There’s less than two weeks 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.
Yonatan Gat
Performing Thursday 8th November at TivoliVredenburg, with The Eastern Medicine Singers
Yonatan Gat has been stirring it up for a long time, first as the founder and one half of cult riotous band Monotonix, and in recent years as a solo artist, keeping the same ferocious energy. A wildly inventive and prolific guitar virtuoso, his compositions combine an improvised free jazz approach and influences from all over the place. Gat is heading to Le Guess Who? with Native American powwow drum group The Eastern Medicine Singers, bringing his recent second album Universalists to audiences at the festival. We’ve asked him what other bands he is looking forward to and as it was no easy task, Gat picked only bands that he played with recently. Find out his recommendations below, with a few words from him.
Senyawa
Performing Thursday 8th November at TivoliVredenburg
“I improvised with Rully, along with Arrington De Dionsyo and Brian Chase once in Brooklyn. It was deep. Rully and Arrington were summoning the demons. An audience member put a strange, terrifying mask over his head and started dancing with it in the front row, I was hallucinating from the music, close to terrified, but one can never gets truly scared when you’re performing, every emotion just becomes a positive experience and a part of the music. I never felt that way until I heard Rully sing.”
Sons of Kemet
Performing Saturday 10th November at TivoliVredenburg, curated by Shabaka Hutchings
“I just played with them in LA two weeks ago. They are versatile. they were making everyone dance, and then everyone were standing watching, then dancing again.I remember the show ended very sweetly with a pindrop, lengthy, tender saxophone solo.”
Hailu Mergia
Performing Saturday 10th November at TivoliVredenburg
“we played right before him in a festival in North Carolina in September. The organ sounds like an accordion and the accordion sounds like an organ. At the end of the day it could have only come out of Ethiopian music, and it could only sound like him.”
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.
