be understate...

Born to Congolese artists in Paris, ‘Afropean’ (Europeans of African descent) hybrid artist Natisa Exocé Kasongo’s work focuses on Afro-Cosmicism, always. Walking in the foots...

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...

VULVA and Acidic Male may both hail from the Rotterdam, but they are very different; whereas duo VULVA trade sludge and garage punk amongst themselves, interdisciplinary artist Acidic Male operates so...

Before the release of her first record a decade ago, Quebecois musician Myriam Gendron was busking in Paris, singing Leonard Cohen songs. In a striking full-circle moment, the artist’s newest re...

A masterclass in how to be unmissable, Kenyan polymath Kabeaushé’s music compels us to prick our ears, stop, and listen. 2023 was huge for the artist and producer, who emerged from it wit...

Sary Moussa weaves his work slowly, patiently, allowing for the textures for which it is known to take shape little by little. The Lebanon musician, sound designer, producer, and engineer, who is a fi...

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...

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...

Like a magic spell, the psychedelic groove of Peruvian legends Los Wembler’s de Iquitos pulses deeper than ever. Creators of the Amazonian cumbia, this group has been among the pioneers of psych...

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

The ever-versatile Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is a soul that keeps creating, with each undertaking achieving new depths, textures and vocabularies. Lowe's been a mainstay with math rockers 90 Day Men and...

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

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

After releasing two singles 'Horizon' and 'Imagining My Man' (featuring Perfume Genius), Aldous Harding's new album 'Party' is out today via 4AD. Stream it in full below.  Aldous Harding will pe...

The steady yet ever versatile Kevin Morby extends his musical range with each project he's a part of. Morby exhibits a fleeting beauty and folk rock romanticism in his songwriting, hypnotically explor...

Moon Duo’s torrent blotchy psychedelics inventively coalesce with meditative, minimalist pop. Indeed, this is inflammatory music that submerges and manifests within the subconscious like a livin...

H. Hawkline’s goofball pop has the special ability to make the mundane sound quirky, whether it’s a perfectly formed bit of toothpaste on your toothbrush or shoelaces tied equally tight to...

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...

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

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

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...

Lucy Railton’s voice has bloomed from the root of more than 25 years of classical instrumentalism. The cellist and electronic composer’s acclaimed 2018 solo debut 'Paradise 94' marks a new...

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...

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

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...

Following the release of her EP 'Lagata' last year, London producer Klein now shares 'Tommy', her first release for Hyperdub. Listen in full below and read Tiny Mix Tapes' review here.  "Klein d...

(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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares performed music from their new album 'BooCheeMish' live at Le Guess Who? 2017, in Utrecht's iconic Dom church (dating back to the 13th centu...

Electronic explorer James Holden presented his new performance ‘James Holden and The Animal Spirits’ live at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring two tracks from his new album; a record that enhances Holden’s past in trance music with his love for Moroccan Gnawa music. Audio recorded by Marc Broer at Le Guess Who? 2017 on Sa...

The Sai Anantam Ashram Singers performed The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda live at Le Guess Who? 2017, featuring a special guest appearance by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. About the project:Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda’s devotion to spirituality defined the final decades of her life. In 1983, she esta...

During Le Guess Who? 2017 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Canadian singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara gave a very rare live appearance, curated by Perfume Genius for the festival. We are extremely proud to share the video and audio recordings of the performance, with the video premiered by The Wire. Declared a ‘cult hero&r...

Mélissa Laveaux’s most recent album ‘Radyo Siwèl’ reclaims the Ottawa-born, Paris-based songwriter’s Haitian roots with a collection of native folk spirituals. Th...

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

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

Great pop songs with magic sprinkles of Eastern soundtracks, Spaghetti Western’s spacious twang and some grooving yé-yé sounds, that’s Khana Bierbood in a nutshell. Not surpr...

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

Holly Herndon’s vital album ‘PROTO’ is an inquisitive, affirmative work that interplays elements like Sacred Harp choirs with an A.I.-entity called Spawn, therefore splicing the orga...

Holly Herndon’s vital album ‘PROTO’ is an inquisitive, affirmative work that interplays elements like Sacred Harp choirs with an A.I.-entity called Spawn, therefore splicing the orga...

Last year, Red Bull Music captured The Comet Is Coming’s futuristic, astral sound in an exclusive live session. During these recordings, they played blistering versions of ‘Final Eclipse&r...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we feature a track of Eleanor Friedberger's latest full-length 'Rebound'. As former half of indie si...

Recently, Colin Stetson has been teasing his new soundtrack for the far-from-typical horror film 'Hereditary'. You can now stream Stetson's full horrifying score below. While you're at it, you can als...

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...

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

Czech Republic's Please The Trees originally hail from the forests of a mountainous region in East Bohemia. Grounded in the psychedelic riffs and motorik beats of krautrock, the band will present...

Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, it's one of Chicago’s finest producers and "the unsung godfather" of footwork RP Boo, who &nd...

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

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...

When Kelman Duran was first invited to play at a party, he opened the set with Biggie’s brooding ‘Suicidal Thoughts’. Over the years, his music has become decidedly more festive. Sta...

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

The third installment of Red Bull Radio Fireside Chats recorded at Le Guess Who? 2018 (following Lydia Lunch and Swamp Dogg) is a conversation with breakout rapper and adventurous producer JPEGMAFIA: a talk about Baltimore, Tokyo, Dipset and his agitated live show. "He was born in New York before relocating to Alabama, where he enrolled...

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...

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

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

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...

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

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

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...

Not Waving & Dark Mark is the blood pact between the ink-black, minimal productions of Alessio Natalizia and the smoke-suffused vocal drawl of alt-rock minstrel Mark Lanegan. Natalizia releases music through the minimal synth/post punk Not Waving moniker and is one half of the Kompakt techno ambient duo Walls whose self-titl...

Dreamcrusher began on Kansas-born, New York City-based Luwayne's Glass Myspace page in 2003. Nineteen years, forty releases (including this February's ‘Dreamcrusher Plays the Hits: (LIVE 2​-​2​-...

Along with exploring the festival program, visitors of Le Guess Who? 2019 can also immerse themselves in various activities during the day throughout the city of Utrecht, including the ‘Untitled’ program.  Untitled made its debut as part of Le Guess Who? 2018. We're eager to expand the programming to include more daytime...

Video Recordings Relive the festival; watch live performances by Mazaher and Suuns. The upcoming time, we'll be sharing more performances on this website and our social media. VISIT VIDEO ARCHIVE

Born in Alexandria and currently based in Cairo, Nancy Mounir is an artist of extraordinary versatility, which allowed her to leave a deep mark in Egypt’s alternative music scene. Her work has l...

Kazakh-British composer and violinist Galya Bisengalieva performed her latest album 'Aralkum' in full live at Le Guess Who? 2021, as part of the program presented by Uncloud. You can now listen & relive the entire performance.  "It has been speculated how the current environmental crisis we face will inspire musicians, the sam...

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

Georgia's Pankisi Ensemble performed live at Le Guess Who? 2023 as part of the Hidden Musics program. Now, you can relive this touching performance with the full audio of the show, recorded at Utrecht's Jacobikerk during the festival. AboutThe Pankisi Ensemble goes against the typical 'ethno-fusion' grain in two ways. First, by not res...

One year ago, Le Cri du Caire released their hauntingly beautiful, self-tilted debut album. We are now thrilled to share the recording of their mesmerizing performance at Utrecht's Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? 2023, where the group performed the majority of the album, as well as new material. AboutSinger, writer, poet, and expressio...

"This is flamenco punk", said Niño de Elche towards the end of his performance at Le Guess Who?. It's a fitting statement: the Spanish musician, who is also called a 'singer, poet and omnipresent master of ensorcelling souls' has been challenging conservative and picturesque perceptions of flamenco for over two decades. You can re...

W.I.T.C.H., the band responsible for pioneering zamrock, returned to the stage during Le Guess Who? 2023 following the release of their new album 'Zango', their first in nearly four decades. On stage, they were joined by a.o. Jacco Gardner, Michael Rault and Nico Mauskoviç. Relive the performance below with our concert film and the...

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...

London-based producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping., following the release of latest album ‘Now Is’. You can now listen to and relive the full performance below.  AboutThroughout his critically acclaimed fifteen-year career, Rival Con...

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

Formula C is a 22 year old rapper and producer from Amersfoort. With a raw, complex and funky sound, he immerses himself in rap verses with lots of metaphors, tongue twisters and varying rhyme schemes...

Etran de L'Aïr, the best of Saharan rock, has been in the game for 25 years. They're well-known for their hypnotic sound and sun-bleached melodies. This family band of brothers and cousins shared a common ancestry; in the shadow of the grand mosque, Etran's members are all the sons of nomadic families who settled in Agadez's small ne...

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

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

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

South London's four-piece Italia 90 returns with the release of 2019 'An Episode': a fierce post-punk track and the first single from their upcoming EP, 'Italia 90 III', which will be out later this year. The distinctive vocal is paired with frenzied and textured guitar work, propulsive percussion and a distorted and dogged...

In 2018, as part of a program presented by Brooklyn-based independent record label RVNG Intl., Finnish electronic music composer Pekka Airaksinen (known for his work with ultra-radical, proto-noise group The Sperm) and NYC-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Ka Baird convened in Utrecht to write, rehearse, record and perform live.&n...

Niño de Elche’s music is part brain, part heart. The Spanish musician, who is also called a ‘singer, poet and omnipresent master of ensorcelling souls’ has been challenging co...

The work of multi-talented sound artist Ahmed El Ghazoly (also known as ZULI) has spilled over Cairo's borders onto the rest of the world, garnering support from the likes of Aphex Twin and Autechre....

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...

2023’s ‘Shoreline’ flows from London-based instrumentalist, composer, experimental sound, visual, and performance artist Damsel Elysium's first encounter with the double bass. For it...

Earlier this week, Brooklyn-based, Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab won the GRAMMY Award for Best Global Music Performance for her song ‘Mohabbat’. She performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021, the international festival for boundary-crossing music & culture, as part of her first ever European tour. Arooj Aftab is the first Pakis...

‘PERFORMANCE RAGE’ is the latest entry into percussionist, sound manipulator, and visual artist NAH’s explosive sound catalog. The release’s name drives at the Philadelphia-bor...

You can only mix so many flavors of Kool-Aid before its colors start to smear. Hereby lies the inspiration behind vocalist Pink Siifu and producer Ahwlee (pronounced “Ali”)’s group n...

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...

South London's Wu-Lu, spearheaded by musician/vocalist Miles Romans-Hopcraft, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024 as part of Bo Ningen's curated program for the festival. Below, you can watch the group perform the tracks Ten & Blame from the album LOGGERHEAD, released via Warp Records. “Powered by artistic freedom and sens...

In 2020, Cape Town, South Africa-based drummer Asher Gamedze found himself in Cairo assembling a quintet made up of some of the capital’s finest improvisers; Maurice Louca, Alan Bishop, Cherif El-Masri, and Adham Zidan. Another Time Ensemble had come to be. In 2024, the group performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024 as part of Chromes...

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

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

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

Ruhail Qaisar’s debut album, ‘Fatima’ which The Quietus dubbed ‘haunting’, is a ‘requiem for a dead future’. On the record, released earlier this year via Swi...

‘An immaculately frayed conception of dubwise dream-pop’, wrote Boomkat about ‘Untitled’, YL Hooi’s standout 2019 debut. Valya Ying-Li Hooi’s project, whose first L...

Via El Kontessa, the stage name of Cairo-based producer, DJ, and multidisciplinary artist Fajr Soliman, her city comes alive. In her voice, Cairo’s soundscapes are deconstructed, combined with s...

Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021. Curated by Matana Roberts for the festival, it marked the group's European live premiere. Now can now relive the performance with this video of the ensemble performing 'The Body Is Electric' from their latest & acclaimed album 'NOW'.  AboutThe past and...

Free-rock, post-folk sextet SANAM's music is akin to a ritual, somewhere between a marriage and an exorcism. The six Lebanese musicians blend traditional Egyptian songs and Arabic poetry with improvis...

Made of Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead (of Raime and Blackest Ever Black), as well as percussionist visionary Valentina Magaletti (of Tomaga, Vanishing Twin, and Holy Tongue, also performing at this yea...

Once upon a time, W.I.T.C.H. ruled Zambia. In the seventies, the band responsible for pioneering ‘zamrock’ often needed police to control the crowds riled up by lead singer Jagari (whose n...

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

With last year’s ‘Endure’, New Orleans-based Special Interest cemented themselves as everyone’s readily-embraced champions of joyful and biting glam punk. Thanks to fearless vo...

Cape Townian gem DIORA currently calls Rotterdam her home. The multi-disciplinary artist, DJ, and visionary’s work goes beyond herself, as she explores and researches the complexities of trans w...

Pain Against Fear is the final part of the controversial music theater trilogy PERMANENT DESTRUCTION, produced by theater maker and performer Naomi Velissariou in co-production with Theater Utrecht. T...

The Hof van Cartesius is a unique circular work spot for more than 100 makers and entrepreneurs. It is also an incubator for new talent, a hub for experiment and a meeting space for the local communit...

Amsterdam's Melqui crafts gentle, romantic tunes with finger-picked acoustic guitar and soothing vocals, infused with Latin grooves. Their sound merges melancholy and sunlit imagery, enriched by exper...

Ruhail Qaisar’s debut album, ‘Fatima’ which The Quietus dubbed ‘haunting’, is a ‘requiem for a dead future’. On the record, released earlier this year via Swi...

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...

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...

On Friday, 8 November 2024, Le Guess Who? will witness the magic of legendary Cumbia and Gaita ensemble Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto. To say that we are excited about welcoming them to Utrecht would be a massive understatement. In fact, the influence of this Grammy-winning, generations-spanning band on the trajectory of Latin American musi...

Heba Kadry is a mastering & vinyl cutting engineer born in Egypt and currently based in Brooklyn. She has worked with notable artists such as Björk, Holly Herndon, Nicolás Jaar and man...

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...

During the 2020 lockdown, composer, organist, and synthesist Kali Malone found herself in Berlin with time and conceptual space to spare. So, she decided to form an ensemble with her close friends and...

Chanting songs and playing hypnotic polyrhythms, Egyptian ensemble Mazaher gave a rare performance at Le Guess Who? 2021. It was their first European show in over 15 years. Mazaher is an Egyptian ensemble, a small group of mostly women musicians and singers who play Zãr music: a combination of chanted songs and hypnotic polyrhythm...

Improvisation and songwriting entangle through a plurality of voices, languages, strings, and unidentifiable noises. Songs of all forms sprout. Sberna's vocals shine and blaze fiercely in a dark warmt...

This São Paulo-based horn driven instrumental group’s music draws a link between the past and the present; as written by PopMatters, the band balances a sense of modernity with musical in...

When you merge the transformative power of Italian musician and composer Caterina Barbieri with Space Afrika’s spacious urban dubscapes (plus the unique visual narration of Marcel Weber or MFO),...

Starting DJing at thirteen, Mari Larrington-Nelson, AKA Shy One, was introduced to the flora and fauna of London’s sound early on. Record-collecting soon turned into beat-making for local names...

Rapper and producer Ashanti Mutinta, aka Backxwash gave a life-affirming performance at TivoliVredenburg's Ronda during Le Guess Who? 2023. Our residential photographer Melanie Marsman was present to capture some of the special moments, on stage as well as backstage. View the full photo series "Stark warnings of viewer discretion mark...

In an entirely virtual, post-apocalyptic game world, the filmmakers talk to the people behind the digital avatars. From death squad member to church leader to solitary wanderer.IDFA (International Doc...

​​Musician and composer Denizhan Altay has just released his first EP ‘Dolu Anadolu’, a fusion of nineties hiphop and elements of traditional Turkish folk music. The EP contains a mix of t...

Experience art like never before at Y?’s groundbreaking exhibit where the realms of art and technology intertwine. Delve into a world of awe-inspiring installations, where the past’s dream...

Prepare yourselves for a special event: Pixel Paradise x Something Happening Somewhere, unfolding within the cozy confines of dB’s. This one-of-a-kind event is brought to you by Something Happen...

Lost Girls, the Norwegian duo made up of former LGW curator Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden, released their sensual debut LP Menneskekollektivet in 2021, which was named one of the year’s best releases by Pitchfork, The FADER, Brooklyn Vegan, Paste, and more. Now, they return with their second album Selvutsletter, released throug...

Taking her name from a myth of a vanishing planet, Min Taka shares her inner world through genre-bending sound that moves between indie, liquid dnb, synth, hyperpop. Her songs reflect on themes of ide...

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...

With write-ups on Rolling Stone, THE FACE, and Pitchfork, the Detroit rap group HiTech is the hero of clubs in Michigan and beyond. Bridging the gap between the city’s endless genres, King Milo,...

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...

It was in the year of 2021 that Joe Lally’s The Messthetics (his instrumental trio with former Fugazi bandmate and drummer Brendan Canty and guitarist Anthony Pirog) met their match: James Brand...

In the upcoming queer Latinx scene, there aren’t many bands like Blanco Teta. Onto all the hallmarks of their punk forebears, the quarter adds an unlikely yet compelling new element; the process...

Since 2022, Le Guess Who? partners with the Nature and Environment Federation Utrecht to offset CO2 emissions from international air travel by artists and visitors. Thanks to the collaboration in 2024, we're able to support five Repair Cafés in Utrecht. These cafés are places where people can work together with volunteers t...

M. Takara (Hurtmold, São Paulo Underground) and Carla Boregas (RAKTA, Fronte Violeta) have been making strides in the Brazilian music scene in their regard for years, but, as a duo, they feel l...

Ill Japonia, the trap/bass music alter-ego of Bo Ningen's frontman Taigen Kawabe, collaborates with movement artist Masumi Saito. They blend London's eclectic music scene and Rave culture with Masumi'...

In ‘We Fell In Turn’, Brooklyn-based trombonist, composer, and quartet leader Kalia Vandever’s 2023 solo debut, a string unravels a link between Jeff Parker, William Basinski, and Gr...

The contemporary artist known as Blackhaine (a moniker influenced by the gritty nineties French film ‘La Haine’) has a multimedia practice spawned during the ‘static anxiety’ o...

This fall, DARKSIDE is emerging from the studio shadows for their second tour in a decade. Chilean electronic musician Nicolás Jaar and American multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington now welcom...

Calm Roots was born on NTS as a regular exploration of Alex Rita’s (Touching Bass) collection’s most meditative tones. It resonated with listeners globally to such a degree that now it has...

Melbourne foursome Tropical Fuck Storm's fiery flavor can be savored through a string of releases dating back to 2019 - but there is nothing quite like devouring the thunderous delicacy live, as we experienced again at Le Guess Who? 2024. Watch the concert film below. The group's new album 'Fairyland Codex' is out now via Fire Records.&nb...

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...

Sheherazaad’s namesake is the legendary Persian queen and storyteller of the frame narrative of ‘The Arabian Nights’. Tracing this kind of creative lineage would be too audacious for...

Chuck Strangers fell in love with hip-hop in 2005; for his thirteenth birthday, he was gifted an Akai MPC2000, the iconic workstation immortalized by the likes of J Dilla, Kanye West, and many more. F...

‘Learning To Swim On Empty’ is South London vocalist and musician Wu-Lu’s third venture into music-releasing, and, similarly to past outings, his newest EP resists being put in a box...

James Massiah may now master multiple channels of artistic expression - producer, rapper, DJ and radio host are some of the hats he wears - but his first love, he says, is poetry. This passion is crys...

As one-half of power duo Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson, Brian’s fingerprints are still all over music today - from Common to Kendrick Lamar to Tupac and more. Almost 50 years later, the Am...

With his second album, ‘THE REBELLION’, Durban’s DJ LAG announces a new era. Born and raised in gqom’s place of origin, the South African DJ has always kept the sound system-ha...

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...

‘A fundamental thread through the fabric of London's underground art scene’, wrote Fact Magazine about Cõvco as early as 2022. The British artist and DJ is one of the city's most or...

The documentary Luzmila and the Birds explores the life and work of one of the most important women in Latin America: the world-renowned Bolivian and Indigenous singer Luzmila Carpio. The film capture...

Nothing is more noble, more impactful, and more challenging than trying to make a difference in your immediate surroundings. While the practice of creating space and opportunities for those around you...

18:00 - 18:20 / dB'sAfter spending some time testing the musical capabilities of everyday equipment DJ Ninja Hagen is now doing a hybrid DJ performance. From 20 to 2000 bpm.

Something was afoot at last year’s SOUNDSET series in Madrid; so much so that, when Abul Mogard (AKA Guido Zen) and composer, record producer, and mastering engineer Rafael Anton Irisarri serend...

South Korean musician and performance artist bela arrange the collision of worlds; traditional sonics withstanding the test of wild modern age Korea and grimy metal bars come together in 2024’s...

Seoul Community Radio (SCR) is South Korea’s premier community radio station. Established in 2016, SCR is a multi-platform online broadcaster at the center of Asia’s fast-growing electroni...

Seoul Community Radio (SCR) is South Korea’s premier community radio station. Established in 2016, SCR is a multi-platform online broadcaster at the center of Asia’s fast-growing electroni...

With Military Genius, Canadian musician Bryce Cloghesy flexes his world-building prowess, a talent documented throughout boundary-pushing discography dating back to 2016. In his music, dream logic rei...

Modulation is Utrecht’s own accessible night of live performances and concerts centered around modular synthesizers and other hardware electronic instruments. A place for newcomers as well as ve...

Since 2021, Berlin’s Refuge Worldwide has grown into an important community radio and cultural hub, spreading cutting-edge music with a clear mission of solidarity and social activism. As such,...

Since 2021, Berlin’s Refuge Worldwide has grown into an important community radio and cultural hub, spreading cutting-edge music with a clear mission of solidarity and social activism. As such,...

Each year, COSMOS – Le Guess Who?’s global music community – partners up with eight new Embassies to showcase their music scene. For this, we commission local filmmakers to portray t...

Each year, COSMOS – Le Guess Who?’s global music community – partners up with eight new Embassies to showcase their music scene. For this, we commission local filmmakers to portray t...

Each year, COSMOS – Le Guess Who?’s global music community – partners up with eight new Embassies to showcase their music scene. For this, we commission local filmmakers to portray t...

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...

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...

Representing the cutting edge of Istanbul’s vibrant improvisational music scene, this brand new trio tells stories of humanity, spirituality and community. Through the tension of jazz experiment...

Studying percussions and clarinet since very young, at age of 10 Tomoki Sanders was gifted a saxophone by their father Pharoah. Since then, tenor sax became Tomoki’s primary instrument, making t...

Black creative music often becomes a powerful act of resistance and activism, and that’s certainly true for Asher Gamedze’s music. Through rolling drums and poetic reflections, the virtuos...

“Do you know how to touch everything and be kind about it? To be strong. To keep all the life. A change is gonna come”. The closing words of Lonnie Holley’s latest album, Tonky, echo...

Merope’s roots lie deep in the soil of Lithuania’s folk songs, vividly evoked through the resonant sound of the kanklės (a traditional string instrument) and their ancestral singing. Joine...

Le Guess Who? 2025 guest curator Tianzhuo Chen invites two influential figures of the Chinese music scene to perform and improvise together on stage. Groundbreaking guitarist Li Jianhong is a pioneer...

Imagine a spectral, sinister version of Tokusatsu - the Japanese live-action films or television programs. Inspired by their use of hand-made special effects, DIEMAJIN assemble cursed beats, warped sa...

As part of her guest curation at Le Guess Who? 2025, trailblazing percussionist Valentina Magaletti takes the stage for a special improvised set. Her versatile technique, which can incorporate anythin...

Can samba carry a message of redemption? With his celebratory albums Curyman and Curyman II, Rogê seeks to spread joy, “so that we don’t give in to sadness, to laziness, to a lack of...

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...

Lending his singular talents to artists as diverse as Liturgy, Glenn Branca and Colin Stetson, drummer extraordinaire Greg Fox’s rapid fire, blistering playing style is a true force of nature. F...

Natasha Kmeto's music sounds like pure pop exposing itself under the x-ray machine: fully-formed, but its anatomy and innards laid bare for all to see. Her albums ‘Crisis’ and ‘Inevi...

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

Libya’s Ahmed Fakroun is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and pioneer in modern Arabic music. As a rhymist (based on a form of Algerian folk music dating back to the 1920s), he is one of the...

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

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

Manchester figurehead Jane Weaver’s twenty-year career has mostly been aimed at molding dream pop, avant-folk and psychedelic music into fully realized artistic concepts. Weaver's last two effor...

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...

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

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

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

Muddersten's ambient soundscapes make you feel like you're part of one of an archaic sci-fi flick: gyrating drones, white noise and dissonant tones orbit the brain like satellites and spaceships. The...

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

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

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

In the lexicon of John Maus, pop music has always been a vessel for endless possibility. Much like fellow voyager Ariel Pink, pop serves as the Trojan Horse for Maus's avalanche of ideas, philosophies...

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

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

You're right, this isn't exactly a new song: Protomartyr's '580 Memories' was already published by Joyful Noise in 2015, as part of their limited edition Flexi-Disc Series. It just appeared online how...

London grime MC Flohio made her presence known during her ace collaboration with beatmaking duo God Colony. On killer tracks like SE16, Flohio displays rapid-fire delivery and jaw-dropping wordplay, l...

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

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

Steven Warwick is a British-born, Berlin-based musician and visual artist who performed under the moniker Heatsick in the past. Warwick moulds hypnotic dancefloor-focussed tracks in a similar way to h...

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

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

As a live act, Japan’s Vampillia are an anomaly if there ever was one. They embrace and command both eerie silences and punishing volumes of dark oozing noise. It’s no surprise this 11-pie...

By Special Arrangement with Ecstatic Peace Library. No matter how far his musical interests stretch, Thurston Moore’s stylish poise is always prevalent in his work: red-hot, risqué and ra...

New Zealand's Aldous Harding stopped by the NPR offices to record an intimate and intense Tiny Desk Concert, performing three songs from her latest album 'Party' together with keyboardist Jared S...

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

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...

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

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...

One oath sworn by Hello Skinny – founded by Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – is to create improv music that doesn’t sound improvisational. Inspired by New York’s late &lsquo...

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

You can now listen to Tortoise's Wilco-curated set at Le Guess Who? 2016. "In all its electro, percussive, ambient, rock glory. Toss it on and dream of Netherlands’ November nights", as Und...

Kevin Morby wanders through Paris in his new black & white video for 'Downtown Lights' from his latest album 'City Music', released earlier this year. Watch below.  "I set out to write a sim...

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

Jesca Hoop released her new album 'Memories Are Now' earlier this year. A new session recorded at Granada Studios sees her performing songs from the album in intimate setting. Watch the recordings bel...

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...

Here’s a first impression of London four piece ensemble Ill Considered to spark your curiosity: their self-titled LP sounds like free-wheeling jams left on the cutting room floor for Curtis Mayf...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Avey Tare, on 3 albums he would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Featuring Ge...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

In the early 2000s, Hot Snakes rose to combine Rocket From The Crypt’s walloping garage rock anthems and Drive Like Jehu’s feverish post-hardcore stabs. With aforementioned bands reuniting...

As Vive la Void, Sanae Yamada emerges from Moon Duo’s copious fuzz-drenched blast-offs like a floating space capsule. Inspired by the constant going and froing of tour life, Yamada’s glass...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Zeal & Ardor, on 3 albums they would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Fea...

"I consume more music backstage on tour than at any other time. It’s essential for me as a ritual to have sounds blaring in the green room from load-in to load-out. Partially I think this is so...

Oft-compared to Karen Dalton and Hope Sandoval, Ora Cogan’s mystic folk is dark, beautiful and poignant. On latest album ‘Crickets’, the Vancouver-based composer and filmmaker abando...

As we wrote in The Soft Moon's bio for their performance at this year's Le Guess Who?: 'Each album peels away another layer to reveal more brutal truths behind Vasquez’s industrial/postwave lean...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Meredith Graves (Perfect Pussy), on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who?...

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

With his self-taught piano improvisations and stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach, Lonnie Holley is a storyteller of the highest order. Apart from being an acclaimed visual artist, Holley also cr...

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

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

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...

Tom Rogerson's piano skills are once again on full display in new song 'Idea of Order at Kyson Point'; a collaboration with Brian Eno. The dreamy track will be available on Rogerson's upcoming al...

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

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....

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...

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

For several years, Paris-based photographer Felipe Vasquez has been working on a series of photo portraits focused on women in the arts, celebrating the impact they make in the art world as...

A librarian by day, Richard Youngs spends pretty much every other minute of his waking life living and breathing music. His fascinations reach all corners of the world, from Syd Barrett’s quirky...

Detroit's Protomartyr performed at Le Guess Who? 2017 in Utrecht, as part of the program curated by Basilica Soundscape. Here, the band present work from their newest album 'Relatives in Descent', as well as songs from their previous records. Watch the band perform 'Don't Go To Anacita' and Half Sister' at the festival + listen to the ful...

That strange intermediate state during lucid dreams, when the body physically reacts to images summoned by your imagination: that’s a pretty apt way to describe the impact of Sarah Davachi&rsquo...

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...

Accordion maestro Mario Batkovic has performed twice at Le Guess Who?; in 2016, his performance was curated by Savages, and last year, he returned to festival at the invitation of by James Holden. You...

Michele Mercure’s shrouded cinematic works overlap ambient, abstract, and industrial sensibilities, always with a keen and playful sense of their surroundings and acoustics. Not surprisingly, th...

Accordeon maestro Mario Batkovic has performed twice at Le Guess Who?; in 2016, his performance was curated by Savages, and last year, he returned to festival at the invitation of by James Holden. You can stream that full, mesmerizing performance below. AboutIt's kind of funny how one of Mario Batkovic's most well-known pieces is calle...

After outgrowing their post-hardcore roots in the late 90s, German indie giants The Notwist’s landmark album Neon Golden meshed alternative rock with intricate electronic compositions like no other band before, inspiring followers like Radiohead and Broken Social Scene. Siblings Markus and Michael Acher are worldly souls who cite a...

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

With their cosmic jazz celebration, Sun Ra Arkestra was one of the closing acts of Le Guess Who? 2017. We're pleased to now bring you the full recording of this show, spanning decades of the Sun Ra legacy. The song 'Discipline 27-II' features a special guest appearance by King Khan. Read on below for the astonishing story 'Sun Ra Ar...

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

Roberto SOLO Fonseca still lives in the heart of his birthplace Havana, which explains why his adaptation of Cuba’s musical heritage remains so refreshingly renegade and immediate. He spawned ex...

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...

In the universe of Mykki Blanco, art and real life don’t imitate each other, but are symbiotic and reciprocal. Few artists could infiltrate mainstream audiences with cinematic, experimental trac...

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

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

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

The originator of footwork music and one of Chicago’s finest producers RP Boo will release his new album ‘I’ll Tell You What!’ on 6 July via Planet Mu. Leading up to his new LP...

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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...

One-half of Philly duo 700 Bliss and member of the Discwoman collective DJ Haram speaks to The Quietus about the scene in her base of Philadelphia, linking up with Moor Mother and the Discwo...

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

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

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...

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

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...

Rapper and producer Pink Siifu’s mercurial talent for intersecting styles and culture can be compared to the manifestation of a tropical storm: an unchecked force of nature that hoovers up every...

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...

Enter the dark, mythical world of minimalist composer and acclaimed lute-player Jozef van Wissem. Accompanied by his baroque instrument, Van Wissem creates highly distinctive sonic soundscapes by blen...

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...

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...

Although Menzi’s debut came only last spring, this Durban native has been a steady presence in South African electronic music for a number of years. After producing for several notorious acts, l...

Sons Of Kemet's new album 'Your Queen Is A Reptile' (released in March via Impulse!) is the "jazz" choice for nomination in this year's Hyundai Mercury Prize. Ahead of the event, the band gi...

Rarely has a band sounded so much like their name. It’s as if Egyptian-Austrian artist Leila Hassan and collaborator Francesco Cavaliere picked it out before the instruments themselves. Just lik...

Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This time, we highlight a bubbly, crisp pop tune by American singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney. 'Cut Me Off' is taken f...

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...

At the center of this neo-soul joint’s music lies one sentiment above all others; perseverance. With their latest record, ‘Love and Hate in a Different Time’, Gabriels – v...

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

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

As a sci-fi obsessed woman living in near isolation, musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote and self-released 'Keyboard Fantasies' in rural Ontario in 1986. Recorded on an Atari-powered home-studio, th...

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...

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

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

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...

Hailed as one of the greatest songwriter of his time, California-based artist Cass McCombs performed twice at Le Guess Who?, leading up to the release of his new album 'Tip of the Sphere' (out February 8th via ANTI- Records). Right after his second show (on the Sunday of the festival, as part of our Collaboratorium in Kytopia), McCombs he...

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...

On the closing night of Le Guess Who? 2018, Indian Carnatic music pioneer Kadri Gopalnath gave a mesmerizing performance, curated by Shabaka Hutchings. Listen to the full show, and watch and excerpt from the performance below.  About: Kadri Gopalnath’s life’s work is to incorporate the woodwind instrument into the cla...

For eclectic London-based group The Heliocentrics, musical boundaries are invisible. This collective has the ability to fluently string together a broad spectrum of genres, including free-form jazz, hip-hop, psychedelic grooves, krautrock, and musique concrete. Since their first appearance on DJ Shadow’s album ‘The Outsider&...

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...

Supervisory Board Hans van Soelen – chairman (end first period March 2026)Jorien Waanders – audit committee (end first period June 2026)Mark Laagewaard – audit committee  (end first period January 2027)Nancy Poleon – member (end first period January 2027)Ilayda Hagens – member (end first period January...

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...

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

Responsible for some of dubstep’s most iconic cuts, DJ, producer and label owner Mala is now part of a select group of producers taking it to thrilling forward-thinking pastures. His newest track is a collaboration with Joe-Armon Jones and Nubya Garcia. 'Scratch & Erase' is part of the compilation album 'Unti...

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

Three of the Le Guess Who? 2019 curators have just announced new albums and released new music to go along with it: Jenny Hval Norwegian avant-pop artist Jenny Hval will release her new album 'The Practice of Love' on 13 September via Sacred Bones. At Le Guess Who?, she will present her new performance baring the same title as the album...

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

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...

“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...

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

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

On November 9, 2019, the Greek polyphonic vocal ensemble Isokratisses gave a rare performance at the Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Founded by Anna Katsi, the group dedicates itself to the polyphonic singing of Poliçan, an ethnic Greek village in southern Albania. All the members are...

Throughout their decades-long musical partnership, Czech artists Irena Havlová and Vojtěch Havel have traveled far and wide, through time and space. They started working together in the mid-eig...

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

The Master Musicians of Jajouka, led by Bachir Attar, performed live at the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the Hidden Musics project following the release of their new album 'Dancing Under The Moon', released earlier in 2022 via Glitterbeat Records. You can listen to and relive the full performance below.  About B...

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, working mainly as a musician, writer, organizer and an educator. With his band, he performed live during the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2022.  You can now listen to three tracks that the group performed live from their 'Dialectic Soul' album (2020): 'Eternality', 'Siyabulela...

During Le Guess Who? 2022, flamenco icon Estrella Morente and Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra came together for a magic showcase of warmth and joy. You can now watch the full concert film of the stunning performance at Utrecht's Jacobikerk, presented in collaboration with Ud Festival.  The daughter of world-famous Enrique Morente,...

Tampa rap duo They Hate Change performed at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping., following the release of Finally, New; their debut album for Jagjaguwar. Relive the ecstatic performance below with our concert film, featuring two unreleased tracks produced by John Carroll Kirby and Zach Witness: AboutTampa&rsq...

Renowned rai singer Cheikha Rabia & Esraa Warda, a prolific dancer expert in traditional North African dance forms, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the Hidden Musics project. Relive the mesmerizing performance at TivoliVredenburg's Pandora via our concert film below: AboutCheikha Rabia and Esraa Warda both hail from...

At Le Guess Who? 2023, veteran improviser Bill Orcutt (of Harry Pussy) was joined live by an all-star team of seasoned guitarists, made up of Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish. The four tackled Orcutt’s rhythmic tapestry released on 'Music For Four Guitars' (2022), following the intricate composition’s thread wh...

Nihiloxica exploded out of Kampala in 2017 with their groundbreaking fusion of Bugandan drumming and UK bass. The band explores the darkest depths between two separate cultures of dance music, uniting abrasive club electronics with raucous percussive energy. At Le Guess Who? 2023, the group presented their late latest album 'Source of De...

Richard Dawson performed live at Utrecht's Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? 2023 as part of the program curated by Slauson Malone 1. You can now listen to the British folk master performing Museum (from the 2022 album The Ruby Chord) and Two Halves (from 2020).  "The next song is from the point of view of a robot or an AI, somethin...

Relive Ndox Electrique live at Le Guess Who?, the first international performance of the genre-blurring musical ensemble that originated in Senegal, and whose music is inspired by an ancient ritual of the spirit-world originating from Senegal’s n’döep ceremonies.  About How does one put Ndox Electrique into mere...

Kahil El'Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble celebrated their 50th anniversary on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2024, commemorating half a century of continuously shifting gears and tempos in the jazz-blues continuum. Listen to, and relive, the full performance below.  The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was founded by El’Zabar in...

Fera is a wild and adventurous new work that Egyptian artist Maurice Louca wrote over a four-year period. It was performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024 together with Ayman Asfour as part of Chromesthesia, curated by Hannah Elsisi. Below, you can watch Barĩy from the captivating performance and listen to the full audio of the show. ...

Dreamcrusher, the project of multidisciplinary artist Luwayne Glass, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping. You can now listen to his performance below, released via Dreamcrusher for Bandcamp Friday.  Live at Le Guess Who? 2022 by DREAMCRUSHER AboutDreamcrusher began on Kansas-born, New Yor...

Caila Thompson-Hannant aka Mozart's Sister was curated by Perfume Genius for Le Guess Who?. Today, she releases her new album 'Field of Love', a record that 'keeps dishing out earworms and infectious...

"He recorded these songs in Geneviève’s room, too, mostly on acoustic guitar and with just one microphone and a laptop, at night when his daughter was sleeping or in stolen moments when s...

Le Guess Who? is cooperating with local graphic school X11 this year. We introduced our festival to the students, and also introduced some of our artists to them. For some of them, it was th...

Le Guess Who? & de Volkskrant bring you video portraits of artists performing at Le Guess Who? 2017. We meet up with Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas to discuss his live performance, and his cu...

In a new episode of Red Bull Radio's Open End, Circuit des Yeux premiered her cover of 'Soeur de Race', from French-Portuguese avant-garde singer Catherine Ribeiro. With her band Alpes, Ribeiro r...

Noise artist Margaret Chardiet, aka Pharmakon, returns this week with Contact, a sister album to 2014’s Bestial Burden that sees the New Yorker still confronting her mor...

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...

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...

Ever since they started working together in the mid-eighties, Czech artists Irena & Vojtěch Havlovi have traveled far and wide, crossing continents, cultures and mediums with styles of European classical music ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary. In the process, the duo made fans which include Sufjan Stevens, The National's...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Jesca Hoop, on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Read in fu...

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...

The full line-up for Le Guess Who? is now revealed, with 60 acts completing the program - check out the full line-up here.  The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda performed by...

Kevin Morby's latest albums 'Singing Saw' and 'City Music' were two companion pieces. Now, the songwriter releases two versions of his new song 'Baltimore'. 'Baltimore (Sky At Night)' was written...

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

FOKN Bois are your quintessential agent provocateurs. Their music speaks truth to power and tackles issues that afflict humanity, including corruption, social inequality, religious exploitation and indiscipline. These are the linchpins of most of their musical or cinematic creations.  In February, the Ghanaian duo released thei...

Detroit's Protomartyr performed at Le Guess Who? 2017 as part of the program curated by Basilica Soundscape. Here, the band present work from their newest album 'Relatives in Descent', as well as song...

Istanbul-based ambient/drone artist Ekin Fil just released her new album 'Ghosts Inside'. Behind an icy fog of dripping reverb, her vocals hardly ever register beyond whispers and sighs, always just o...

24-HOUR DRONE is an immersive experience featuring musicians and sound artists experimenting within the spectrum of drone. Together, they create 24 hours of unbroken, uninterrupted sound. The event blurs the line between artist and attendee to create transcendence through communal experience.  Happening in-person for the first time...

We're happy to announce that, after four years, 24-HOUR DRONE returns to Basilica Hudson in 2023 on May 27 & 28, to coincide with Drone Day. 24-HOUR DRONE is presented by Basilica Hudson and Le Guess Who? in collaboration with Sarah Van Buren, happening in-person for the first time since 2019. Tickets are available here. An immersive...

As part of their upcoming EP 'Dost 2' out on November 11, Derya Yıldırım releases new track 'Darıldım Darıldım'. A compelling mix between traditional Anatolian sounds and warm beats, 'Darıldım Darıldım' leaves listeners in a unique state of trance, combined with an irresistible desire to dance the night away.  Derya Yıldırım & G...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

COSMOS: Behind the Scenes with Rắn Cạp Đuôi  In 'Behind the Scenes', COSMOS dives into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. Vietnamese experimental music collective Rắn Cạp Đuôi have been expanding their vast auditory spectrum since forming back in 2015. On their first two albums, Ngủ N...

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...

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-...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

You can also listen to this story – below or via your favorite podcast app. On the closing day of Le Guess Who? 2023, the festival features the first international performance of Ndox Electrique, whose music is inspired by an ancient ritual of the spirit-world originating from Senegal’s n’döep ceremonies. ...

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...

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...

COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Khartoum, Sudan We discuss LGW Embassy: Khartoum, Sudan with Hassan Kamil: a talk about portraying another image of the continent, the country, and the city; how music in Khartoum grew to be ‘a form of resistance’; and how it is home to a rich array of meaningful, beautiful, and unique sounds; dif...

(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...

COSMOS: Behind the Scenes in Mexico City, Mexico We speak to Daniel (Danny) Alvarado Chávez, head of Sonido Confirmación, an independent project made to ‘represent and connect Mexico City through images and music’, while diving into the capital's music scene. Every minute, new acts mushroom across the city&rsquo...

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: 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...

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...

African Head Charge performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2023 following the release of their new album 'A Trip To Bolgatanga'. You can now relive the performance with the full audio of the show, which is assured to put a smile on anyone's face.  About'A bad attitude is like a flat tire - you can't go anywhere until...

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...

(scroll naar beneden voor de Nederlandse tekst) Amsterdam dance-punk quartet Baby’s Berserk releases their self-titled debut album via Berlin’s Toy Tonics label. Drawing inspiration from the eighties' new wave and indie dance music, the album, composed by Mano Hollestelle, boasts highly associative lyrics from Puggy Beales a...

Behind the Scenes is the new series by COSMOS, Le Guess Who?’s hybrid platform, in which we dive into local stories from across the world together with our global partners. Here, we talk to the people behind the video content that was created for the latest COSMOS installment to learn more about their local cultural scenes; their c...

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...

“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...

(artwork by Emma Fischer) At a very young age, Han Bennink started drumming for his grandparents on pans and cookie cans, and with curtain rods as sticks. All over the world, Bennink is celebrat...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

Leading up to Joan of Arc’s forthcoming album ‘1984’, Devendra Banhart released a cover of Joan of Arc’s ‘Shown And Told’ for Joyful Noise Recordings' ‘Cause...

RP Boo is the originator of footwork music and one of Chicago's finest producers. Now he has released his new album 'I'll Tell You What! via Planet Mu, which is his first album since 2015's 'Fingers, Bank Pads, and Shoe Prints'. It shows off RP Boo's raw experimentalism, floating free between abstraction and precision, for which RP Boo ha...

Today, Shelter Press just releases Félicia Atkinson's new album 'The Flower And The Vessel'. The French experimental composer and poet was partly influenced by the French classical pieces that shaped her childhood, including Maurice Ravel's 'L'enfant et les sortilèges', Debussy's 'La Mer', and Erik Satie's 'Gymnop&...

It is true that making plans for shows and festivals in 2021 is a bit of a gamble. But Le Guess Who? believes that it’s important to have something to look forward to. In the spirit of cautious optimism, we are proud to announce the second round of confirmations for November 11-14 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Le Guess Who?’s...

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

As an international festival, Le Guess Who? has always worked with a borderless and boundary-crossing ethos. With COSMOS, we amplify local scenes from around the world to an international audience.

On Sunday afternoon, we’ll take a deep dive down into the depths of punk, new-wave and blood pounding rock ‘n roll. Together with long time festival location dB’s and brand new venue WAS., we will set the stage for a raving punk party, leading up to the celebration of 30 years of Mudhoney. Endless Boogie & Bloody Ma...

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...

When DJ and artist Coco María moved from Mexico to Europe, she brought the hidden gems of Latin American musical culture with her. Growing up surrounded by music, Coco María not only grew fond of the sounds of her childhood but also developed a love for sharing them with the rest of the world. Born out of this passion of he...

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...

African Head Charge performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2023 following the release of their new album 'A Trip To Bolgatanga'. You can now relive the performance with the full audio of the show, which is assured to put a smile on anyone's face.  About'A bad attitude is like a flat tire - you can't go anywhere until...

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...

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...

Ever since their performance at Le Guess Who? 2018 has been confirmed, Alabaster DePlume's latest record 'The Corner of a Sphere' has been on high rotation in our office. We'd now like to introduce yo...

We're pleased to reveal the initial line-up for Le Guess Who? 2019, dedicated to boundary-crossing music from all over the world. The first 87 acts include very rare performances by Asha Puthli, Ustad Saami, and Ayalew Mesfin & Debo Band, as well as the curated programs by Jenny Hval, Moon Duo, Patrick Higgins and The...

Japanese 10-piece ensemble Minyo Crusaders performed at Le Guess Who? 2019, following the release of their debut album ‘Echoes of Japan’, at one of the festival main stages: TivoliVredenburg's Grote Zaal. It became a life-affirming and glorious performance that you can now relive with the audio recording of the full show, and...

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...

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...

We’re thrilled to share the video of AEAEA (Nicolas Jaar x Patrick Higgins)’s live premiere at Le Guess Who? 2019. AEAEA is the recent collaboration of two of today’s most acclaimed musical visionaries; in 2019, Le Guess Who? proudly presented the duo’s live premiere as part of Patrick Higgins’ curation at th...

Le Guess Who? 2018 is in full swing, and tonight sees the debut of Jacco Gardner's 'Somnium' experience. That's not the only premiere Gardner has in store for you though, as we have the honor to share the second track from his upcoming, instrumental album. 'Levania' is a highly uplifting and catchy track, marked by Gardner’s si...

Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. Almost a half year ago, we started off with Kojey Radical's powerful and stirring track 'If Only'. Now, twenty-four weeks later, we have highlighted some of the most remarkable musical treasures of this year's line-up, ranging from Katey Red's fast-paced...

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...

With its cosy and colourful atmosphere, picturesque canals, breathtaking medieval city centre and buzzing nightlife, the city of Utrecht is a hidden gem full of lovely people and stunning places. Selected with great care, Le Guess Who? would like to introduce you to the 2022 edition of the festival's Treasure Guide.  In the mood for...

At Le Guess Who? 2023, veteran improviser Bill Orcutt (of Harry Pussy) was joined live by an all-star team of seasoned guitarists, made up of Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish. The four tackled Orcutt’s rhythmic tapestry released on 'Music For Four Guitars' (2022), following the intricate composition’s thread wh...

Raziyah Heath is an independent curator (a.o at Metro54), programmer, curious cat, hater, organizer, killjoy, lover, DJ and artist. At the moment she mainly delves into sonic realms/dimensions, and uses DJing under the name Chinnamasta as a medium for research and discoveries. Their work aims to uncover the cross pollinations of Afro-dia...

For Vinyl Factory's monthly Soho Radio Show, Hello Skinny's mastermind Tom Skinner joined VF editor Anton Spice to introduce his latest LP 'Watermelon Sun', alongside a handful of its influe...

Every week, we bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, we highlight a track of acclaimed improvisational maverick and storyteller of the highest order: Lonnie Holle...

Somalia's legendary Dur-Dur Band played a major role in the 1980s nightlife of the capital Mogadishu. After reissues by Awesome Tapes From Africa and Analog Africa, Dur-Dur Band's mix of vibrant funk and traditional Somalian rhythms earned renewed recognition globally. The Vinyl Factory's longread tells the story about how the Somalian C...

Ghent-based duo Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 following the release of their acclaimed debut album 'Topical Dancer'. You can listen to & relive their performance with 3 tracks: 'Mantra', 'Ceci n'est pas un cliché', and 'Thank You'. About Cultural appropriation, misogyny, rac...

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...

Neo-soul sensation, singer and producer KeiyaA stars in Solange's Saint Heron's 'Passage', a short film created in collaboration with avant-garde collective Standing on the Corner. The short was recorded to celebrate the 2021 International Woolmark Prize, an award that honors fashion talents from around the world who showcase th...

Mourning [A] BLKstar performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who?'s 15th Anniversary Edition in 2022. The collective, made up of musicians, writers, and multimedia artists, has a bountiful track record, amassing several releases under its belt since 2015. Their music is for both eulogies and revolutions, as they expand upon contem...

New Age & Folk Jazz pioneer Beverly Glenn-Copeland gave a very rare performance on the closing day of Le Guess Who? 2018 together with five-piece ensemble Indigo Rising. The performance was curated by both Devendra Banhart and Moor Mother. Beverly Glenn-Copeland - 'Sunset Village', live at Le Guess Who? 2018: About: After a twent...

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...

Indian classical pioneer Kadri Gopalnath has devoted a lifetime to integrate the saxophone into the classical Indian genre of Carnatic music. We trace down the roots of this boundary-breaking art...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Dälek's Will Brooks, on 3 albums he'd be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. R...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Kevin Morby, on 3 albums he would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017.  Featurin...

There aren't many interviews with Grouper's Liz Harris around, but now, she's spoken with Love Lion about her dreams, adventures and the things she likes doing the most. Read the full interview here....

Sarah Davachi is a real sonic thrill-seeker who enjoys pushing the textural properties of music to the surface. CJSW, Calgary's Independent Radio, recently filmed Davachi creating drones on one of the...

Jane Weaver’s official biography starts with the sentence “abusing, evading and obliterating 20 years of whimsical pop trends”. Indeed, it could almost be seen as a personal slogan....

Avant-rock group Suuns have always surprised us with their releases and their newest, ‘The Witness’, on Joyful Noise, is yet another impressive step of their sonic universe. Following the release of the album, Suuns performed at Le Guess Who? 2021, and we're happy to now share the concert film of this performance as well as th...

As every year, an important part of the Le Guess Who? program is about making new discoveries; experiencing new sounds and artists that might become new personal favorites in the future. To help you e...

Le Guess Who? 2018 features a wide variety of club & dancefloor-oriented music, which we've now brought together in one playlist for you to explore. Check out the 'Club Cuts of Le Guess Who? 2018'...

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...

Catalan artist Marina Herlop performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by Animal Collective, following the release of her latest album 'Pripyat'. Relive the mesmerizing performance with our concert film below, featuring the songs miu, doiloi, abans abans and shaolin mantis.  AboutOn ‘miu’, a s...

Born in Lusaka, Zambia, rapper and producer Backxwash's work is based in the horrorcore, hip-hop and industrial metal genres, and includes a culmination of themes around the intersection between faith, identity, and queerness. In April, the magnificent Roadburn Festival in Tilburg hosted Backxwash's European live debut with two special s...

As part of her curation at Le Guess Who? 2024, experimental cellist and vocalist Mabe Fratti performed live at the festival together with London-based vocal group Shards. Watch the concert film of the performance, featuring the tracks Kravitz, No Se Ve Desde Acá and Desde el Cielo: With her hypnotic pieces, Mabe Fratti comb...

Hong Kong producer gyrofield is a rising star whose influences span a.o. drum & bass, ambient, techno, hyperpop, grime and dubstep. After a period in Bristol, they have recently moved to Utrecht, and their curation at Le Guess Who? 2025 features musical heroes and like-minded artists. Together with fellow DJs & producers Ciel, Cal...

The Netherlands 3voor12: Dit zijn de vijftig belangrijkste festivals van Nederland3voor12: Le Guess Who? slaat 2020 over3voor12: Beverly Glenn-Copeland blijft onverstoorbaar hoopvol3voor12: Le Guess Who? organiseert fysiek en online evenement3voor12: Le Guess Who? maakt volledige line-up LGW OFF bekend3voor12: Alternatie...

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

In partnership with Mentha Project & BIE MusicThe project curated and produced by the Beijing-based BIE Music showcases the originality and creativity of China’s diverse indie music scenes with live sessions of Howie Lee, Hualun, Gong Gong Gong, Otay:onii, and Naja Naja. These globally established Chinese acts, who are asso...

Duma's Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and Sam Karugo are figureheads of the flourishing Nairobi underground metal scene. After releasing an overwhelming debut album last year through Uganda's Nyege Nyege Tapes, the duo now return with new single 'Cannis/Mbukinya' for Sub Pop's Singles Club. Listen to both songs via the emb...

Le Guess Who? exists to bring people together through art and music, and despite the uncertainty of the times we have continued to work toward that end. Some things might change, and some things will change, but we have put together a festival for 2021 that we are extremely proud of, and will bring it to you in whatever form possible.&nbs...

Musician and poet Alabaster dePlume was Le Guess Who? 2021’s Artist in Residence and can be described as many things: a cleric of the written word, a maverick of sound, a conductor of communion. He garnered a substantial breakthrough in 2020 with his gorgeous compilation album ‘To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1’, a c...

During Le Guess Who? 2021, Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie / The Microphones) was one of five guest curators for the festival. Aside from putting together a personal program of inspirations and like-minded artists, Phil Elverum also performed live with guitarist Jay Blackinton to present Elverum’s latest album, 'The Microphones In 20...

During the latest edition of Berlin's CTM, two jazz pioneers and members of the AACM - Art Ensemble of Chicago's Roscoe Mitchell and music professor George E Lewis - spoke about th...

Each year, Le Guess Who? cooperates with a different illustrator to design the festival's main graphics and images (the layout and typography are done each year by Loudmouth). In 2016, the festival il...

The kind people at The Wire have made an essay from Jerusalem In My Heart's Radwan Ghazi Moumneh available online for free in their archives. In the Epiphany piece, Moumneh writes about the...

Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux funnels the spells of black metal into howls of Tom Waits-esque juke joint blues. A strange request at the notorious 4chan forum lead to Zeal & Ardor's...

Coby Sey's atmospheric sound spans the realms of live instrumentation, sample-based productions, and classical and experimental music. Similar to Actress and Dean Blunt, Sey's work reflects the steamy...

The Skinny just posted their 2017 guide to European festivals, featuring Primavera, MELT! Festival, Trans Musicales and yours truly. "It’s a music nerd’s paradise, in fact; not only are t...

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

During Le Guess Who? 2021, Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie / The Microphones) was one of five guest curators for the festival. Aside from putting together a personal program of inspirations and like-minded artists, Phil Elverum also performed live with guitarist Jay Blackinton to present Elverum’s latest album, 'The Microphones In 20...

Le Guess Who? is a Celebration of Sound. From 10-13 November, the festival returns to Utrecht, The Netherlands, for its 15th Anniversary Edition. We now reveals the guest curators and their full curated programs, as well as the first artists for the general program. Curated programs by Animal Collective, clipping., and CURL Inviting gue...

Kenya's Duma, figureheads of the flourishing Nairobi underground metal scene, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021 as part of the program curated by Phil Elverum (The Microphones/Mount Eerie).  Martin "Lord Spike Heart" Khanja and Sam Karugo released their self-titled album in 2020 through Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Tapes and were i...

Le Guess Who? presents ‘The Big Playback’, a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. In the second episode of ‘The Big Playback’, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to four different musicians about the shifting relationship between Art and Identity and who in some way explore the self as a mediu...

U? is our new initiative: a new, participative and freely accessible day program created for and with the city of Utrecht. U? presents many cultural activities in different neighborhoods throughout the city of Utrecht and will take place during Le Guess Who’s festival weekend, 11 – 14 November. Now, we reveal the full program...

London-based producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping., following the release of latest album ‘Now Is’. You can now listen to and relive the full performance below.  AboutThroughout his critically acclaimed fifteen-year career, Rival Con...

Lebanese free-rock, post-folk sextet SANAM performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2023, following the release of their debut album 'Aykathani Malakon'. Relive the performance with our concert film, and the audio recording of the show below: About SANAM's music is akin to a ritual, somewhere between a marriage and an exorc...

(scroll naar beneden voor de Nederlandse tekst) U?, the freely accessible city program of Le Guess Who?, returns to Utrecht on 11 and 12 November 2023 for its third edition. This program is created for, but especially with Utrecht, to celebrate the city's creativity in all its diversity. Utrecht has an enormous variety of community cent...

COSMOS is Le Guess Who?’s globe-spanning initiative that amplifies exciting music scenes from around the world. Through films, interviews, performances, and artist residencies, COSMOS connects international music communities and shares their stories. Now, COSMOS reveals the 2023 Embassies, together with its first-ever live program,...

With whirring synths and chirping guitars, Rafael Toral’s Spectral Evolution sounds like a message sent from space to earth. The latest album by the experimental musician is a monumental drone suite in which horns morph into electronic instruments for a soundscape that sounds natural as much as it sounds otherworldly.  Since h...

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...

Three years after her last Le Guess Who? showcase, Brooklyn-based, Pakistani singer and composer, Arooj Aftab returned to the festival in 2024 both as a curator and performer. "Aftab’s voice and her band’s musicianship are breathtaking on their own, but there’s an intimacy, a warmth, an un-self-seriousness that makes th...

South London's Wu-Lu, spearheaded by musician/vocalist Miles Romans-Hopcraft, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024 as part of Bo Ningen's curated program for the festival. Below, you can watch the group perform the tracks Ten & Blame from the album LOGGERHEAD, released via Warp Records. “Powered by artistic freedom and sens...

An immersive event and all-encompassing experience, 24-Hour Drone is a roving, international series presented by Basilica Hudson and Le Guess Who?, featuring musicians and sound artists...

Combine Moor Mother's everlasting, raging voice with DJ Haram’s dissonant Middle Eastern melodies and hard hitting club beats, and the result is the noise-infested yet cleansing sound of Philly...

Ras_G & The Afrikan Space Program recently released a new album via Leaving Records titled 'Stargate Music': an astral ode to women and a spiritual reflection on earthly life, which features...

London cellist, composer and producer Oliver Coates has released his new album 'Shelley's On Zenn-La' via RVNG Intl. The inspiration for the album was a legendary nightclub in the city of Stoke-on-Tre...

We would like to introduce you to Black Midi: part band, part mystery. Despite the fact that they've got almost no online presence and are still unsigned, the group has already garnered praise from me...

From eerie detuned piano atmospherics to smouldering avant-blues licks, Prana Crafter’s sonic spells are enveloped by a dense and rugged charm. Following the release of 2018's 'Bodhi Cheetah’s Choice', hailed by Aquarium Drunkard as "an alchemist of dark voodoo boogie that is entrancing and hypnotic", Prana Crafter now an...

Tampa's They Hate Change is a project born out of the duo's more-than-encyclopedic sonic knowledge. In between East Coast hip-hop influences and hyperlocal bass-music leanings, Dre and Vonne bond over their omnivorous appreciation of everything from grime to emo. The duo recently released their new album 'Finally, New' via Jagjaguwar to...

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

Sudan's Noori & His Dorpa Band performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022, presented in collaboration with Ostinato Records. Below, you can relive the performance with our video of a part of the concert, as well as the audio of the full show, with a spirited introduction by Ostinato's Vik Sohonie before the band came on stage. Additionall...

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

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...

In the mid-1960s, Art Ensemble of Chicago sprung from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Moving far beyond jazz, avant-garde and performance art, the ensemble has created a realm that is entirely original. On the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2018, and on the eve of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s 50t...

Hailed as 'The Mother of All Maqam', Farida Mohammed Ali gave an immersive performance at Le Guess Who? 2017 together with the Iraqi Maqam Ensemble. This performance was curated by Jerusalem In My Hea...

In this new breakdown-series we analyse and extract the groundbreaking work of pioneers in their line of musical duty. In this article, we explore Colin Stetson’s unconventional approach to the...

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...

Unfortunately, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe can't perform today due to a cancelled flight. Colin Benders & Maarten Vos will play instead at Hertz, 21:15-22:15. Rob Lowe's show is rescheduled to tomorr...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Tune-Yards' Merrill Garbus, on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017....

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...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Julianna Barwick, on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Feat...

"Now, on its fourth album, the band is moving toward an idiom that’s more flexible and contrasty yet just as gripping: Protomartyr’s own post-post-punk. Its expanded vocabulary includes re...

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...

Drummer extraordinaire Greg Fox's new album 'The Gradual Progression' is released today. His rapid fire, blistering playing style is a true force of nature, and Fox’s unique take on his instrume...

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

From 10-13 November, Le Guess Who? returns to Utrecht for its 15th Anniversary Edition. We now proudly reveal the full 2022 line-up, with new additions joining the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim, Low, Lole Montoya, Nia Archives, as well as festival curators Animal Collective, clipping., and CURL. General program Joining Le Guess Who?&rsquo...

Ustad Noor Bakhsh, the Benju maestro from the Makran Coast of Balochistan, has just released his debut solo album 'Jingul'. Named after a bird that often visits Noor’s house and whose songs were the inspiration behind the last song of the release, 'Jingul' leaves listeners with a warm and tender feeling accompanied by hope and happi...

Following the announcement of the curated programs and the initial names for the general program of Le Guess Who? 2022 last month, we are now adding four special projects to the program. These include the third edition of Hidden Musics and programs hosted by Coco Maria, GNOD, and Uncloud. Hidden Musics Le Guess Who? proudly presents the...

Our residential photographers Juri Hiensch and Melanie Marsman have been exploring Le Guess Who? again in 2021, captured different photo series during the festival. The upcoming time, we'll be sharing these series on this website and our social media. Portrait series at LGW21, by Melanie Marsman At Le Guess Who? 2021, residential phot...

This year, Le Guess Who? has partnered with AZEEMA, a publication that explores women and non-binary folk within West Asia, North Africa and South Asia, diasporas and beyond. Leading up to the festival, Dalia Al-Dujaili talks to North African dancer and educator Esraa Warda. Exploring the artist's talent of decolonizing dance as well as r...

Sudan's Noori & His Dorpa Band performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022, presented in collaboration with Ostinato Records. Below, you can relive the performance with our video of a part of the concert, as well as the audio of the full show, with a spirited introduction by Ostinato's Vik Sohonie before the band came on stage. Additionall...

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 10-13 November, U? features music performances, exhibitions, brunches, silent disco&rsquo...

Tampa rap duo They Hate Change performed at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping., following the release of Finally, New; their debut album for Jagjaguwar. Relive the ecstatic performance below with our concert film, featuring two unreleased tracks produced by John Carroll Kirby and Zach Witness: AboutTampa&rsq...

The Bug performed live as one of the closing acts of Le Guess Who? 2022, accompanied on stage by MC's Dis Fig, Flowdan and Logan to bring the buzzing energy found on The Bug's record to life. Relive part of the performance with our concert film below, featuring Fat Mac and Dirty/I Luv You (Freestyle) feat. Flowdan, Take feat. Dis Fig and...

This year, Le Guess Who? presents the fourth edition of Hidden Musics, a project that focuses on deeply localized music and features artists embedded in rich, often centuries-old musical traditions that have been developed with little or no outside influences. The first series was initiated in 2019 by Le Guess Who? in collaboration w...

This year, Le Guess Who? presents the fourth edition of Hidden Musics, a project that focuses on deeply localized music and features artists embedded in rich, often centuries-old musical traditions that have been developed with little or no outside influences. The first series was initiated in 2019 by Le Guess Who? in collaboration with C...

Catalan artist Marina Herlop performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by Animal Collective. Last year, we released the concert film with tracks from her 2022 album 'Pripyat'. Now that its follow-up is out, 2023's 'Nekkuja', we release the video of 'La Alhambra', one of the tracks from that new album.  "T...

"This is flamenco punk", said Niño de Elche towards the end of his performance at Le Guess Who?. It's a fitting statement: the Spanish musician, who is also called a 'singer, poet and omnipresent master of ensorcelling souls' has been challenging conservative and picturesque perceptions of flamenco for over two decades. You can re...

COSMOS was born out of Le Guess Who?’s mission to platform adventurous sounds that have the power to enrich lives. It’s a hub for experimentation and inspiration, and an ever-expanding network of creative minds. Through films, interviews, performances, and artist residencies, COSMOS connects international music communities and...

As part of her guest curation at Le Guess Who 2024, Crystallmess invites British contemporary artist Blackhaine. The artist’s radical approach to drill and noise music extends to body movement, immersive A/V installation, and creative direction for globally renowned rappers. "I feel like whenever he's performing he's bringing a tot...

South Carolina-based artist Khari Lucas is a multifaceted creator. Making music as Contour is only one of his many artistic exploits, among which he includes film scoring, fashion work, radio programming, and more. Contour is a vessel for his musical research, songwriting, and production. Via soundbites and references, Contour draws in hi...

Widely considered to be one of the most forward-thinking festivals, Le Guess Who? exists to platform fresh perspectives on what is possible in music. Artists from all over the world offer insights into the unprecedented diversity of human creativity. Le Guess Who? returns 7-10 November 2024 for its 17th edition in Utrecht, The Netherland...

Relive Ndox Electrique live at Le Guess Who?, the first international performance of the genre-blurring musical ensemble that originated in Senegal, and whose music is inspired by an ancient ritual of the spirit-world originating from Senegal’s n’döep ceremonies.  About How does one put Ndox Electrique into mere...

Invited by Bo Ningen to perform at Le Guess Who? 2024, GAISTER announce their self-titled LP and share the first single Sento. The song’s repeated line "I feel everything, everything, everything can be felt" encapsulates the running themes across the record. All the elements - the layers of the earth's crust, the fire of the volcano...

A New Year's gift and a souvenir from Le Guess Who? 2024. The full live performance by Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri at Utrecht’s Jacobikerk is now available as free, or pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp.   When Abul Mogard (AKA Guido Zen) and composer, record producer, and mastering engineer Rafael Anton Irisarri first pl...

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

Art Ensemble of Chicago’s oeuvre is equally impressive as it is extensive. In their 50-year existence, Chicago’s acclaimed and praised free jazz collective recorded dozens of live and stud...

Saxophone powerhouse Colin Stetson released a new instrumental track entitled ‘Charlie’. Premiered via Stereogum, this nerve-wracking, eerie track is composed for the upcoming horror film...

Last March, the beloved nineties alt-rock band The Breeders released a new album; the band's first in ten years. With the iconic ‘Last Splash’ line-up brought back together, their new full...

Over the past twenty years, Joan Of Arc has been the primary instrument of Tim Kinsella's limitless imagination. With a constantly revolving cast of musicians orbiting around Kinsella, Joan Of Arc&rsq...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week, it's the new age & folk-jazz pioneer who has been curated by Devendra Banhart as well as Moor Mo...

Today, improvisational composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell releases her new album 'Maroon Cloud' via FPE Records. The record sees Mitchell featured in a drumless chamber quartet together with so...

Every week, we’ll bring you a must-hear track from the Le Guess Who? 2018 line-up. This week it is Japanese cult star Shintaro Sakamoto, a former member of legendary psychedelic band Yura Yura T...

Tokyo-based group Kikagaku Moyo forges heavy-improv psychedelia, including elements of German Krautrock, classic Indian raga and acid folk. Kikagaku Moyo - Japanese for "geometric patterns" - finds a...

The Bug's Kevin Martin has announced his new solo album 'Sirens', to be released via Room40 on May 31st. It is the first time the electronic producer and composer releases a record under his real name. 'Sirens' is about the emotional rollercoaster that Martin experienced becoming a parent, heightened through the complex circumstances...

During the 15th Anniversary Edition of Le Guess Who? in 2022, West Coast hip-hop trio clipping. performed live as part of their guest curation at the festival.  We're thrilled to now share the concert film of the performance, with clipping. performing tracks from throughout their discography, including fan favorites such as ‘N...

Cutting edge Palestinian duo Shabjdeed & Al Nather performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024. Below, you can watch the performance of Nkd Glg and Arab Style from their momentous debut album Sindibad el Ward, released via BLTNM Records. "Shabjdeed & Al Nather’s deft double-time rapping gets a rapturous response from the bo...

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...

We’re very excited to let you know that this year, Utrecht’s Mega Record & CD Fair will once again take place during the same weekend as Le Guess Who?. Europe’s biggest record fair is internationally renowned for its incredibly comprehensive collection of vinyl and pop memorabilia. “The sheer volume of records...

‘Dos City’, Tokyo-based hip-hop trio Dos Monos’ 2019 debut album which balanced jazz and hyperactive verse spitting, became an introduction to the group’s uncompromised and intense sound. As we wrote in the trio's biography: "a certain promise of more purely original cacophony to come." Now, Dos Monos share a new...

OKI's identity, as a part of Japan’s northernmost indigenous people, is central to his person and his art. His music, as heard on this year’s ‘Tonkori in the moonlight’, celebrates Ainu folk - while blending it with reggae, dub, throat singing, and Irish, African, and Central Asian tradition.  Now, Bandcamp h...

Eddie Chacon performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021 following the release of his latest album ‘Pleasure, Joy and Happiness’, made in collaboration with producer John Carroll Kirby. You can now watch & listen to four tracks from the performance below.  AboutAs part of the soul duo Charles & Eddie, Eddie Chacon exper...

We're proud to contribute to Basilica Hudson's DRONE AT HOME online broadcast, April 24-25, with a special collaboration between Dutch visual artist Richard Bolhuis (who was also part of our 24-HOUR DRONE in 2014) and LGW19 artist Prana Crafter, who summons guitar meditations, kosmische drones, and mystic acid folk mantras.  Th...

Often titled an 'Asian guitar army', CHELA performed live during the closing day of Le Guess Who? 2024, curated by Bo Ningen. Relive the full performance below, with the duo performing music from their 2023 album Diagonal Drift. Made up of long-time friends and collaborators Ajay Saggar (Bhajan Bhoy) and Kohhei Matsuda (Bo Ningen), CHE...

From the minute when flamenco innovator Lole Montoya stepped onto the stage at the Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? 2022, we knew we were in for a magical moment in time. Together with guitarist Juan Carmona, she gave a rare and very touching performance as part of the Hidden Musics project. Luckily, you can relive it now with our concert...

Belgian musician, composer, and instrument maker Jochem Baelus aka Slumberland and experimental Tuvan singer Sainkho Namtchylak gave a collaborative performance during Le Guess Who? 2021 at Utrecht’s Jacobikerk. With Slumberland, Belgian musician, composer, and instrument maker Jochem Baelus creates hypnotic krautrock and post punk...

With many idyllic canals, a medieval city centre, the vibrant nightlife, and an overload of cultural activities, the city of Utrecht has some incredible discoveries in store for you. Selected with great care, Le Guess Who? would like to introduce to you this year's Utrecht Treasure Guide. Here is an interactive map, showing...

As part of Madlib’s Medicine Show, Noisey recorded a video in which the producer, rapper and DJ - known for his work with Talib Kweli, J Dilla and MF Doom - meets one of his heroes he’s spent his career sampling and sourcing inspiration from: legendary Ethiopian funk artist Ayalew Mesfin. Mesfin’s music rebelled vigorou...

Makaya McCraven is one of Chicago’s most versatile and in-demand drummers. At Le Guess Who? 2019, McCraven, together with his stellar live band, gave a wonderfully free-spirited performance. As debut of the show, the group played the brand new song 'In These Times', which you can view below, as well as listen to the entire perf...

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

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

Tokyo-based psychedelic group Kikagaku Moyo share another taste from their forthcoming album 'Masana Temples', to be released 5 October via Guruguru Brain. This time, it's the video for 'Naz...

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...

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...

Thursday 8 November, on the opening night of this year’s festival, we present two performances by ONCEIM in the Utrecht Dom Church, in collaboration with contemporary music organization Gaudeamus. ONCEIM, short for ‘Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales’, is a French...

Seattle icons Mudhoney have announced their new album, to be released on 28 September via their home base Sub Pop. 'Digital Garbage' will be the band's tenth record, with even more reason to celebrate...

With their cosmic jazz celebration, Sun Ra Arkestra was one of the closing acts of Le Guess Who? 2017. We're pleased to now bring you the full recording of this show, spanning decades of the Sun Ra le...

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...

VPRO's Vrije Geluiden recorded a session with Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares at Le Guess Who? 2017, who were curated by Perfume Genius for the festival. Watch in full belo...

Utrecht's Domkerk is the first Dutch gothic cathedral, dating back to the 13th century. With its 112 meters towering above the city skyline it is not just the highest building in Utrecht, it is also t...

Following the announcement of their new album, together with first single 'A Private Understanding', Detroit's Protomartyr now share second song 'My Children' from the album. Listen below. "Anxiously...

The first curators are announced for the 11th edition of Le Guess Who? 2017, each hosting a range of inspirations and befriended artists, and also performing themselves. Perfume Genius invites a.o. Bu...

From the archives of Idris Ackamoor comes the first ever vinyl release of Ackamoor's debut avant-garde / Afro-jazz recordings from 1971 with The Collective entitled 'Idrissa's Dream.' Released via Strut Records on double 12" LP and digital formats on November 4th 2022, 'Idrissa's Dream' is exactly what the title implies - dreamy and...

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...

Alabaster DePlume gave a special performance on the opening night of Le Guess Who?'s 15th Anniversary Edition, joined on stage by a.o. Jeff Parker (Tortoise) on guitar and Asher Gamedze on drums. Revisit the performance with our concert film, featuring ‘What’s Missing’, ‘Visit Croatia’, ‘Mrs Calamari&rs...

Our residential photographers Juri Hiensch and Melanie Marsman have been exploring Le Guess Who? again in 2022, captured different photo series during the festival. The upcoming time, we'll be sharing these series on this website and our social media. Curated by Animal Collective, by Juri Hiensch For LGW22, Baltimore quartet Animal Co...

Dreamcrusher, the project of multidisciplinary artist Luwayne Glass, performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 as part of the program curated by clipping. You can now listen to his performance below, released via Dreamcrusher for Bandcamp Friday.  Live at Le Guess Who? 2022 by DREAMCRUSHER AboutDreamcrusher began on Kansas-born, New Yor...

Le Guess Who? exists to bring people together through art and music. In 2021, the international festival for boundary-crossing music and culture makes a new addition to the upcoming festival edition: U?, a new, participative and freely accessible day program created for and with the city of Utrecht. 

London's Dry Cleaning performed live at Le Guess Who? 2022 following the release of their sophomore album, the John Parish-produced Stumpwork. You can now relive the performance with our concert film below. It features the Stumpwork-tracks No Decent Shoes For Rain, Don’t Press Me, Conservative Hell and Driver’s Story as well a...

Le Guess Who?, considered to be one of the most forward-thinking festivals around the world, returns to Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 9-12 November for its 16th edition. We now reveal the full 2023 line-up, after previously announcing festival curators Heba Kadry, Nala Sinephro, Slauson Malone 1 and Stereolab, as well as performances by...

As a hallmark of the festival, each year Le Guess Who? invites trailblazing creatives to curate their own dedicated programs, highlighting fellow like-minded artists and those that have inspired them. For the 2023 edition, Le Guess Who? invited mastering engineer Heba Kadry, who curated a comprehensive program, weaving together an array...

VPRO Vrije Geluiden has been a partner of Le Guess Who? for numerous years, and during this year's festival, they again captured several sessions with artists - recorded at Bibliotheek Neude in Utrecht - that will be revealed over the next couple of weeks. Watch below.  The Good Ones The Good Ones will surprise you, delight you,...

Georgia's Pankisi Ensemble performed live at Le Guess Who? 2023 as part of the Hidden Musics program. Now, you can relive this touching performance with the full audio of the show, recorded at Utrecht's Jacobikerk during the festival. AboutThe Pankisi Ensemble goes against the typical 'ethno-fusion' grain in two ways. First, by not res...

One year ago, Le Cri du Caire released their hauntingly beautiful, self-tilted debut album. We are now thrilled to share the recording of their mesmerizing performance at Utrecht's Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? 2023, where the group performed the majority of the album, as well as new material. AboutSinger, writer, poet, and expressio...

U?, the freely accessible city program of Le Guess Who?, returns to Utrecht on 11 and 12 November 2023 for its third edition. This program is created for, but especially with Utrecht, to celebrate the city's creativity in all its diversity.The festival aims to let as many Utrecht residents as possible come in contact with the sounds, pers...

COSMOS is Le Guess Who?’s hybrid platform with both live and on-demand exclusive content. Beyond music, beyond film, and beyond borders, COSMOS translates the festival’s mission to the online environment. From 10-15 May, 2022, the 2nd edition of COSMOS will be freely available for worldwide streaming via cosmos.leguesswho.com....

W.I.T.C.H., the band responsible for pioneering zamrock, returned to the stage during Le Guess Who? 2023 following the release of their new album 'Zango', their first in nearly four decades. On stage, they were joined by a.o. Jacco Gardner, Michael Rault and Nico Mauskoviç. Relive the performance below with our concert film and the...

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 offer an insight into the unprecedented diversity of human creativity.  Le Guess Who? returns 7-10 November 2024 for its 17th edition in Utrecht, The Netherlands. We&rsq...

Durban-based Gqom futurists Phelimuncasi (Nyege Nyege Tapes) brought their life-affirming energy to Le Guess Who? 2023, providing ample space to dance and sweat at TivoliVredenburg's Pandora stage. Relive the performance with our concert film below.  About Much like the South African bee after which they named their most recent a...

United Screens for Palestine is an open and decentralized collective of programmers, cultural workers and venues, responding to the paralysis brought about by the ongoing genocide as well as the increasing policing, censorship and criminalisation of everything Palestinian. As a collective, they aim to make each screening a space for conve...

Polish guitarist Raphael Rogiński presented his album Žaltys live at Utrecht’s Pieterskerk during Le Guess Who? 2024, accompanied on stage by Lithuanian singer and kanklės player Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and American multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. You can now listen to the full performance, which was co-curated by Unsound as pa...

Watch our concert film of Kim Gordon performing live at Le Guess Who? 2024, curated by Crystallmess, following the release of her latest, acclaimed album The Collective via Matador Records.  "The album's daring beats and improvised guitar are marks of a lifelong radical still at the peak of her powers.” – The New Yorker...

For the May episodes of COSMOS' monthly show on Refuge Worldwide, we're checking the pulse of Istanbul’s creative scene in the midst of crisis, and reconnect with the bustling underground in the MENA region.  Our sonic guides this time are IDGK, an Istanbul-based collective and production company, and our long-time partners fr...

Fera is a wild and adventurous new work that Egyptian artist Maurice Louca wrote over a four-year period. It was performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024 together with Ayman Asfour as part of Chromesthesia, curated by Hannah Elsisi. Below, you can watch Barĩy from the captivating performance and listen to the full audio of the show. ...

Cutting edge Palestinian duo Shabjdeed & Al Nather performed live at Le Guess Who? 2024. Below, you can watch the performance of Nkd Glg and Arab Style from their momentous debut album Sindibad el Ward, released via BLTNM Records. "Shabjdeed & Al Nather’s deft double-time rapping gets a rapturous response from the bo...

Having performed the song live for some time, Kelly Lee Owens now shares the full studio version of her cover of Aaliyah's 'More Than A Woman'. The single also features her own remix of the...

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...

Cellist and electronic composer Lucy Railton recently released her solo debut 'Paradise 94', marking a new chapter in her long-term engagement with contemporary music. Released on Boomkat’s...

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...

In addition to the previously announced initial line-up and curators, we now reveals a range of special projects and performers for the festival: Future Feminism; 15 years of RVNG Intl.; ONCEIM; and t...

The mythical performer and rock 'n roll reinventer Ian Svenonius has released 'The Lost Record'. It's the second album of his solo project Escape-Ism, after 2017s 'Introduction to Escape-Ism'. With hi...

With a wonderful blend of African folk, flamenco, bossa nova and jazz, Sibusile Xaba is slowly conquering the hearts of audiences outside of his home country South-Africa. His sound - both playful and...

"With his pioneering industrial metal band Godflesh, Justin Broadrick writes songs built on concussive beats, apocalyptic riffs, and feral howls. It’s music made for an audience who, during live shows, reward the storm of sound with rapt attention. But when Broadrick performs in techno clubs as JK Flesh, he wears a hoodie that...

UK hybrid pop and stripped-down techno artist Lolina (aka Inga Copeland) has released a new album called 'Who is experimental music?' It features six new tracks of warped grooves and vocal loops and is the follow-up to Lolina's live album 'Live In Geneva', that was released in February. 'Who Is Experimental Music?' both embodies and...

Donato Dozzy has a rare ability to work his way into peoples’ minds in both contemporary and classical settings. Now, the Spazio Disponibile boss will debut on Lorenzo Senni’s Presto!? Records with a two-hour-long album titled '12H', due out on October 25. The music is a summary of the material that...

The Wire Magazine shares an exclusive collaborative track from Le Guess Who? curator Kevin Richard Martin (The Bug) and Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit, entitled 'After The Storm'. Listen to the track and read a statement about the duo's collaborative project here on The Wire's website. To receive a free download of t...

Lost Girls is the Norwegian duo made up of experimental guitarist Håvard Volden and former LGW curator Jenny Hval. Their latest album, 2023's Selvutsletter, continues the intuitive, late night feel of the group's previous work with topics such as cities after dark, music rituals, band practices of the ‘90s, and the early days...

Le Guess Who? 2025 6-9 November in Utrecht, The Netherlands We also offer tickets for CJP members & U-pas members.Not a CJP member and still under 30? Click here to order a CJP pass.Please note: CM.com (formerly Yourticketprovider) is the only official ticket provider of Le Guess Who?. The only secure way to buy tickets from someo...

In partnership with Honiunhoni Honiunhoni, meaning "Impossible Possibilities," is an independent music production collective and record label founded in 2022 by musician and anthropologist Daniyal Ahmed. Rooted in the ethos of ethnographic research, Honiunhoni celebrates Pakistan's cultural richness and diversity through meticulous curat...

Conservatory trained composer, vocalist, and pianist Marina Herlop has been releasing music since 2016. Now, she has releases 'Pripyat', her first album released via PAN, the label also known for releasing records by Pan Daijing, Eartheater, Arca, and others.  With 'Pripyat' Marina Herlop's production applies the same approach of ch...

Nia Archives is bent on taking space in jungle as a young black woman, representing her Jamaican roots - and succeeding, becoming one of the most talked-about newcomers to the jungle scene. In March, she released her 'Forbidden Feelingz' EP, with the title track becoming a future classic. In that same month, she won the NME Award for Best...

Ajabu Ajabu is a screen, a studio, and a collective devoted to the preservation, production, and presentation of audio-visual art forms in Tanzania. For COSMOS, they presented  "A Stream of Consciousness" - a hybrid audio-visual festival taking place at the Ajabu Ajabu Audio-Visual House ft., a digital stage from COSMOS alongside li...

During Le Guess Who? 2017 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Canadian singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara gave a very rare live appearance, curated by Perfume Genius for the festival. We are extremely proud to now be able to share the video recordings of the performance, premiered by The Wire. Declared a ‘cult hero’ by The...

Pakistani singer Faiz Ali Faiz gave a spectacular performance as one of the closing acts of Le Guess Who? 2023. You can now relive this glorious moment with our concert film, as well as the full audio of the show.  "Another kind of passion was found in the lovely old Vredenburg hall with the transcendent qawwali of Faiz Ali Faiz a...

Cate Le Bon and Deerhunter's Bradford Cox are certainly no strangers to each other. Earlier this year, Le Bon produced Deerhunter's new album 'Why hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?', and now, the duo release a collaborative EP 'Myths 004' via Mexican Summer. Previous pairings in the series have included Ariel Pink with Weye...

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,...

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

Le Guess Who? needs your support For almost 20 years, Le Guess Who? has been a sanctuary for adventurous music from all over the world, bringing people together through the power of sound. Now, we face one of our biggest challenges yet—and we need your support to ensure the next 20 years. The current financial challenges we’...

Idris Ackamoor is saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, tap dancer, actor and artistic director of the Pyramids. As part of their 'The Strange World of...' series, The Quietus has published a long read featuring 10 tracks as "points of entry into his formidable body of work." In the article, Ackamoor himself talks about the late...

As one of the most refreshing role models and MCs to have emerged from the rap game, Tennessee-based MC and rapper Bbymutha debunks a lot of myths surrounding sex, motherhood and identity.  Now, Bbymutha has released a dark new video for 'SICK', which was featured on last year's 'The Bastard Tape, Vol. 1'. In the video, she rec...

Le Guess Who? 2018 curator Moor Mother invited actor, screenwriter and noise poet Saul Williams and Philly-based musician, DJ and producer King Britt to present the collaborative performance 'Unanimous Goldmine' at the festival. These two great minds gave an exclusive, one-time collaborative performance entitled that was named after...

Red Bull Radio has premiered the full recording of 'Unanimous Goldmine', the collaborative performance between actor, screenwriter and renowned harbinger of noise poetry and hip hop futurism Saul Williams; and accomplished Philly-based musician, DJ, author and producer King Britt.  On the explicit invitation of M...

Psychedelic/krautrock mystics Moon Duo have risen up as one of the most intoxicating live acts of this decade, with their music containing elements of 80’s disco, occult literature, electronic music and film soundtracks.  Moon Duo’s guitarist Ripley Johnson also hosts a monthly radio show on NTS Radio. Called &lsquo...

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

Multidisciplinary arts center Basilica Hudson and Le Guess Who? will host the fifth edition of 24-HOUR DRONE from noon - noon on April 27 and April 28 in Hudson, NY.  The first wave of artists are now announced, including world-renowned Indian classical musician Maestro Khan with a performance of Indian classical/folk music for tabl...

In the late 70’s, as member of the notorious Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Lydia Lunch was a leading figure in the rise of New York City’s no-wave scene. On the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2018, Lunch performed with her 'Big Sexy Noise', and Red Bull Radio caught up with the 'transgressive no wave artist and Lower East Side...

The South African, Afro-psychedelic collective BCUC gave an ecstatic performance on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2018, curated by Shabaka Hutchings. Relive the full set below, and watch the video for the group's performance of 'Yinde': About:BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) started out as a social gathering in their nati...

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

Crack Cloud is not what you should consider a regular band. A self-described ‘mixed media collective’, they take shape as a fluid collective of numerous individuals from Alberta, Canada wi...

In a new episode of Red Bull Radio's Open End, sitar player Anoushka Shankar traces an arc of Indian classical music, from lesser-known recordings by her father Ravi to modern works. Equally, in...

Today, The Fader premiered the intimate and hauntingly beautiful video of Kojey Radical's collaboration with UK producer MJ Cole, entitled 'Soak It Up'. Accompanied by a highly affecting vid...

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...

Just around Sunset on Sunday, 12 November, the spiritual Sai Anantam Ashram Singers will gather in TivoliVredenburg's Grote Zaal. Over the years, they have been bringing chants as followers of the leg...

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...

Mark Kozelek aka Sun Kil Moon will perform on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2017. Apparently, one of Kozelek's dreams involves touring with the late, great Elliott Smith, which he talks about in...

Montreal's Big|Brave merge guitar torrents, withered noise bursts and shamanic yelps. Now, the trio release their new album 'Ardor' via Southern Lord Records. Stream it in full below: 3 slowly de...

Insecure Men, featuring Saul Adamczewski (Fat White Family) and Ben Romans-Hopcraft (Childhood), have shared their debut single 'Sebura Nights'. According to The Quietus it's "easily one of the best t...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Jenny Hval, on 3 albums she would be crate-digging for at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. The articl...

The Line Of Best Fit interview Liars' Angus Andrew, on 3 albums he'll be crate-digging at the World's Biggest Record Fair, happening in Utrecht during Le Guess Who? 2017. Featuring...

The ever-versatile Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is a soul that keeps creating, with each undertaking achieving new depths, textures and vocabularies. Now, Lowe releases his new 12" called 'Levitation Praxi...

Just like the masterful Egyptian songwriter Umm Kulthum, Abdel Karim Shaar is linked to the concept of 'Tarab': a musical form that expresses a state of emotional transition. Shaar is a legendary sing...

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...

Linton Kwesi Johnson’s impressive body of work includes stints as "dub poet", political orator, recording artist and author/journalist. A vocal personality who fights oppression against bla...

Canada's FlightNetwork picks their 34 Best Festivals in Europe for 2017, and we're honored to be included in the 'International Festivals' section. "The European festival scene is amongst the best in...

Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum releases his new album today: a deeply personal document of grief, having written the first song just 11 days after the passing of his wife. It’s an emotional and...

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...

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...

Brooklyn-based punk band Surfbort's supercharged vintage 80s glam punk sensibility is a potent and passionate vessel for addressing addiction, mental health and sexuality. Now, Crack Magazine publishes an interview with Lead singer Dani Miller, who explains how Surfbort originated, growing up, the release of their debut 'Friendship M...

FACT Magazine have just premiered a playlist personally put together by The Bug for his curation at Le Guess Who? 2019, featuring a.o. King Midas Sound’s gloom-ridden dub, spoken word and ambient; juggernaut industrial/metal outfit Godflesh; Jah Shaka, an essential figure within the British dancehall and dub scenes of the 70s;...

The cult album Faust IV was the fourth studio album released by the German krautrock group in 1973. Reimagining the music from the iconic album, Faust IV was performed live at Le Guess Who? 2021 as part of the curated program by OSEES' John Dwyer. Faust IV Live! captured the strange magic that then and now defines Faust as an entity unto...

Baltimore quartet Animal Collective has been reshaping the face of what is easiest to call indie rock since the dawn of the new century. Their return earlier this year with ‘Time Skiffs’, the band’s first album in more than half a decade, marked a true return to form.  Recently, the group visited the Massachusetts...

For Episode 1 of our new podcast 'The Big Playback', we interviewed musician Angel Bat Dawid regarding the question Is Music a Religion? Dawid shared her thoughts on participatory music, her philosophy on people being creatures of habit and her idea of inner attainment. 

While Dallas-bred Liv.e might take cues from artists as diverse as Erykah Badu, DJ Screw, and Sun Ra, she mainly crafts her own idiosyncratic breed of lo-fi R&B. In the words of NME, she's 'R&B’s new avant-garde star who’s ‘tired of whispering.' That categorization is more true than ever on new track 'Ghost', he...

(Nederlandse tekst hieronder)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. You can now listen to their latest single ‘Pulling Teeth’.<a href="https://girlsinsynthesi...

During Le Guess Who? 2022, flamenco icon Estrella Morente and Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra came together for a magic showcase of warmth and joy. You can now watch the full concert film of the stunning performance at Utrecht's Jacobikerk, presented in collaboration with Ud Festival.  The daughter of world-famous Enrique Morente,...

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...

Mourning [A] BLKstar performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who?'s 15th Anniversary Edition in 2022. The collective, made up of musicians, writers, and multimedia artists, has a bountiful track record, amassing several releases under its belt since 2015. Their music is for both eulogies and revolutions, as they expand upon contem...

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, working mainly as a musician, writer, organizer and an educator. With his band, he performed live during the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2022.  You can now listen to three tracks that the group performed live from their 'Dialectic Soul' album (2020): 'Eternality', 'Siyabulela...

From the minute when flamenco innovator Lole Montoya stepped onto the stage at the Jacobikerk during Le Guess Who? 2022, we knew we were in for a magical moment in time. Together with guitarist Juan Carmona, she gave a rare and very touching performance as part of the Hidden Musics project. Luckily, you can relive it now with our concert...

Following the announcement of the initial line-up for Le Guess Who? 2023, including programs curated by Heba Kadry, Nala Sinephro, Slauson Malone 1 and Stereolab, we now add several special projects to this year’s festival edition, featuring COSMOS, Hidden Musics and The Anonymous Project. Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective COSMOS...

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,...

This year, Le Guess Who? presents the fourth edition of Hidden Musics, a project that focuses on deeply localized music and features artists embedded in rich, often centuries-old musical traditions that have been developed with little or no outside influences. The first series was initiated in 2019 by Le Guess Who? in collaboration w...

Tom Skinner performed live at Le Guess Who? 2023 as part of the program curated by Stereolab, following the release of ‘Voices of Bishara’. Relive the magnificent show with our concert film, and listen to the full audio of performance, in which the group also pays homage to American cellist Abdul Wadud with interpretations o...

The ritual dance practice of Stambeli is a centuries old method to induce trance-like states through sound. In this short documentary, director Mohammed Ali Fakhfakh portrays Am Salah, one of the few remaining yenna ("Stambeli master"). Am Salah invites us into his world, on an intimate journey into the depth of spiritual liberation that...

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...

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...

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...

Utrecht based photographer Rogier Boogaard captured documentary photo series of artists involved in the festival.De Utrechtse fotograaf Rogier Boogaard heeft artiesten die betrokken waren bij het festival vastgelegd in documentaire fotoseries.

Fiftieth anniversaries call for spectacular celebrations, and that is what Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble are embarking on this year. To commemorate half a century of continuously shifting gears and tempos in the jazz-blues continuum, the band is embarking on a new world tour. Before they do so, they visited the BBC...

Pakistani singer Faiz Ali Faiz gave a spectacular performance as one of the closing acts of Le Guess Who? 2023. You can now relive this glorious moment with our concert film, as well as the full audio of the show.  "Another kind of passion was found in the lovely old Vredenburg hall with the transcendent qawwali of Faiz Ali Faiz a...

The work of multi-talented sound artist ZULI has spilled over Cairo's borders onto the rest of the world, garnering support from the likes of Aphex Twin and Autechre. Recently, the artist released his new album Lambda; leading up to the release, the musician and producer, who is determined to uplift other Middle Eastern creative voices, p...

Trailblazing and exhilarating: previous Le Guess Who? visitors will already know Tropical Fuck Storm’s powerful live performance. After many years touring around the globe, the Australian band now release their first live album Inflatable Graveyard via Three Lobed Recordings.  The record captures the band's 2022 show at Chic...

Festival curator Slauson Malone 1 performed live at Le Guess Who? 2023 following the release of his latest album EXCELSIOR via Warp Records. On stage, he is joined by cellist Nicky Wetherell. Relive the performance with our concert film: Speaking about his role as curator at the festival, Slauson Malone 1 (real name: Jasper Marsalis) s...

Brian Jackson performed live during the closing night of Le Guess Who? 2024, featuring a string of classic tracks such as The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where the Hatred Is, and Winter in America. You can now listen to, and relive, the full performance below.  As one-half of power duo Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jac...

Two years after her stunning Le Guess Who? performance, the Guatemalan-born, Mexico-based vocalist and cellist Mabe Fratti returned in 2024 as a performer as well as festival curator. As part of her curation, Mabe Fratti presented some very special Mexican and South American acts that have influenced her personal development. Our residen...

The Body & Dis Fig performed live on the opening night of Le Guess Who? 2024. Relive the full, overwhelming - sonically as well as physically - performance below.  A crossover between American duo The Body, who have been tinkering with noise and metal since 1999, and Berlin-based DJ, producer, and vocalist Felicia Chen (AKA Di...

Meshell Ndegeocello is a true multitalented and multifaceted artist: singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, collaborator, GRAMMY-winner, neo-soul movement igniter. Yet, even when sinking seamlessly into each one of her many roles, she has always worn her artistry and identity as a proud Black queer woman on her sleeve.  You can now rel...

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...

When UK-based experimental collective Ex-Easter Island Head steps on stage, the electric guitar - an instrument whose possibilities sometimes seem to have been exhausted - is born anew. Mechanical preparations, extended techniques; call it what you want, but, to us, it's more like auditory magic.  Watch our concert film of the group...