The stars will align again this November as Le Guess Who? fires up Utrecht’s musical life with four days of extraordinary music drawn from the widest musical spectrum. With just under two months to go until the 15th anniversary edition of the festival, the organizers announced today the full line-up adding 72 new phenomenal performers who join an already hefty bill co-curated by Animal Collective, clipping. and CURL

Le Guess Who? returns for its 15th edition in the quaint and historic city of Utrecht from 10-13 November and the organizers had already announced a stellar and ambitious bill rammed with musical treats for every imaginable taste. A festival rich with possibility, Le Guess Who? builds bridges across genres, generations and regions, delivering beautiful musical experiences.

Newly announced names that have caught our eye in particular include master vibraphonist, multi-percussionist, and composer Masayoshi Fujita, whose album Bird Ambiance topped our 2021 end of year list and many others, phenomenal multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Thiago Nassif with his compositions merging and exploring elements of no-wave, electronic music, tropicalismo, jazz, rock and pop, Welsh musician and producer Cate Le Bon who recently released her sixth studio album Pompeii and Columbian-Canadian musician and Polaris Prize-winning artist Lido Pimienta with her blend of cumbia with electronic music and art pop. This year’s edition will also see newly announced sets from Malian singer Oumou Sangaré, legendary avant-rockers Zs, ambient-folk artist Maria BC, the intimate and enchanting sounds of singer-songwriter and improvisor Joanne Robertson and self-described “eco-friendly-Afro-punk-collective” Fulu Miziki Kolektiv, a Kinshasa based orchestra who make their own instruments, costumes and masks out of trash. Also joining Le Guess Who?’s general festival line-up are high-powered Ghent-based duo Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, showcasing Topical Dancer, their Soulwax-produced electronic debut album, traditional adungu and nanga harp master and singer Otim Alpha who whips up the dancefloor with Acholitronix, a high tempo dance music fusing traditional music from north Uganda with electronic production, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Yaya Bey, Slovenian acoustic folk avant-garde experimental band Širom and Spanish flamenco singer Estrella Morente performing with the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra. Known for the exhilarating energy of their live performances, Afrofuturistic jazz outfit Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are returning to Le Guess Who? this November for their 50th Anniversary Celebration, a performance we wouldn’t want to miss. Also appearing are Surya Botofasina & Carlos Niño, fresh off the back of their utterly engrossing debut album Everyone’s Children, which pays tribute to Alice Coltrane, Dutch rockers Personal Trainer, Italian vocalist, composer, keyboardist and multimedia artist Jolanda Moletta, Huerco S., the project of American producer and DJ Brian Leeds with the freshly released Plonk, his first album in six years and french filmmaker and sound explorer Vincent Moon with his unique site-specific Live Cinéma performance.

Amidst the new exciting additions to Le Guess Who?’s 2022 line-up is a new program presented by DJ Fitz, the festival’s resident DJ. Appearing on his bill are entrancing electro-acoustic and kosmiche duo Watkins/Peacock, the unabashedly fun Colombian and Japanese art-rock duo Flash Amazonas with new album uva-uva just out last week, Lisbon’s Funkamente, Anadol, Quesadilla and Istanbul’s beatmaker Grup Ses.

There are new additions to clipping.’s curated program as well, who are hosting KMRU & Aho Ssan performing Limen, Manuka Honey and London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles, presenting his new album Now Is, set for release in October.

There’s a lot more on offer for the 15th edition of Le Guess Who?, including programs hosted by Batu, Bong-Ra, Moonshine, Kampala-based label Nyege Nyege and a plethora of other unmissable artists bound to hold the attention of curious minds.

Le Guess Who? 2022 takes place from 10-13th November in several venues throughout Utrecht. Festival passes are now sold out but there are still limited day tickets available via leguesswho.com/tickets. Full details of the line-up can be found on leguesswho.com.

With the first wave of artists previously announced for the 15^th anniversary of Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, festival organisers unveiled today four special projects including the return of Hidden Musics and Uncloud presents, and new programmes by Coco Maria presents Club Coco and GNOD presents.

The 15^th edition of Le Guess Who? already looks set to be one for the books with a wealth of sonic offerings that challenges conventional musical paradigms. Back in May the organisers had announced CURL, Animal Collective and clipping. as guest curators and unveiled the stellar programmes of each one, as well as a programme hosted by New York based Ostinato Records, and the first names on the general line-up including CTD favourites Keeley Forsyth, Asher Gamedze, KOKOKO! and Kee Avil. Over the years Le Guess Who? has become a privileged stage for rare and unique performances and collaborations and the four special projects announced today shows that supporting and highlighting the extraordinary work of underappreciated and underrepresented artists from all over the globe remains at the heart of it all.

Sprouted in 2019 from a collaboration between Le Guess Who?, Grammy-award winning music producer, activist and author Ian Brennan, and Ljubljana based American musician, record producer and Glitterbeat Records founder Chris Eckman,  Hidden Musics returns to the festival for the third time in 2022. An ambitious program that pays special attention to musical traditions and artists from secluded regions of the world, it gives audiences a unique chance to experience rare performances.
Hidden Musics will host talented and versatile multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and composer Nancy Mounir, a prominent name of Egypt’s independent music scene. She’ll collaborate with Utrecht’s The Flare Quartet to present her magnificent debut album Nozhet El Nofous released last month. Hidden Musics also includes Flamenco diva Lole Montoya set to perform her solo work and also the music of her former duo Lole y Manuel, blending traditional Spanish flamenco with Arabic rhythms and styles; the hypnotic microtonal drones of Morocco collective Master Musicians of Joujouka, led by Bachir Attar and Burkina Faso-born  multi-instrumentalist and vocalist/poet in the urban griot tradition Kaito Winse. Pakistan’s Ustad Noor Bakhsh will also be part of Hidden Musics’s programme as will Bedouin music and traditional raï with a performance from Algerian singer of Blues and Trance-Raï Cheikha Rabia and dancer Esraa Warda.

Amidst the new project additions to Le Guess Who?’s 2022 edition is Uncloud presents, courtesy of Utrecht’s contemporary and innovative art and music platform Uncloud who will present a special collaboration between Iranian electronic music composer and sound artist Sote and Dutch audiovisual artist Tarik Barri; previously announced Guatemala born and Mexico City based cellist and composer Mabe Fratti, and two London based Japanese artists, vocal performer Hatis Noit and ambient composer and sound designer Hinako Omori.

Coco Maria presents Club Coco is one of the other special projects newly lined up for this year’s edition. Hailing from Mexico, Coco Maria is a curator, radio host and self-described ‘selectora’ who started her flagship radio show ​“Club Coco” on World­wide FM last year, and released a compilation under the same name on Bongo Joe Records featuring music from every all over the planet. In addition to performing herself, Coco Maria will host the new Anatolian folk sounds of Turkish singer and multi-instrumentalist Derya Yildirim; the Colombian tropical folklore of Romperayo, and Mexican punk marimba band Son Rompe Pera with their delirious live show.

The fourth project announced today is GNOD presents, a takeover from Manchester’s counter culture cult collective GNOD who are performing as well as hosting Holy Scum, the outfit featuring members of GNOD, Action Beat and Mike from Dälek and Moundabout, the new folk project of Paddy Shine of Gnod and Phil Masterson of Los Langeros/Damp Howl/Bisect.

The festival takes place from 10 -13th November in several venues throughout Utrecht and many more artists will be announced over the next few months. Full details of the line-up so far and daily tickets can be found on leguesswho.com.

Utrecht’s one-of-a-kind festival Le Guess Who? is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, and the first announcements of 2022 are here! A diverse, inspiring and mind-blowing programme featuring both emerging and well-established artists, drawn from all corners of the musical spectrum.

We’ve been raving at length over the past few years about Le Guess Who?, who have been presenting one of the boldest and most adventurous festivals anywhere on earth since 2007. The 2022 edition will take place from 10-13th November and today the organizers have announced the guest curators as well as the first batch of artists and bands for the general line-up.

Le Guess Who?’s guests curators are an integral part of the festival, expanding and enriching its monumental programme with their hand-picked selections of favourite and like-minded artists. CURL, Animal Collective and clipping. are taking the guest curator seat this year and will also be performing themselves.

CURL is a London based collective and label who counts as founders Mica Levi, Coby Sey and Brother May. Their curation will host performances from South London guitarist and producer Leisha Thomas aka Alpha Maid, who is also a CURL member, lo-fi act bar italia, the blend of jazz and electronics from Speakers Corner Quartet & Friends, Copenhagen based composer, producer and viola player Astrid Sonne, experimental electronic artist Laurel Halo, TONE and Tutto Questo Sentire, an artist collective made up of experimental opera singer Olivia Salvadori, composer and cellist Sandro Mussida, and video and sound artist Rebecca Salvadori. Also integrating CURL’s programme is Maëva Berthelot & Coby Sey performing ‘A Tender Ascent’, an immersive audio-visual installation marrying filmed performance, 5.1 surround sound and sculpture, and Eve Stainton presents Dykegeist, with live sound by Mica Levi, a commissioned choreographic work. Experimental musician and poet Moor Mother and rapper billy woods also join this bill performing BRASS, their collaborative and tribute album to the plurality of Afro-American culture.

Founded in Baltimore in 2000, Animal Collective are an iconic experimental and indie-pop band, with a huge catalogue to their name and countless live shows. With a brand new album, Time Skiffs, released in February, the four-piece are well poised to perform it live at Le Guess Who?. Among the names appearing in their curation are Japanese tribal trio Kuunatic, French iconic and innovative musician Valentín Clastrier, New York folk songwriter Anastasia Coope and Berlin’s queen of avant-garde pop music Mary Ocher. Animal Collective have also invited experimental rock quartet and fellow Baltimoreans Horse Lords, Tuareg guitar band Les Filles de Illighadad, Catalan composer, singer and pianist Marina Herlop, who fuses her vocals with avant-garde classical music and experimental electronics, and Japanese avant-garde guitarist and improvising singer, Keiji Haino, who is no stranger to the festival having delivered a blistering and memorable show at the 2017 edition. Additionally, their curated bill features Lebanese electronic music producer Liliane Chlela, Norway’s improvisational avant-jazz ensemble Supersilent, and Maria Reis, a prominent name in Lisbon’s alternative pop scene, with a recently released new album under her belt, A Flor da Urtiga, counting Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) as producer and co-instrumentalist.

Pushing boundaries and crossing genres, clipping. is the experimental hip-hop trio of Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. Their programme will include experimental sound artist Evicshen, Chicago footwork producer Jana Rush, Japanese experimental hip hop group Dos Monos and They Hate Change, the duo of Dre and Vonne, whose third album Finally, New, is out this Friday May 13th. Appearing on their bill is also the beautiful, dark and galvanising music of Divide and Dissolve, and legendary guitarist Jeff Parker, known for his membership in groups like Tortoise, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, as well as various collaborations and solo records.

Le Guess Who? pays special attention to underappreciated and underrepresented musicians of the world and the 2022 line-up includes a programme hosted by New York based Ostinato Records, a label that gives the spotlight to “Afrophone stories from the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.’ In addition to a talk by label founder and Grammy-nominated producer Vik Sohonie, there will be performances from Groupe RTD, the official band for Djibouti’s national TV station Radiodiffusion-Télévision Djibouti and Cape Verde group The Ano Nobo Quartet, who earlier this year released The Strings of São Domingos mixing koladera guitars with a variety of styles including flamenco, Samba and Marrabenta.

Le Guess Who? is also off to a stellar start with the initial general line-up boasting the likes of legendary South African composer Abdullah Ibrahim, London based Palestinian producer and rapper Bint7alal, German ambient/jazz quartet Bohren & der Club of Gore, Melbourne post-punk psychedelic outfit EXEK, Swedish psych rockers Goat, Czech husband-and-wife duo Irena & Vojtěch Havlovi and Kee Avil, the project of Montréal producer, singer, and guitarist Vicky Mettler. Congolese collective KOKOKO!, Jordanian-Palestinian artist Lil Asaf Bashar Suleiman aka Lil Asaf, Guatemala born and Mexico City based cellist and composer Mabe Fratti, Canadian singer and songwriter Myriam Gendron, the avant-garde cosmic sounds of Senegal-via-Sweden Wau Wau Collectif, and the spiritual jazz of Muriel Grossmann Quartet are amongst those confirmed to perform in November. Other exciting additions include The Staples Jr. Singers, a teenage family band from Mississippi whose rare 1975 gospel soul album When Do We Get Paid is being reissued this month by Luaka Bop, and musician OKI who is heavily informed by the music of Japan’s northernmost indigenous people.

Amidst the first thrilling names added to Le Guess Who?’s line-up is South African drummer and visionary musician Asher Gamedze and English actress and musician Keeley Forsyth with her powerful an otherworldly baritone voice. Gamedze’s Dialectic Soul and Forsyth’s Debris were both included in our Album Picks of 2020.

There’s a lot more on offer for this year’s edition of Utrecht’s Le Guess Who? and many more artists will be added to this daring and stellar line-up in the coming months. In the meantime, visit leguesswho.com for further information and programme announced so far.

The absolute musical treasure that will be Le Guess Who? 2022 takes place from 10 -13th November in several venues throughout picturesque Utrecht and 4-Day Festival Passes and Day Tickets are available now on leguesswho.com. Save the date and grab your tickets now.