The Quiet Temple announce debut album and share lead single ‘The Last Opium Den (On Earth)’

08 May 2019

Soulsaver’s Rich Machin and multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood joined forces for a new project called The Quiet Temple, also featuring a rolling cast of musicians including Ray Dickaty, Tim Lewis aka Thighpaulsandra, Pete Marsh, Paul May and Doggen. This Summer, The Quiet Temple will release their self-titled debut album, which they describe as an “experimental cosmic-psyche-jazz-Krautrock-post-punk-dub record”.
With three seminal jazz albums cited as influential to the upcoming album, Larry Young’s Lawrence of Newark, Marcus Belgrave’s Gemini and Noah Howard’s The Black Ark, they went into the studio with little planning, allowing spontaneity and improvisation to reign freely.

The announcement comes with the first taste from the record, the sublime lead single ‘The Last Opium Den (On Earth)’. Take a listen now.

The Quiet Temple is out on July 5th through Wichita Recordings in the US and Canada and Point Of Departure in the rest of the world.

Brandt Brauer Frick’s fifth album imminent, listen to two new singles

07 May 2019

In the three years since Brandt Brauer Frick released Joy, which was one of our Album Picks of 2016, the three musicians have kept themselves busy, mostly composing, producing and releasing solo albums, music for theatre and plenty more. They are back as a brilliant acoustic dance unit and will be gifting the world with a follow-up, Echo, a more club-focused album that echoes their decade-long existence as a trio. “It’s about getting back to what we started off with,” explained Daniel Brandt, “but of course, after 10 years, we’ve gained more know how. When we were starting out we just had one microphone and a broken piano to make our first album.”

Preceding the album’s release through Because Music on June 7th, Brandt Brauer Frick have shared two tremendous tracks off it, ‘Masse’ and ‘Rest’. The latter comes with a video animated by Max Parovsky.

Listen to Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek’s new single ‘Dom Dom Kurşunu’

06 May 2019

With just over two weeks to go until the much anticipated release of Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek’s debut album Kar Yağar, the outernational psych-pop quintet let loose another stunning single off it, ‘Dom Dom Kurşunu’.

Kar Yağar is out on May 24th through Catapulte Records

Le Guess Who? reveals curators for 2019 edition

25 April 2019

Utrecht’s Le Guess Who? is gearing up for its 13th edition, running from 7-10 November this year, and the first big announcement of 2019 is here.

Every year, Le Guess Who? invites a few artists as co-curators, to help shape and enrich the festival with hand picked selections which reflect their own interests. Today, the organisers have revealed their guest curators for this year. Fatoumata Diawara, Jenny Hval, Patrick Higgins, The Bug, Moon Duo, and Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed, will all be involved in programming, with free reign to invite their own favourite and like-minded artists. With the exception of Iris van Herpen and Salvador Breed, all the curators will also be performing themselves. They join an impressive list of past Le Guess Who? curators, which last year included Shabaka Hutchings, Devendra Banhart and Moor Mother.

Known as one of Mali’s most inventive artists, Grammy-nominated musician Fatoumata Diawara is not only notable for her talent as a singer, songwriter and guitarist but also as an actress, activist and defender of women rights and social justice. Involved in a variety of projects, Fatoumata has recorded and performed with a multitude of artists, including fellow Mali artists Amadou & Mariam and Oumou Sangaré, Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn and Herbie Hancock, amongst many more. Her music draws from her roots while looking to the future. The festival notes that artists related to Afrocubism and Afrofuturism will be the core of her curatorial selections.

Jenny Hval’s performances and artistic output embraces a variety of arts forms and vehicles for expression, from poetry and music, to performance art, and film. As a true multidisciplinary artist, who has previously graced Le Guess Who? stages, it is fitting that in 2019 the Norwegian musician and writer should curate her own programme.

Following his colossal performance with the string ensemble of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra at Le Guess Who? in 2017, avant-garde composer, guitarist, and producer Patrick Higgins returns to the festival as a guest curator. A creative visionary, known for his membership in New York noise-rock band Zs, Higgins has an impressive solo and collaborative discography under his belt, having also composed for several renowned ensembles and soloists. We’re looking forward to seeing what his line-up will be.

Prolific British musician and producer Kevin Martin aka The Bug is a legend in his own lifetime, counting a plethora of musical projects. With a career spanning over twenty years and more than 150 recordings in many different genres, The Bug came to existence in the 90’s, first as a dub-oriented project before turning to Jamaican dancehall and similar genres like grime and dubstep.

Psych-kraut stalwarts Moon Duo first came into being in 2009 in San Francisco as a side project collaboration between Wooden Shjips guitarist Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada. Ten years on, the duo have released several studio albums, EPs and singles. The duality between light and darkness is central to their most recent album, Occult Architecture, a double cosmic voyage that sees them exploring new textures and sounds.

A trailblazer in the world of fashion, Dutch designer and couturier Iris van Herpen has her foot in the future, mixing fashion and technology, in particular 3D printing to create her own garments. Together with her partner, sound artist Salvador Breed, they will curate a programme reflecting their aesthetics.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for the curated picks and the full festival line-up to be announced but if past editions are anything to go by, we can already be sure of one thing: it will be unmissable!

 

 

Le Guess Who? 2019 takes place from 7-10 November, in various idyllic venues throughout the city of Utrecht. 4-Day Festival Passes are currently available until May 2nd for €123,00. Find tickets and more information at www.leguesswho.com. Read our review of last year’s edition.