Le Guess Who? unveils another tremendous crop of acts set to perform at this year’s festival between 9–12 November, with James Holden added as the final curator.
The Dutch festival, now in its 11th year, had already announced a plethora of incredible curators and artists spanning genres, generations and the globe. Held around a multitude of idyllic venues across Utrecht, this year’s line up is every bit as impressive and diverse as we’ve come to expect from Le Guess Who?, with many of our favourite artists and bands set to grace its stages.
Electronic maverick James Holden closes the impressive list of curators which already included Perfume Genius, Shabazz Palaces, Grouper, Han Bennink, and Jerusalem In My Heart, all also set to perform.
Holden is a prolific man with his fingers in many musical pies, be it running his Border Community label, on production, mixing and remixing duties or collaborating with many artists like Moroccan Gnawa musician Maâlem Houssam Guinia & Band, one of the many acts joining his curated program. Taking place on Saturday November 11th in several venues, his program also includes free jazz and hypnotic drone and noise courtesy of British group Sex Swing, the fierce, pulsating and meditative sounds of Chicago experimental producer and live performer Hieroglyphic Being and the distinctive and dazzling South African jazz sounds of prodigious multi-reed player Shabaka Hutchings and his band The Ancestors. Also part of Holden’s program are audio-visual performance collective Jerusalem In My Heart, experimental mallet-guitar trio Ex-Easter Island Head, Mario Batkovic, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and XAM Duo. And there’s a special performance from James Holden himself, accompanied for the first time by his new live band The Animal Spirits.
Among the new names appearing in Perfume Genius’ curation are Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon doing a solo piano performance and Lost Horizons, the new project of former Cocteau Twins member Simon Raymonde and drummer Richie Thomas (Cocteau Twins, Dif Juz, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Felt). The duo will bring their debut album Ojalá to Le Guess Who?, just a week after its release. Both acts join previously announced Pharmakon, ethereal experimental artist Julianna Barwick, Bulgarian women’s choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Mount Eerie, Aldous Harding, Weyes Blood and Mozart’s Sister.
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Rejoice, for Canadian 6-piece The Souljazz Orchestra have a new album on the way that will send the mercury rocketing. Entitled Under Burning Skies, it sees the Afro-jazz-funk powerhouse expand their signature sound to new unexplored territories. On the new album, The Souljazz Orchestra use 80s synthesizers and drum machines for the first time, “bringing lo fi disco, boogie and electro touches to their trademark horn arrangements and earthy analogue sound”, as the press release explains.
