Le Guess Who 2025 blokkenschema dag 2 - Friday 7 November 2025

In The Black Queer body remembers, Naomie Pieter invites the audience on a journey through Caribbean rhythm, memory, and spiritual resistance. Drawing from the ancestral dance tradition of Tambú, the sonic rebellion captured in the documentary Bubbling Baby, and the contemporary urgency of Pon Di Pride, this keynote-performance explores how Black queer bodies carry history, pain, and joy through movement & sound.

In a world of natural and human-made disasters, what agency do we have as individuals? More specifically: how can we go beyond listening and transcend into moving and shaking matters beyond the dance floor?

Artistic freedom is too often reduced to “freedom of expression”, but for artists and independent cultural organisations, the ground is much more complex. It’s not only what someone can say, but where someone can go, how someone can live, who someone can reach, and whether someone can sustain the work without fear.

Raziyah Heath’s work aims to uncover the cross pollinations of Afro-diasporic (sub)cultures and sonic threads, focusing on the variations, range and intersectionality of the experiences that result from this.  In this hybrid DJ/live set, which also serves as a sonic lecture, they connect hauntology, speculative futures, and Black sonic technologies. The work asks: How do we envision a future where our presence is uncertain, denied, erased? What might it feel like, if revenge were to become a practice within that future? Can the haunting carry our rage, our despair, our ancestral weight, and our spiritual practices?

In his film Samsara (2024), Indonesian director Garin Nugroho uses the aesthetics of the pre-color, silent film era to explore a mystical version of 1930s Bali. Key to the film’s intensity is its unforgettable soundtrack, for which composer and gamelan master Wayan Sudirana and Bali-based duo Gabber Modus Operandi joined forces. Their mixture of (hardcore) electronic music, hazy noise and traditional elements transports the story about a man entangled in dark rituals to new heights.

Avantgarde hip-hop artist Fatboi Sharif bends hardcore rap into something surreal and cinematic: dense with imagery, distorted by mood. His voice moves urgent and cracked inside haunted loops and lurching drums, surrounded by spine-chilling soundscapes. Expect vivid storytelling, guttural delivery and production that feels scorched, spectral and strangely hypnotic. Sharif’s performances carry an illuminating intensity, blurring the line between the real and the unreal.

Nikolaienko is a sound artist who mainly works with outdated musical gear, which he uses to produce tape and cassette loops as a base material for his sound collages. He is also a founder of Muscut, a label focused on modern avant-garde Eastern European artists and a co-founder of Shukai – an archival label focused on bringing back to life the lost tapes from the underrated artists persecuted by censorship of Soviet period (including, among the others, a release by Le Guess Who? artist Valentina Goncharova). 

LnHD is a Myanmar-born, Phnom Penh-based sound designer, music producer, and DJ. She is the founder of Femme Pulse and our 2025 COSMOS Embassy ALIGN.ONLINE, two platforms that amplify experimental and underrepresented voices in Southeast Asia’s electronic scene. Her work blends minimalist electronic production with traditional Myanmar instrumentation and textural sound design. At COSMOS Foyer, LnHD will perform her unique mixture of electronic sounds, live instrumentation, sampling and field recordings, turning deeply personal memories into communal experiences.

Congo-born, Uganda-based guitar player and Nyege Nyege cohort Titi Bakorta transforms Congolese pop and folk sounds with playful virtuosity. Weaving together traditional elements, machine rhythms and all types of loops and effects, he conjures entire sound worlds all by himself. Besides his duo performance alongside Peruvian songwriter Ale Hop, Titi pays us a visit at COSMOS Foyer for one of his unforgettable solo sets.

Driven by a deep passion for uncovering rare sounds and preserving musical heritage, Katayoun is a selector, sound archivist, and curator long focused on Iran’s vibrant sonic landscape. Her DJ sets transcend mere selection: on the dancefloor, her choices weave archival depth with a painterly sensibility for rhythm and texture, revealing hidden and meaningful stories embedded within the music. Known for her warm sound and listening sets, she blends deep research with a cinematic ear for storytelling, revoicing overlooked sonic histories and expanding the understanding of Iran’s rich and diverse soundscape, all the while offering distinctively soulful experiences of musical dreaming, narrative, and deep listening. At Le Guess Who? 2025, Katayoun will host a two-hours closing set on Friday night in the COSMOS Foyer. 

“The past meets the future in the present” in this urgent collaboration, born at the roots of the Nile, between turntablist and producer Mutamassik, and vocalist and narrator Lengai Loita. Within Ancient Indigenous Africans, Loita sings in his mother-tongue - Maa - sharing Nilotic Aesop’s fables and pastoral hymns dealing with the current plight of the Maasai tribe. His chants intertwine with Mutamassik’s muscular polyrhythms and expressive synths, creating an intense, expansive, and distinctive soundscape inspired by electronic hip-hop, hardstep and junglist punk.

Thrilling experimental rock trio KUUNATIC conjure a mesmerizing world bolstered by diverse global sounds and powerful female vocals. Blending ritual drumming, hypnotic basslines, atmospheric keyboards and ancient Japanese instruments, their music transforms folk melodies into psychedelic mantras through trance-like group singing. Anchored in krautrock and unbound by genre, their sound is both fiercely experimental and wildly catchy. Returning to Le Guess Who? with their new album Wheels Of Ömon, KUUNATIC chart bold new territory, deepening their sci-fi mythology and expanding their sonic universe, inviting listeners to explore surreal landscapes and fictional planets through an otherworldly musical experience.

Balancing noise experimentation and pop vocal hooks, the music of Alpha Maid sounds like instinct brought to life: raw, urgent and a very necessary expression. As a guitarist, vocalist and producer she has shaped a distinctive sonic language that draws from grunged-out guitar, lo-fi glitch and noise audio sample electronics. In recent years, Alpha Maid became a key figure within South London’s subterranean music community, through boundary-pushing releases and collaborations, including the power trio ‘spresso’, with Mica Levi and drummer Zach Toppin. 2025 marks a new prolific chapter for Alpha Maid, with the rapid-fire EP Shed, as well as her upcoming debut album and a brand new live trio formation. 

The music of V/Z might as well be a hallucinatory experience, an unidentified box full of postcards. They depict boats in East London, dusty Italian scenarios from the 70s, turmoil in Baltimore, an adventure at the mall. Each track seems to capture the essence of a very fleeting moment, evaporating as the listener moves to another memory. Mostly made of dub and post-punk influenced material, the duo - consisting of versatile percussionist Valentina Magaletti and multi-instrumentalist and producer Zongamin - evokes multiple sonic scenarios through vocal samples and spoken-word, atmospheric field recordings, mesmerizing rhythms and blasts of electronic scree.

Three key figures of Lebanon’s music scene join forces for Sawt El Doumouh صوت الدموع, a vocal-based project inspired by Cantu a Tenore, the Sardinian overtone throat singing tradition. The project explores extended vocal techniques and real-time processing using a custom Max plugin that Anthony Sahyoun developed to extract and freeze resonant vowels. Co-produced by Anthony Sahyoun and Sandy Chamoun, the album blends vocal composition and sonic experimentation within a polyphonic framework. In the live performance, Anthony Sahyoun and Ali Hout join Sandy Chamoun, bringing synth, percussion, and rhythm to the project’s vocal core.

Electronic musician Ale Hop and virtuosic guitarist Titi Bakorta fuse the pulsating rhythms of reimagined Congolese music with hypnotic guitar riffs and buoyant electronics. Their collaboration, unveiled on their joint record Mapambazuko, showcases a bold blend of pop experimentalism that merges danceable electronica with fiercely fragmented soukous. For their euphoric live performance, Titi Bakorta brings his signature psychedelic approach to Congolese folk, filled with intricate guitar loops and fuzzy tones, locking into the finely textured grooves, fragmented electronics, noisy guitars, and kaleidoscopic synths of Peruvian sound artist Ale Hop.

Experimental rock trio Yoo Doo Right wed noisy, melodic guitar parts, effects-laden synthesizer soundscapes, deep bass grooves and patented percussive furies into sprawling, cathartic musical pieces. Drawing inspiration from post-rock, krautrock, shoegaze, classical music, electroacoustics and musique concrète, they create a unique sound where “towering monoliths of roaring riffs crash against swarms of restless rhythms” (Pop Matters). Their latest album From the Heights of Our Pastureland is an honest and patient sonic poem about the destructive process of unbridled expansion in the name of "progress", the inevitable collapse and what it means to rebuild.

With their ecstatic and singular sound, experimental rock quartet YHWH Nailgun displays an innate ability to translate a primitive spirit into a modern form. It’s no coincidence that polyrhythmic metallic drums - specifically rototoms - dominate their soundscape acting as both percussive and melodic elements, almost explicitly inviting the crowd to mosh. A strong dialogue unfolds in the front as the vocals shout - or murmur - back at the drums, while electric guitar and synths weave in and out, punctuating the exchange with sharp, evasive melodies. 

Amsterdam-based Los Angles - a collective showcasing and nurturing trans talent - invites to Le Guess Who? 2025 two of their powerhouse DJs. A rigorous sonic maximalist who thrives at the intersection of many musical realms while transcending them all, YoungWoman’s explosive energy and irresistible playfulness always leaves her audience spellbound. She will be joined behind the decks by the doll of many trades smother. DJ, writer, communications girlboss at a cultural fund - and co-founder of Los Angles - her sonic range goes from ethereal ambient sounds to cunty pop vocals and hard-hitting beats that will have you in a chokehold from start to finish.

Her research "begins with the body as a process of excavation and rescue”, embracing "the idea that being an artist is to create from one's own existence, in constant motion and transformation". From her early hits and acclaimed documentary - until her national and international appearances on movies and TV shows - Linn da Quebrada has been recognized for deeply reflecting on her own body, identities, genders and behaviors. As a trans woman and LGBTQIA+ advocate, the art of the singer, actress and multimedia activist stands out as a political tool, addressing themes that intersect with her experiences and worldview.

BATEKOO collective brings to Le Guess Who? their Master of Ceremony: Juliana Andrade aka Juju ZL. The model and performer centers embodiment and body awareness in her work, delivering powerful speeches on respect and plurality. Her DJ sets draw from deep funk research, shaped by her experience as a dancer and a woman from the periphery. For Juju, funk is a cultural force that deserves reverence, and she transmits with purpose spreading sounds from the favela to the world. 

Fusing experimental club, Spanish vocals and her signature genre-blurring edge, Mina Galán is a DJ on a breakout moment, rising from underground favourite to one of the most in-demand names in music, fashion and nightlife. In less than a year behind the decks, she’s already headlined festival stages, collaborated with fashion brands and been a cultural force to watch. Her party Club Stamina - founded in London and now popping up between Paris, Bogotá & Ibiza - has become a platform for a new generation of trans femme DJs and Latin club trailblazers. 

Mirands is an open format DJ and co-founder of BATEKOO, a vital cultural movement amplifying Brazil’s Black and LGBTQIA+ voices. Celebrating diversity through music and dance, BATEKOO empowers marginalized voices. Known for his unique perspective, Mirands is a selector who brings sharp curation and feeling to every set. Through the simple intention to dance and play, his performances move the audience through funk, afrobeat, afrohouse, house and voguebeat.

“Enigmatic, astral minded” multidisciplinary artist Semiratruth opens portals through words and the alchemy of found sounds, in-between abstract hip-hop and sound collage. As a nuanced storyteller, they can alter the space-time continuum: from scratchy, spacey sound design segments, you can find yourself listening to soulful samples, and then be propelled into glitchy hip-hop beats. Even though synths dominate the soundscape, Semiratruth’s voice shimmers through—emerging, dissolving and reassembling in fragments while speaking, crying, singing, rapping, harmonising—at times clean and at times warped into pieces. Their production stretches outside the kaleidoscope of noise and leads listeners into a journey of self exploration.

Blurring the line between prayer and performance, the music of Niecy Blues hovers into liminal, devotional and dreamlike realms. She crafts ambient, operatic R&B through looped vocal improvisations, layers of delay and prismatic guitar textures. Her songs unfold with the quiet power of restraint, drifting between gospel, indie rock and atmospheric sound design. On stage, she channels a meditative intensity inviting listeners into a suspended world where sorrow and serenity coexist. 

Singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist keiyaA synthesizes her jazz training, R&B sensibilities, and hip-hop upbringing to create new soul sounds inundated with her powerful, sultry voice and dense lyricism. The nu-soul landscape soundtracks stories of loneliness and self-empowerment, as the author centres the perspective and intellect of the Black woman in the late-stage capitalist world. keiyaA’s soulful and subdued vocal melodies flow over homespun productions: grainy samples and lo-fi beats meet vibrant, dissonant electronic textures. Her deeply personal style doesn’t hold back, outlining grimy metropolitan atmospheres that are emotionally resonant and alive.

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 samples and simmering noise. Vocalist MA rants and cackles over DJ DIE SOON’s coarse electronic tones and incessant minimal patterns. The producer’s mutated synths embrace a textural, skeletal rhythmic terrain where beats serve to amplify the scuffed and eerie gait seeping through their music. Like a scream from an old movie becoming distorted through the deterioration of its medium, it's this quality that DIEMAJIN most concretely channel in their music.DIEMAJIN will perform twice, playing two different sets (Yin 陰 and Yang 陽) with opposite energies.

Operating at the forefront of Southeast Asia’s experimental electronic scene, Victoria Yam navigates between her two dynamic projects VIKTORIA and rEmPiT g0dDe$$. The Kuala Lumpur-Cambodia-based producer’s work is a bold exploration of industrial club, deconstructed sound and the intricate layers of Southeast Asian tunings. As a key figure in Nusasonic and a founding force behind ALIGN.ONLINNE - one of the 2025 COSMOS Embassy partners - Yam champions female and queer voices in the region’s cultural and sonic movements. 

What sensitivities do we need to keep in mind when organising in diasporic contexts? Community organiser, designer, DJ and co-founder of Nusaqueer Diaspora, Insan Larasati, shares their experience with organising within a queer diasporic context for the Indonesian and Southeast Asian community in the Netherlands and Germany.

This workshop starts with a lecture which is necessary to attend for participation.

DJ Haram x CAMP: "Anti-Format, Beside Myself & Finding your Sound"Nestled in a picturesque village in the French Pyrenees, CAMP organises onsite and online workshops and residencies with artists that really make a difference.

Youth clubs and cultural spaces have long provided young people with a place to connect, socialise and try new things. They have had a huge but almost invisible effect on music, culture and society. Yet, over the past two decades, many have disappeared due to funding cuts and shifting priorities. The question of how such spaces are organized, financed and sustained is therefore more urgent than ever.

Join Dirar Kalash at At The Sonic Front: this double program focuses on the relationships between sound, silence, time, space, and their positions and configurations within multiple layers of everyday life and practice. All this in relation to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Music is perhaps widely known to serve as a means of collective and individual healing. Yet how seriously do we consider sound beyond that of the auditory experience? What thoughts arise when considering sound as its own sovereign being, containing substance and functioning as an actual medicine, capable of influencing physical and mental wellbeing?

From sit-ins and disruptive street actions to social media campaigns: we are living in an era of mass protest. As we reclaim our rights, demand justice and catalyse change, all actions are aimed at one purpose: to be heard.

From sit-ins and disruptive street actions to social media campaigns: we are living in an era of mass protest. As we reclaim our rights, demand justice and catalyse change, all actions are aimed at one purpose: to be heard.

From sit-ins and disruptive street actions to social media campaigns: we are living in an era of mass protest. As we reclaim our rights, demand justice and catalyse change, all actions are aimed at one purpose: to be heard.

From sit-ins and disruptive street actions to social media campaigns: we are living in an era of mass protest. As we reclaim our rights, demand justice and catalyse change, all actions are aimed at one purpose: to be heard.

Some music instruments carry a whole world of tradition, faith and culture. It’s the case of the tanbur, a millenia-old lute strongly tied to the city of Kermanshah (western Iran). Its practice is associated with mystical Yarsan religious beliefs and its knowledge is passed down through generations. Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian, a young master of the instrument, was immersed in this culture from an early age, as he began learning the maqams (modes/scales) as a child and now he’s sharing his hypnotic compositions on the tanbur, as if it was an extension of his soul. Reflective and profound, his music unfolds through repetitive melodies and rhythms which gradually, gently evolve, for a style that is deeply personal, yet deeply connected with history. 

Blazing electronics and distortion melt with vocals rooted in classical Arabic singing, yet seek to reroute tradition. The project Ghadrغدر (treachery) consists of three key figures of Lebanon’s resilient music scene: sound artist and improviser Jad Atoui, composer, musician and programmer Anthony Sahyoun and vocalist and sound artist Sandy Chamoun. On stage and on their self-titled record, the trio plays with chaos, building tracks on vibrant circuits of guitar and modular synthesis. The result are productions fuelled by stuttering sub bass, searing guitars, and layered melancholic vocals. Their music moves from ghostly renditions of Bedouin folk songs and reflections on the genocide in Gaza, floating atop expanding drones that build into blistering modular chaos and hammering beats. 

Through saxophone, cello, piano, and flutes, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio offers the chance to engage with songs intended for healing. At its heart, it’s meditation music, with gospel and blues roots, as well as hints of forward-looking Spiritual jazz. Delicate, profound melodies create peaceful, immersive soundscapes, which the group develops through their combined background in acoustic ecology, sound meditation, mindfulness, and active community involvement. The trio delivers music that is both restorative and sonically rich, each tone falling into a perfect place, as if by magic.

AWICHAS is a music project initiated by Bolivian/Brazilian multi-medium artist and performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. The project is inspired by Andean ritual and microtonal music. In collaboration with sound artist Jochem van Tol, this has been translated to trance-inducing electronic tonalities. The band’s music is a testament of appreciation to the undermined and neglected voices of the Andes, who do not forget or abandon their sonic heritage. Where subversive memories of the mountain’s overground and repetitive rhythms from Frank Rosaly and Jacob Maskell-Key meet, melt, and converse with the underground echoes of the city’s nightly club music. Accompanied by singer Julia Werner and synths by Dirge Seçil Kurna, and for Le Guess Who?, Jens Bouttery on drums.

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. Joined by experimental guitar and electronics, their celestial ambient folk reinterpretations offer a contemporary vision of ancient Baltic music. The duo crafts an intimate soundscape, gently intertwining elements of jazz, ambient, 20th century minimalism and kosmische musik, creating a stirring soundtrack for the contemporary international landscape. Merope’s live performance radiates a palpable sense of spontaneity and playfulness, embodying an openness for connection and collaboration. At Le Guess Who? 2025 they will share the stage with legendary bassist and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who is also featured on their latest album Vėjula.

Like a lucid dream, the chants of multidisciplinary artist and musician Daisy Rickman intertwine a mystical connection between an ode to her Cornwall and the cosmos that holds us. The singer-songwriter evokes the San Fanscisco sound of the 1960s, while her voice drifts through the dreamish realm of her latest album Howls - sometimes falling baritonal and heavy, sometimes floating light as air. As her hallucinatory march proceeds solemnly beneath a warm sun, swirling with reverbs and blues licks, Rickman’s live show expands into a celestial space of acoustic psychedelic folklore.

Due to his groundbreaking approach to songwriting and electronic production, over the last decade IOSONOUNCANE has emerged as a key figure in Italy’s independent music scene. His collaboration with Daniela Pes reveals a shared musical language rooted in layered electronics, shifting rhythms and vocals that move between clarity and abstraction. On SPIRA - the album by Daniela Pes, produced by IOSONOUNCANE - ancestral melodies and languages intertwine with intricate electronic textures and massive percussion, creating an unprecedented sonic realm. For this special performance, the two take the stage together with a completely original set, marking a new chapter in their collaboration as composers, producers, and now performers.

Julianna Barwick stretches, loops and layers her voice into a delicate web sound that blends seamlessly with the surrounding instrumentation. Her career counts collaborations with various visionaries musicians; a.o. Yoko Ono, Philip Glass, Perfume Genius and Mary Lattimore, with the latter joining her on stage at Le Guess Who? 2025. Known for her shimmering harp textures, Lattimore is a composer and harpist who experiments with effects pedals, emphasizing the concert harp’s ethereal qualities while depicting fascinating sonic landscapes. 

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, and performances, hosted together with Stranded FM.14:00 | Pharfetchd (live)Stumbling in stereo, mistake in the mix, openhearted lyrics... Experience in Lo-Fi urban field recordings has become their important musical guideline. Join Pharfetchd on their sonic journey through glitch + hop.15:00 | Youki Flu (live)Rotterdam based singer and multi-instrumentalist Youki Flu (Lithuania) finds balance between analog songs and electronic noise by searching for beauty and inspiration in the contrast of huge and minuscule sounds.15:30 | Expo OpeningAs if being the art-director of all the new Le Guess Who? visual vibes, isn’t enough work, visual artist Sophie Douala created prints for the backdrop of this years Hangout stage and made some new screen-printed artworks.15:45 | Argento (dj set)Back to the euphoric and dystopian moods of New Beat, EBM + Synthpop. Forgotten tracks from bygone times while catering to the present. Utrecht based DJ Argento offers a dark but very necessary romance with the past.16:30 | Roberto Auser (live)Longtime Kapitaal friend Roberto Auser (Viewlexx, Dalmata Daniel, Enfant Terrible) will put a pitchblack veil over the Hangout with a live modular synth set. Expect raw, analog electronics... Dancefloor friendly but very filthy stuff.18:45 | DJ DIE SOON (live)20:15 | GAVINA (live)22:00 | Combi Magnetron (live)

Obsessed with horror imagery, demon masks, Manga and the mysterious corners of Japanese culture, DJ DIE SOON is the apocalyptic alter-ego of Berlin-based artist Daisuke Imamura. As a producer, DJ and illustrator, he creates eerie sonic rituals steeped in distorted basslines, ghostly glitches and industrial dread. His immersive live shows are exciting and unsettling experiences: summoning haunted frequencies and warped dub-noise transmissions, he channels the chaos of Tokyo’s metropolitan soundscape. His latest release My Brothel The Wind features collaborations with Le Guess Who? 2025 artist Sara Persico, vocalist Rully Shabara and longtime collaborator Kiki Hitomi.

Singer and songwriter GAVINA is known for her fusion of reggaetón, trap, and dancehall, with influences from Panamanian folklore and jazz. Her work reflects the strength, freedom, and authenticity of her environment, with a focus on showcasing the power and freedom of women. On stage at Le Guess Who? 2025, GAVINA will be joined by collaborator DJ and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro.

North Holland’s grindcore/mincecore powerhouse Combi Magnetron serves up a relentless sonic feast fueled by microwaved fury. This adrenaline-fuelled band cranks out thunderous noise and blistering speed, all while keeping the heat on, literally until the last bao bun is piping hot. Blending colossal chaos and biting humor, Combi Magnetron delivers a wild, unforgettable performance that’s as unique as it is explosive.

By Tianzhuo Chen & Siko Setyanto & Nova Ruth & KadapatLe Guess Who? 2025 guest curator Tianzhuo Chen brings a multidisciplinary, multi-layered performance to the festival that weaves together threads of planetary storytelling, ritual presence, and memory unbound by borders or timelines, inviting reflection on profound connections that transcend time. The visual artist, and director of Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師, crafts a minimal yet strikingly powerful setting, in which choreographer & dancer Siko Setyanto leads the audience through ancestral invocation and dance improvisation. Chen’s use of simplicity and stillness contrasts with the intensity of his music collaborators: in Moyang 先祖 & Seaman 漁師, Setyanto is joined by singer, musician and activist Nova Ruth and the uncompromising and intense duo Kadapat, they together score the performance with idiosyncratic resonances that transform into unexpected, but unique sound developments.

The relentlessly creative BHAJAN BHOY crafts psychedelic soundscapes: from lazy interstellar ragas to lysergic electronic music, mellow hypnotic experimentation and all sorts of kosmische mutations. During the last edition of Le Guess Who?, the multi-instrumentalist, guitarist and composer appeared as a member of both Water Damage and CHELA. This year he returns once again for a unique and exclusive performance on the grand organ of Museum Speelklok. He will present his new work Summer In St. Mary’s, a double album of deeply meditative, minimalist compositions with repetitive motifs, recorded on the 19th century church organ at St. Mary’s Church (South Cowton, England).

From the warm cocoon of Dream of the Egg begins the new, deeply personal, journey of Tomo Katsurada, known for his work with the Japanese psychedelic band Kikagaku Moyo. It’s the first of five albums, each one soundtracking a unique picture book. Weaving music and visual storytelling, the solo project reflects his dreams and the numerous rebirths experienced in recent years. Katsurada’s multi-instrumental textures - in particular the harmonious dialogue of subdued vocals, cello and electric guitar - offer listeners a broad soundscape filled with playfulness and spirituality, creating a truly transcendent experience.

Journeying through Scotland with a horse, Quinie immersed herself in the Scottish heritage that is the foundation of her latest album Forefowk, Mind Me - a collection of traditional songs, reworkings and original pieces. It draws from Scottish, Irish and Gaelic sources and includes poetic settings, toasts and improvisation. Describing her process as “more like collecting berries than collecting precious stones”, the singer explores her ancestral tradition as something lived and evolving. Using her voice as a pipe-like instrument, Quinie links folk and DIY traditions, combining care for the past with curiosity about the future, and explores connections between people, animals, ancestors and land.

Baritone guitar and drum duo Able Noise experiments the physicality of music performance through voice, tape and unconventional methods of playing their instruments. They craft a minimal, immersive performance that blends free improvisation and elemental rock. Their recorded work relies less on their respective instruments, and more on an assemblage of field recordings, heavily processed instrumentation, and exploratory mixing techniques. Their output is primarily focused on live concerts, letting their music be shaped by the acoustic and aesthetic properties of the space, and the dynamics formed between themselves and their audience. 

Post-punk/no wave oddity Geo are like a sentient slot machine: whatever seems happenstance is actually by design, and the more the moving parts seem to clash, the more their music starts to make sense. The quartet’s music assembles skeletal agit-funk grooves with cartoonish chromatics and jagged art-punk vignettes, sculpting spaces where noise and chaos become oddly infectious. Tight, twitchy drum beats and bass riffs underpin their confrontational, gnomic narratives, while guitars and keys dart freely, conversing with the vocals. Sharp and calculated bursts of tension and release, Geo’s songs turn discord into euphoria.

PRAM’s sound is driven by an innovative rhythm section, where the drums pulse with command, while the bass grooves with a deep, experimental edge, exploring everything from krautrock to dub. A distinctive fusion of 30s jazz, film scores and post-punk experimentation with ethereal vocals weaving a gleeful path through expansive instrumental textures. A new member of the collective enriches the band's sound textures with a wide range of instruments including dulcimer, trombone and a playful, occasionally mournful soprano saxophone. With a new LP on the horizon, PRAM builds on their distinctive style with a raw and powerful live show careering from eerie to bone-shaking.

The eclectic practice of artist and musician Klein has found home at a variety of different locations. Museums, galleries, yards, squats and pubs have welcomed her projects, reflecting the varied and unexpected nature of the work itself. Blurring the line between fact and fiction, her output spans music releases, films and performances, often combined and shaped by a distinct sonic world in which nu metal, hyperpop and contemporary guitar experimentation collide. She creates a language that is innovative and visionary as much as it is critical and attentive to the present and the society we live in.Photography by Lengua

The inception of wild ensemble Earth Ball was serendipitous: they emerged from Vancouver Island embracing complete improvisation, free expression and a truly psychedelic sound. Each member brings a diverse musical background, having been part of various bands and individually collaborated with artists like Deerhoof, Raven Chacon, Chris Corsano, William Hooker, and others. Apart from guitar, saxophone, drums and other percussion, Earth Ball brings a unique experience to the stage with every performance, showing their commitment to spontaneous composition. As they continue to push the boundaries of improvisation and sonic exploration, they remain a guiding light for those seeking a transcendental musical experience.

Composer and conceptual artist Fatima Al Qadiri is multi-disciplinary talent whose one-of-a-kind work bridges electronic productions, movie soundtracks and visual arts. Mainstream Western pop and the rich traditions of Muslim culture are two key constants in Al Qadiri’s frame of reference and her extensive discography absorbs and rethinks both. Her film scores captivate with intricate electronic soundscapes, often accompanied by hauntingly stunning vocals. Her mixes as DJ venture through traditional Arabic songs, ballroom house and footwork, creating a lively and unpredictable journey on the dance floor.Photography by Dom Smith

A genre-defying force in the world of rap and electronic music, producer DJ Haram is equally celebrated for her bass and club music heavy DJ sets, detail oriented analogue sound design, electronic-folk Middle Eastern production and abrasive rap collaborations. Her solo debut album Beside Myself features established collaborators such as Moor Mother or Armand Hammer, and Aquiles Navarro who will also join her on stage at Le Guess Who? 2025. Eclectic trumpeter, composer, and founding member of Irreversible Entanglements, Navarro derives his sounds from folkloric music, salsa, reggae and everything that was on air during his upbringing in Panama. 

You don’t often hear ominous droney landscapes coming from traditional instruments. In the specific case of Carme López, Galician bagpipes move through a totally unknown field, disconnected from traditional music to decontextualize it and create a personal approach regarding gender perspective (abandoning the association of prestige between the instrument and the male gender). Influenced by Éliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros and Kali Malone, the performer (and researcher in the field of Galician oral tradition music) explores the rich sound texture of the instrument, taking improvisation and randomness as compositional ideas, and creating slowly modulating sound environments, stretching the sound possibilities of the bagpipe to its absolute limit.

Across 24 years, sound and multimedia artist Raven Chacon has built an extraordinary body of work, appearing in over eighty solo and collaborative appearances, including with the influential collective Postcommodity. His deep research on noise textures and dissonance bridges contemporary classical music composition and installation art, often serving as sonic testimonies for Navajo resistance and collective resilience. Apart from his several performances in art spaces across the globe, he is also a committed educator with his role as senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP). At Le Guess Who? 2025, Chacon presents a noise performance, expressing a tapestry of sound through a minimal setup made of tape play, effect pedals and layered field recordings. 

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 activism, boycotting song structures in longform exploratory suites. It’s the soundtrack of a tumultuous demonstration: of drums leading a persistent march and saxophones screeching in vocal defiance. The harmonium creates a textural landscape of drone for Kidambi’s voice to travel, while the double-bass anchors the chaos. We’re in the realm of free jazz, post rock and radical electroacoustic improvisation in which the vocalist weaves syncopation and dissonance, through new avant-garde anthems for people’s movements.

Le Guess Who? aficionados are certainly familiar with the work of multi-talented artist Alabaster DePlume, whose instrumental and lyrical creations radiate healing and empathy. Often joined on stage by multiple guests, DePlume leads his dreamy spiritual jazz show on saxophone as well as showcasing his qualities as vocalist, poet and orator. The noir atmospheres of his latest album A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole collect reflections on dignity and struggle through a stirring assemblage of ancient folk melodies, swirling jazz and elegant string arrangements.

“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 a central theme of his life and work. Holley has devoted himself to the practice of improvisational creativity, diving into visual arts, performance and music. His art rises from the ashes of struggle and hardship, but perhaps more importantly, from a furious curiosity and biological necessity to craft, transform something and give it new meaning. Take his sculptures for instance, turning remnants of everyday life into something chaotic, joyous and mysterious, as a reflection of life’s rich complexity. This same spirit pulses through his dense avant-garde blues, in which the groovy and gloomy undertones feel almost undefinable. Above it all soars Lonnie Holley, forever new, lighting up the world’s disarray with his poetry and mesmerizing melodies.

They say Djrum blows your mind twice: first, when you listen to his layered productions, where sampling meets electronic composition, evocative piano patterns and jazz improvisation. Then again when he takes the stage, not just with his impressive track listing, but performing live on three vinyls. His turntablism is an improvisational art, shaping beats in real time like he would jam on keys. With unmatched skills, he creates something fresh with every set, fluidly waving through genres and delivering unprecedented performances. As the crowd lights up the dancefloor, musicians watch in awe.

Patient, explorative and dynamic. Solely with their two instruments - piano and cello - Salenta and Topu make wistful and contemplative music that evokes vignettes of home, falling asleep with someone you love, learning to soothe yourself. The keys tiptoe through space at some moments, and pirouette ecstatically at others. The cello provides a sonic backbone that glows like amber. When the two met, and decided to start jamming together, their connection was instant: both artists envision music as healing and hope that listeners feel the peacefulness and liberation they experience while playing it. 

Designed for contemplation, Sphaîra is an immersive sensory experience and an audiovisual interpretation of sound artist Sara Persico’s homonymous album. It incorporates field recordings from the experimental concrete theatre, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer in Tripoli, Lebanon, a visionary space for social integration, left abandoned due to the civil war. The dome echoes the sounds of the chaotic city and was built with special acoustic features, which allowed Persico to recreate uncanny, but very rich textures: breathy drones, reverberated screams, metallic scrapes and whispers that leave traces of sacred music, folk and opera. Together with electro-acoustic composer and polymath of the arts Mika Oki, Persico uses dense light scenography and sound storytelling to transport the audience inside the structure itself. 

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 experimentation and contemporary improvisation, they question routine, carving out silence from chaos. Drummer and percussionist Özün Usta brings the rhythms of Anatolian traditions and African-American avant-garde jazz, merging deep intuition with a raw, evolving sonic language. Saxophonist Ali Onur Olgun sculpts sound through instinct and intensity, navigating raw timbres, ritualistic textures and spontaneous forms. Rooted in free jazz and noise, his work unfolds at the intersection of sonic rebellion and intimate presence. Versatile bassist and composer Esat Ekincioglu explores microtones, drones and other uncharted territories of the double bass. 

Le Guess Who? 2025 guest curator Asher Gamedze invites a Cape Town-based critical sound collective committed to dangerous thinking and sonic vandalism. DEAD SYMBOLS situates its practice at the intersection of sound and theory: it is an inquiry, or study, into the sonic properties of theory, or sound as a theoretical intervention. Their work draws from the poetics of various Black theorists and writers to make sense of the World and contemporary society, its attendant order of knowledge and relations of power. DEAD SYMBOLS probes the existence and (il)legitimacy of systems of domination and they refuse to provide any soft landings: DEAD SYMBOLS meditates on the possibilities and implications and stakes of World-endings.Photography by Ndumii Mbala

The annual residency-based sound gathering “Sounds of Places” returns to Le Guess Who? 2025 with sound artist and art producer Ibrahim Owais, joined by Yara Asmar. A spatial sonic narrative placing the audience within the Cremisan Valley, one of the last remaining green spaces around Bethlehem, Palestine. Mixing recordings of sound sculptures, nature and the live performances created there in 2023, Owais recreates and transforms the valley’s sonic landscape. The piece is an extension of sonic analogies which were created in the valley, carrying its sounds into new spaces and times as a way to listen. 

Transcendentally beautiful, The Space Lady’s music is once again gracing planet Le Guess Who?. Transmitting messages of peace and harmony, she began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, playing versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. She later moved to a new set featuring Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter and headset mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular songs. Tucked into echo and soft synth pads, her music brings an heart-warming message that defies genres, styles and generations.

Directed by Garin NugrohoRunning time: 80 minutesBali, circa 1932. Since childhood, Sinta and Darta were close, though they came from two opposite classes. Sinta was born in a wealthy family of a noble Balinese father and American mother, while Darta is a child from a poor bamboo craftsman family. They came across each other because, since being a kid, Darta has worked in Sinta’s family household as an offering maker. In their twenties, their friendship becomes intimate and they fall in love with each other. However, after Darta tries to propose to Sinta and gets rejected by her parents, Darta wanders aimlessly while Sinta falls into deep sadness of losing. In his aimless journey, Darta finds a shaman who tells him about a sacrificial Monkey King ritual which could grant him fortune in exchange for sacrificing his future child to the Monkey King. Samsara is described as a “cine-concert” that draws from German black-and-white films from the 1920s as well as wayang kulit (traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry).

Directed by Lonnie Holley & Cyrus MoussaviRunning time: 18 minutes 

Directed by Luis Chumbe HuamaníRunning time: 94 minutes

Record label Mississippi Records presents a live presentation combining film, slide show and audio, exploring 20 years of the label’s vast and rarely-seen archives. 

“The totality of our digital records will vanish as soon as the technological infrastructures built by Westernized modern civilization collapse.”

“Inclusivity in Dutch culture is an illusion, if the Netherlands doesn’t open the doors”. These were the conclusive words of Le Guess Who?’s statement about the struggles of obtaining visas for the artists for last year's festival edition. It’s a struggle that is still present today and needs to be tackled. Not just for this festival in Utrecht, but as an open call for all festivals and cultural organizations that can’t offer diversity within programs because of these bureaucratic obstacles. Not being able to make a performance happen is a cultural loss.

In recent years, audiences have been surprised to learn that some of their favorite festivals were bought up by private equity funds—often with values far removed from the communities these festivals grew out of. But this shift is not new: across Europe and beyond, ownership concentration has gradually reshaped the live music sector, with just a handful of players now controlling a wide range of festivals, booking agencies, venues, ticketing platforms, media, artist management services, and more.

Experiencing nightlife and music events can be exhilarating, but also demanding on both body and mind. Loud environments, long nights and substance use can all intensify stimulation, with our brains releasing a rush of chemicals that heighten the moment.