Circuit des Yeux unveils first single from upcoming sixth album -io

Circuit des Yeux is and has been one of our favourite artists for a long time. Haley Fohr, the immeasurably talented and adventurous vocalist, composer, and producer behind the project, dazzles us time and again with every release she puts out and we’re over the moon to know that October will see the release of her sixth full-length album entitled -io. Slated for a October 22nd release through Matador Records, -io was mostly written, arranged, and produced by her and according to the label it’s her “most ornate and elaborate work to date – a set of compositions that nest Fohr’s otherworldly four-octave voice amid a 24-piece string, brass, and wind ensemble.”

Recording during the pandemic, in the aftermath of personal loss, -io charts a geography of grief, which Fohr describes as a place where “everything is ending all the time.”

Coinciding with the album news, Circuit des Yeux has shared ‘Dogma’, serving as the first outstanding taste from the upcoming album. She remarks:

“Where there is faith there is violence. The story of civilization is complicated and layered with dogmas. At each individual’s incentive lies both a beacon and an instinct. The fool follows the outer while the idiot chases her interior. Society is a necessary subversion of the self. It is through time that our quiet alarms grow with great intensity until emancipation through implosion or explosion become imminent.”

‘Dogma’ comes with an accompanying video, directed by Fohr with Rudy Rubio, and you can watch it below.

Circuit des Yeux releases Reaching For Indigo: GAIA INFINITUS: Performed Live at Le Guess Who? Festival

Circuit des Yeux live at Le Guess Who? 2018 | Photography: Erik Luyten

We loved last year’s edition of Le Guess Who? to bits and one powerful and beautiful performance that really stood out for us was that of Circuit des Yeux, closing the festival on Sunday November 11th at TivoliVredenburg. Haley Fohr, the immeasurably talented and adventurous vocalist, composer, and producer behind the project, cooked up a special one-off performance, an augmented version of her album Reaching For Indigo, a timeless favourite record and one of our 15 Picks of 2017. Entitled Reaching For Indigo: Gaia Infinitus, it was rearranged and performed with an eight-piece ensemble featuring members of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, as well as her bassist and drummer. Today, Circuit des Yeux unleashed the recordings of that performance in the shape of a live album and DVD, released through Drag City, and also available on her website and Bandcamp.

Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr comments on Reaching for Indigo: GAIA INFINITUS:

“Let it be known that I (Haley Fohr) once walked the Earth and chose to sing my way through life. Let it be known that one of these many singing rituals transpired on Nov 11, 2018 at Le Guess Who? Festival. On this evening Cooper Crain rearranged works from 2017’s “Reaching For Indigo”, members of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra helped re-imagine this aforementioned music, Le Guess Who? Festival documented it, and here today we have Reaching For Indigo: GAIA INFINITUS: Performed Live at Le Guess Who? Festival.

Drag City & I have meticulously prepared a limited 300 count LP/DVD, featuring 100 different album covers, as well as a video documentation of the entire performance. It includes a previously unreleased song written during the Indigo era,”Four Limbs”, and is exclusively available on the vinyl version of this release.

Thank you for your continued support of independent music & the living artist.”

For a taste of the intense and staggering beauty of Circuit des Yeux’s performance, watch the live video for ‘Black Fly’ below:

Le Guess Who? 2018 Recap: A Musical Treasure Trove

We run down some of our favourite moments from Le Guess Who? 2018, including Circuit des Yeux, Anoushka Shankar & Manu Delago with MO Strings, Yonatan Gat & The Eastern Medicine Singers, STUFF. and The Comet Is Coming, among many other standout performers

“With over 7 billion people on the planet, the music we hear is only a fraction of what’s out there. This is the instinct that keeps us digging.”

This line on the first page of this year’s festival booklet sums up perfectly the vision, ambition, and spirit of this one of a kind festival.

We loved Le Guess Who? to bits last year and you have probably guessed by now that it is one of our highlights of the year. So earlier this month we returned for a second time to Utrecht for the 12th edition of Le Guess Who?. During four extravagant days, this quaint and picturesque Dutch town became a marvellous melting pot of music and artistic experimentation, bringing together a smorgasbord of incredibly diverse and cutting-edge artists of all different backgrounds from across the globe, both new and older, known and lesser known. Le Guess Who? is not about sticking to the known and it draws a befitting audience, eager to discover what lies outside the mainstream.

With performances held around 20 different spaces scattered throughout Utrecht, one of the beauties of the festival is hopping from venue to venue. Cruising on rented bicycles through the city’s charming cobbled streets before arriving at a church, a cafe or a theatre to watch a show is an integral part of the experience.

Hello Skinny

Every year, Le Guess Who?’s extraordinary program takes on new dimensions, owing to a selection of unique curators, who in turn, invite some of their very own favourite artists to play. Shabaka HutchingsDevendra Banhart and Moor Mother took the curator seat this year, expanding and enriching a program rife with wonderful surprises. With around 200 artists and with some of them not often performing, if ever, in Europe, tough choices had to be made at times because of overlapping schedules or venues reaching capacity. We simply wished omnipresence was a thing. But missing one performance usually meant finding an undiscovered gem in a nearby venue. Almost without fail, in whichever venue/performance we found ourselves, aural pleasures were to be had.

Prodigious multi-reed player Shabaka Hutchings performed last year with his band The Ancestors and also in previous editions of Le Guess Who?. This year his participation reached new heights with his role as curator. Many of our highlights were part of his curation, including London based ingenious drummer, producer and composer Tom Skinner aka Hello Skinny, who performed Friday at De Pastoe Fabriek. Skinner told the audience right from the start that it was a dance gig and he wasn’t lying. What ensued was a brilliant show playing new and old material. Hutchings, who performed with Hello Skinny in an older line-up, joined the band for a wild interpretation of ‘Bump’.

Orchestra Of Spheres

What followed at the crowded De Pastoe Fabriek was a raucous and groovy set by a new favourite band, Belgian instrumental five-piece STUFF. who were also part of Hutchings’ curation. Cooking a musical broth of jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronica, and anything they want to throw in with a good dose of improvisation displaying their versatile musicianship, they turned the warehouse into an irresistible and scorching dance party.

Plugging their recent album, Mirror, Orchestra Of Spheres were as amazing and outlandish as they usually are, in costumes resonating their inventiveness and playing original instruments like the biscuit tin guitar or the foot pedal analogue bass. The Wellington quartet delivered a pulverising set at the cavernous club Kytopia on Saturday evening, navigating not only through recent material, but also older hits. The band’s Baba Rossa told the adoring crowd that they had played both their oldest and their newest song. A wild intergalactic treat.

Other highlights on Hutchings’ curation included South Africa’s explosive psychedelic afrofunk seven-piece BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) and the wonderfully captivating and hypnotic performance of sax wizard Kadri Gopalnath who spent most of the last twenty years adapting his instrument to the traditions of Indian Carnatic music. Performing at Tivoli’s Grote Zaal on Sunday, Gopalnath, accompanied by two tabla players, a violinist, and someone in charge of counting the music’s rhythms with various series of hand movements, sat crossed legged on a carpet, enchanting and drawing in the audience. We were also completely blown away by London-based Japanese post-punk four-piece Bo Ningen. Playing late on Friday evening at a packed Tivoli’s Ronda, their show was a whirlwind of relentless energy, explosive rock and hardcore punk at its finest. Dressed in a feminine fashion, moving frantically yet elegantly, they spread the same explosive energy on the ecstatic crowd.

The Comet Is Coming

As a performer, Hutchings played with two of his bands, The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet, the latter in a special XL format with the usual two drummers doubling up to four. Sons of Kemet performed in Ronda, one of the five music halls in Tivoli Vredenburg. A giant complex with five purpose-built music halls, Tivoli is central to Le Guess Who?, hosting myriad performances. We must admit to only briefly catching Sons of Kemet as Ronda was bursting at the seams, with a mammoth crowd gathered to watch and experience one of the fest’s most anticipated acts. We bid our time and the next day, astro-futurist trio The Comet Is Coming took to the stage at the Grote Zaal with an infectious energy, ripe for dancing. King Shabaka, Betamax and Danalogue led the audience on a cosmic voyage, utterly perfect for a celestial and effusive closing on the last day.

Back to the general line-up and other curated bills, there was a multitude of musical riches on offer. Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley’s collaborative duo DRINKS gifted us with our inaugural set of the festival on Thursday evening at Tivoli’s Pandora, offering with their band a playful set, drawing mostly from their recent second album Hippo Lite, including the weird and wonderful tracks ‘Corner Shops’ and ‘Real Outside’.

Drinks

Celebrated improvisational artist Lonnie Holley was one of the most captivating performers of the festival, stealing the show with his honest and engaging storytelling and ghostly piano playing. Accompanied by the incredible experimental duo of trombone and drums Nelson Patton, Lonnie Holley’s spontaneous musical narrations of life stories evoked a wonderful feeling of life celebration in harmony with Mother Earth.
As is usual, Le Guess Who? spreads its wings in many ways offering more than musical performances throughout its four days like films, artist talks, exhibitions or Le Mini Who?. A tour of Utrecht led by Lonnie, “Through The Eyes of Lonnie Holley”, was one of the one-off events that happened this year.

We’ve been awed before by the ferocious live energy of wildly inventive guitar virtuoso Yonatan Gat. In a trio format, with drummer and bassist, his performance at Le Guess Who? was even more memorable, punctuated by his sparkling collaboration with Native American powwow drum group The Eastern Medicine Singers. Performing at Pandora, the show consisted of two parts. The first part kicked off with a mindblowing drum solo, before Gat joined his two band members for a relentless and powerful show with influences from all over the place. Gat had warned their set would have to be short, as they were merely the support act for the big ceremony. The second part of the show then followed, with the members of The Eastern Medicine Singers all performing on a single giant drum, in the middle of the audience. As the lights turned on them, chanting and pounding, Gat and his bandmates joined the middle stage, enthralling the audience with a powerful and transcending experience.

Takuro Kikuchi

The serene and minimal compositions of Japanese pianist Takuro Kikuchi, in the gorgeous and monumental setting of Janskerk, were a marvellous and meditative experience. The church’s high ceilings and its vast emptiness became filled with stunning light designs and with the tranquillity and beauty of Kikuchi’s instrumental pieces.

Saturday started with our favourite set of the day, Anoushka Shankar & Manu Delago with MO Strings performing to a packed Grote Zaal. Many of the artists gracing stages at Le Guess Who? push their instruments to their limits. With a staggering technical ability and abounding creativity, Manu Delago does exactly that with the hang, experimenting and expanding the possibilities of the instrument. Delago led the first 30 minutes, performing his mesmerizing compositions with the 27-member string section of the Metropole Orkest, under the direction of conductor Jules Buckley. Whether playing the hang or the drums, whether playing with bare hands or using brushes or sticks, Delago manipulated the hang in various ways, always adventurously, drawing us in entirely. Anoushka Shankar, with whom Delago had previously collaborated, joined him on stage for the second half of the performance, enchanting the audience with her mastery of sitar, blending classical Indian music with contemporary sounds. The pairing of two exceptional virtuosos on two very different and unique instruments made for a set that was nothing short of cinematic and divine.

Circuit des Yeux

Le Guess Who? was brimming with surprising collaborations, and a very striking one graced the last day, with Circuit des Yeux. In yet another unique Le Guess Who? moment on Sunday afternoon, Haley Fohr, the extraordinarily talented and adventurous vocalist, composer, and producer behind the project, presented an augmented version of her album Reaching For Indigo, aptly called Gaia Infinitus, as well as the first live rendition of previously unreleased music from the album’s sessions. Fohr rearranged and performed the album with members of the Dutch Chamber Orchestra, and with her bassist and drummer. This accompaniment only added to the immense and intense beauty of Reaching For Indigo, one of our Album Picks of 2017. Powerful, beautiful and moving.

The thrillingly diverse and friendly environment of le Guess Who? emanates from every corner of Utrecht, radiating in every direction and allowing art to take over and come to life. After having been to many European festivals over the years, we can say that there is nothing quite like Le Guess Who?. The 2018 edition, a treasure trove for musical explorers of all kinds, shows that by following their instinct to keep on digging, the festival’s organisers have struck gold yet again.

Even though there’s almost a year to wait before the next Le Guess Who?, we’re already looking forward to it. The 13th edition will take place between 7th and 10th November 2019 and as usual there’s early-bird 4-Day Festival Passes available but only until Friday 30th November, so don’t delay!

Illustrated by Kevin Pinel

Le Guess Who?’s Who 2018: Circuit des Yeux

There’s less than a week to go before Le Guess Who? takes over Utrecht. With over 150 artists set to perform, how do we make sense of such a monumental line-up? We made a list of the artists we’re most excited to see and asked them for their recommendations.

CIRCUIT DES YEUX

Official Website

Circuit des Yeux presents ‘Reaching For Indigo: Gaia Infinitus’
Performing Sunday 11th November at TivoliVredenburg

Photo: Michael Vallera

We love Circuit des Yeux to bits. Haley Fohr, the immeasurably talented and adventurous vocalist, composer, and producer behind the project, counts five stellar albums under her belt, including two that found their way to our album picks of the year, 2015’s In Plain Speech and 2017’s Reaching For Indigo. A year on from its release, we can’t stop playing it and we are incredibly excited with the special one-off performance lined up for Guess Who?. Circuit des Yeux will present an augmented version of the album, Reaching For Indigo: Gaia Infinitus, rearranged for an eight-piece ensemble featuring members of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. We’ve asked her what other bands she is looking forward to. Read on to find out!

 

“Here’s the scoop – I am SO excited for Le Guess Who this year. Mainly because of my own selfish reasons of performing newly arranged music with the Netherlands Philharmonic on Sunday, November 11th ! But when I am not rehearsing and preparing for my performance, I will definitely be digging into the amazing musical buffet that the festival has so graciously provided. So here it is,the big one, two, three on what I will be seeing at LGW? Festival 2018!”

 

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Official Website

Performing Thursday 8th November at TivoliVredenburg, curated by Moor Mother

“How ironic is it that a Chicago musician will be seeing this band for the first time in Utrecht? I have many of their albums, and have heard many iterations of this ensemble. They are a huge inspiration in terms of what they present sonically, and the benevolent nature of their music. I am particularly excited for the younger participants (Tomeka Reid especially), and to witness how the modernity of our time folds into legacy of The Art Ensemble of Chicago.”

Meridian Brothers

Official Website

Performing Friday 9th November at EKKO

“I hadn’t heard of Meridian Brothers until Tyler, a drummer I have been performing with during “Reaching For Indigo”, played some for us while driving through some small unknown European town this last February. I love the sounds they create – there is something vaguely beyond time about the sounds they produce. They are also a mysterious project…I am looking forward to seeing who they are, and what instruments they play live. I recently went to Colombia, where Tyler considered “going on the search” for the Meridian Brothers, but I can now thank my lucky stars that LGW has done the hard work for us. “

Ka Baird + Pekka Airaksinen

Ka Baird’s Official Website
Pekka Airaksinen’s Official Website

Performing Sunday 11th November at TivoliVredenburg

“This first time collaboration is going to be pure gold, I can just feel it. I am excited to be in the audience, and hear what unfolds – these are two mindful manipulators of sound that have a very wild and “on-the-loose” approach to composition. I am a huge fan of Ka Baird’s “Sapropelic Pycnic”, which came out last year on Drag City. The result of these two performing together are completely unpredictable, and that is why I will make sure to be present when their minds meet. “

 

Le Guess Who? will take place 8-11 November. For the full line-up, tickets and more info visit leguesswho.com. And take a look at other artists we’re excited about picking their own Le Guess Who?’s Who.

Watch Circuit des Yeux’s new video for ‘Falling Blonde’

We can’t put down Circuit des Yeux‘s Reaching For Indigo, a timeless favourite record that made it to our 15 Album Picks last year. Haley Fohr, the phenomenal and adventurous musician behind Circuit des Yeux, has unveiled its fourth single, ‘Falling Blonde’, and an accompanying video directed and starring New Zealand based video artist Veronica Crockford-Pound. Here it is.

In other wonderful related news, Circuit des Yeux will unleash an expanded eight-piece ensemble featuring members of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra for a special one-off performance at Utrecht’s Le Guess Who? Festival this November. In addition to presenting an augmented version of Reaching For Indigo, Fohr’s performance will also include the first live rendition of previously unreleased music from the album’s sessions. With an initial spectacular line-up already in sight, and Circuit des Yeux as a huge highlight, we can’t wait for November to come.