Le Guess Who? Treasure Guide 2015 by Le Guess Who?

FREE E M TAKE E HOM

index 2 Info + Index 3 Le Guess Who? Map & Mega Record & CD Fair 4 Jacco Gardner Interview by The Daily Indie 5 Le Guess Who? Treasures by UUT.nl 6 Bo Ningen Interview by Gonzo (circus) & Couchsurfing Interview 7 Annette Peacock Interview by Gonzo (circus) 8 Profiles: Songhoy Blues & Bennie Maupin 9 Le Mini Who? & Le Bazarre

13 Mikal Cronin Interview by The Daily Indie 14 Le Gig Poster? & Profile: Charlemagne Palestine 15 Deradoorian Interview by The Daily Indie 16 Lubomyr Melnyk Interview by The Quietus & Jerusalem In My Heart Interview by Gonzo (circus) 17 Le Guess Who? Treasures by UUT.nl 18 METZ Interview by The Quietus & Profile: Lotic 19 Profiles: Mustafa Özkent & The Notwist 20 Le Guess Who? Treasures by UUT.nl

Photo: Juri Hiensch

Editorial Note

Le Guess Who? has always been more than just a festival. The main purpose is to make it a memorable experience that encompasses the entire city of Utrecht. To achieve this goal, we involve places and parties that mean a great deal to us. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of Utrecht’s hidden gems in our special Le Guess Who? Treasure Guide, highlighting clothing stores, record shops, sandwich bars and much, much more. Returning to the festival will be Le Mini Who? and cult market Le Bazarre, which showcase some the most

Rent a Bike! Since we’re hosting shows in venues all across town, the most convenient and efficient way to get around is by bike. Pick up yours at Laag Catharijne next to Utrecht Central Station, with a 20% discount when showing your Le Guess Who?-wristband.

Venues Le Guess Who? Festival 2015 takes place in the following venues: TivoliVredenburg, De Helling, Janskerk, EKKO, LE:EN, Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh, Theater Kikker, Moira, Stadsschouwburg, ACU, Kargadoor, dB’s, Louis Hartlooper Complex and RASA.

noteworthy names of the burgeoning Dutch music scene. To get the skinny on more exciting expo’s, markets and exclusives, please, read on. Last but not least, we’re extremely thankful for the labour of love Gonzo (circus), The Daily Indie and The Quietus put in this guide, picking the brains of artists set to perform at Le Guess Who? and providing insightful context to the festivities transpiring in the city of Utrecht.

This year, we’re offering a free entrance program, with bands that in our opinion, are not to be missed. That’s why we present them for everyone to see and hear, even if you don’t have a festival pass. Diversity, quality, potential and experiment are key in this program. We’re seeking collaborations with Kicking the Habit (for their anniversary), Terzij de Horde and Subbacultcha. They all deserve more exposure, and is a good way for Le Guess Who? to give something back to the city of Utrecht.

Thursday 19: finally, a composer with a penchant for cataclysmic carillon-playing and stuffed animals. In a nutshell: plenty of things to spark your interest, so keep reading.

Club 3voor12/Utrecht featuring emerging, promising bands from the furtile grounds of Utrecht.

Couchsurfing

– Dutch music website Kicking the Habit celebrates their 5-year Anniversary at Moira with The Black Oak, Hooton Tennis Club, Hop Along and It It Anita. – Dutch black metal band Terzij de Horde will present their debut album ‘Self’ in dB’s with a special program they curated, with like-minded acts Gnaw Their Tongues, Laster and Nefast. – The venues Stadsschouwburg, ACU and Kargadoor will also host a free entrance program on Friday.

Le Guess Who? puts in a strong effort to accommodate international visitors during the course of the festival. To make sure everyone has a place to sleep, we launched the Couchsurfing campaign on Facebook. If you happen to have a spare bed/couch/anything else and feel particularly generous and welcoming, please log on to our Facebook page and let our guests know!

Content

Free Wifi!

Le Guess Who? proudly emphasizes unique, individual voices across the globe, artists that both defy and transcend musical conventions and boundaries. To further illustrate this notion, this guide features interviews with musicians set to perform at Le Guess Who?. Artists whose body of work truly epitomizes what our line-up is all about.

To keep wraps on all the latest Le Guess Who?-news, you can access Free WiFi Utrecht. It’s available at four market squares across downtown: Neude Square, Dom Square (Domplein), Vredenburg Square (right next to TivoliVredenburg), and Korte Minrebroederstraat (behind the City Hall).

The following articles were published beforehand by three music outlets who’ve habitually proved themselves authorities in fringe music culture: Belgian music magazine Gonzo (circus), Dutch platform The Daily Indie and British online pop and rock culture magazine The Quietus. We’re very pleased to have all of them chipping in to make this Treasure Guide possible.

Any questions regarding the festival? Please feel free to send an email to info@leguesswho.com and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

With this year’s edition, we delve into the wonder of piano virtuoso Lubomyr Melnyk’s Continuous Music, a jazz pioneer who was featured on two of the movement’s absolute milestones, Mikal Cronin’s plunge into both orchestration and rock, a boisterous punk outfit, revolutionaries of Berlin’s vibrant electronic music scene, Jacco Gardner’s Cabinet Of Curiosities and,

Free Entrance Program

Friday 20:

Saturday 21: Le Mini Who? will take place in and around de Voorstraat again during the day, mostly featuring upcoming Dutch underground acts such as Canshaker Pi, Tamarin Desert, Iguana Death Cult and The World Of Dust.

Sunday 22: Le Mini Who? moves to a new playground at the Ooster& Westerkade in the afternoon. No loud bands, but live electronics and beautiful stories, told in words and soundscapes. With Bowrain, Von Nohrfeldt, Paul Hoek and more. We’re also very happy to say that we’ve added a free entrance film program to Le Guess Who? this year, in cooperation with Louis Hartloper Complex. Films include They Will Have To Kill Us First, about Malinese band Songhoy Blues (also performing at le Guess Who?), about the fight for their right to sing after Islamic extremists have banned music in Mali. The film program also involves documentaries linked to legendary drone outfit Sunn O))), who have curated a very special four-day program at the festival.

Questions

Colofon Cover Design: Marissa Nadler Design: Loudmouth Editors: Barry Spooren, June ten Have, Dennis Denissen, Jasper Willems, Johan Gijsen & Jessica Clark Interviews: Gonzo (circus); The Daily Indie; The Quietus Treasures: UUT.nl Map illustration: Nikki Smits More info at leguesswho.com

Photo: Juri Hiensch

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 3

44th MEGA RECORD & CD FAIR The place to be for music fans, crate diggers, deejays and vinyl lovers

On Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd of November, the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht will host the Mega Record & CD Fair. Being the world’s biggest record fair, this is an event that in the past 23 years has enjoyed international acclaim and made its name as the place to be for music fans, crate diggers, deejays and vinyl lovers. With approximately 550 dealers from all over the world, the fair offers the greatest choice of vinyl, cd’s and pop memorabilia, and the crate diggers heaven also offers posters, vintage t-shirts, movies, magazines, autographed items and memorabilia - all music related. Additionally, you can wander through exhibitions, meet and greet live acts, attend book signings, join the pop quiz and visit presentations. So don’t be surprised if you bump into artists searching for their own original productions. At this edition of Europe’s biggest record and CD fair you will also find a sixties/seventies Detroit

exhibition showing original artwork from the beginning of the careers of Iggy Pop & the Stooges and MC5. Both bands have had an immense impact on artists originating after them, as is the case with a part of our Le Guess Who? program, with artists like A Place To Bury Strangers, METZ, Viet Cong, Total Control, and many more. Special guest for the record fair’s exhibit is former manager of MC5 John Sinclair.

Detroit Garage Rock exhibit (USA) with special guest John Sinclair Some 50 years ago Detroit was not only the base of soul music (Tamla Motown) but also the birth place of garage rock. In the mid-sixties motor town Detroit saw the first performances by bands like Iggy Pop & the Stooges and MC5. One of the key figures at the time was MC5’s manager John Sinclair. Arrested in 1969 by an undercover policewoman for the possession of 2 joints and sentenced for up to 10

years he started unwillingly a rally to decriminalise smoking marihuana. The John Sinclair Freedom Rally from 1971 was picked up by many artists like Stevie Wonder and Alan Ginsberg. John Lennon wrote a song called John Sinclair (“They gave him ten for two – what else can the bastards do?”) which he performed together with Yoko Ono on television and at the rally. The exhibition shows the important role of John Sinclair`s involvement with the political movements, imprisonment and the various freedom concerts that were important in the lead up to his release from prison.

Popquiz, book presentations, pop music auction, special guests & other activities The Popquiz with lots of free prizes is presented by the Three Imaginary Boys on Sunday. Anybody can join: young and old.

Arjen Lucassen will autograph on Saturday his latest vinyl release “Guilt Machine”. Live performances by Yorick van Norden (former frontman of the Hype) and singer/songwriter Max Meser. Vinyl Art expo’s by Henk Zielman and visual artist Pet van de Luijtgaarden. Pseudonym records will launch their latest releases together with autograph sessions & live performances by many bands like Group 1850, Burning Plague, Cuby & the Blizzards, Les Baroques and a Dutch Punk special named I Don’t Care featuring the No Fun and Plurex singles. On Saturday the fair will host an auction of pop memorabilia compiled by Omega Auctions (UK). Hans Pokora launches exclusively his latest book of the series Record Collector Dreams (7001).

For dealers’ lists, images and more information, visit www.recordplanet.nl.

Jacco Gardner LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 4

opens his Cabinet of Curiosities at Le Guess Who?

Interview: Ricardo Jupijn

Jacco Gardner released his first singles in Spain and America and international magazines like Shindig! had already been writing about him before anyone in Holland ever heard of him. When I first did, in the summer of 2012, I was surprised to find out he was Dutch. Gardner’s musical talent is indispensable. His song Clear The Air caught me the very first seconds I heard it. This guy was something different. Something very peculiar and completely out of this world.

I had always thought he could make it, that his music would be appreciated in Europe, in the UK and in the US. But that it would turn out so extremely well… I had not thought that I had to look on his website to see whether he was in the country. He was playing large festivals, got a European Breaking Border Award out of the hands of Jools Holland and regularly made his appearances on radio and TV. When Gardner was working on his second album I accidentally met him backstage at Paradiso, where he was hanging out with

night in Pandora at TivoliVredenburg, where he will be sharing the stage with six bands who inspire the Dutch musician. It is going to be something really special, with Os Mutantes being his biggest catch. The Brazilian psych rockers have been recording music since the sixties and inspired tons of musicians, including Beck, David Byrne and Kurt Cobain. And what about the Swedish Dungen, the band who had a major influence on the style of Kevin Parker from Tame Impala and who have just released a new album called ‘Alles Sak’. The fun

As an editor in chief of a music magazine, I listen to thousands of bands every year. Probably two or three times in a year, a band blows me away completely the very first time I hear them. With Gardner, I had that feeling within four seconds. I was so ridiculously hooked from the start of the drums, the melody and the instruments. I just couldn’t stop listening to the few singles he released around that time in 2012. It was pure magic. Like looking at an old and intriguing black and white photo of which you know nothing about, but which triggers your entire conscience and strikes your imagination. The sound, the lyrics, the feeling that the recordings evoked: it was so different from anything I use to hear around then. It took me to another world, where I floated through all kinds of surrealistic universes. Pleasant, mysterious and wonderful ones, full of love and joy. It overwhelmed me every time I heard it and it still does.

What did you have in mind when you first thought about this evening? ‘I wanted to show various sides of the music that I like, the line-up is pretty diverse. All the bands have a psychedelic touch in common, are very melody based and have a focus on making magnificent arrangements. I think it’s going to work out really well.’ How did this bill come together? ‘Well, it was a matter of selecting bands that I liked and of course seeing who’s available. Dungen was the first band I thought of. I listened to their records far before I ever put out an album. I love their jazzy way of making psychedelic music. They just released a new album, so that makes it really perfect to have them on this night.’ What was your criteria for selecting bands? ‘There were several reasons for picking a certain band. I’ve been listening to some of these artists for a long time, but never saw them play live. And others, such as Michael Rault, I discovered him when we were on tour in America. He has very good songs and his records are somewhat Stonesy and Beatlesque. But I was especially impressed by his live show and his band and I figured that it would be cool if he could play as well! He’s going to give the night some glam, some Marc Bolan.’

Shadow Shoppe Studio

How did you get Nick Garrie to play in Holland after such a long time? ‘I saw him play in Norway on the same festival as I was playing. He saw my show and afterwards he said to me: ‘yeah, you really listened to my music, haven’t you?!’ But I was like: ‘Uuhm, maybe. I don’t know... What kind of music do you make?’ So he started a story about his music, the album he released in 1969 and it really sounded like something that I would have to like! And it turned out I really did. Later, when we were doing a show in New York, I ran into him again and it seemed like a really good idea to bring him to the festival!’

Times have changed since I last visited the multiinstrumentalist in his studio in the little town of Zwaag in 2012. Last time, we were doing an article for our magazine which was called ‘the record cabinet of…’. In an industrial park looking out over a hardware store and between all sorts of instruments, recording material and a big mixing desk (which was custom made for The Cats sometime), we dug through his favourite records. We discussed artworks, inspiration, the magic of a vinyl record and he told me beautiful stories about Syd Barrett and a Leonard Cohen record. We listened to great – but terribly mastered - old Dutch beat and psych bands from The Hague and Rotterdam and he shared his love for his favourite record ‘Odessey and Oracle’ from The Zombies. While he was making coffee for the photographer and me in his tiny kitchen, he also confided me with a few little secrets. He was going to release his record on Excelsior Recordings, found a good manager, he was working with Dutch sound genius Jan Audier (Q65 a.o.), was going to do some shows in the UK and he told us that his music would be released worldwide via Trouble In Mind. I listened to his enthusiasm all afternoon and when I left and shook hands with this admirable and modest guy, I had a very good feeling about him when I stepped in my car. A few months after, I saw him again at Le Guess Who?, where he was playing. I met him in the long, white and arcuate entrance hall at Tivoli Oudegracht. With his fabric jacket, black hat and that wicked little smile that he always wears, he briefly told me what’s going on. A number of big international websites had just picked him up after the word about his album was out. While the album was released in the beginning of 2013, and while every big and small blog and magazine in the world were writing about his music, I saw him again in the small and beat up Utrecht venue dB’s. In the backstage/ toilet, with a smile from ear to ear, he told me he was doing very well and that he was going to do a tour in the States. Exciting times were ahead, it was finally going to happen!

think about it for a little while if I could pull it off. Because it’s very special to organise a night like this and you want to do it right. The team at Le Guess Who? have helped me out with everything, that was really cool.’

What do you like about his music? ‘Well, I really like him just playing a guitar, because he has brilliant melodies. But I especially like him when he’s playing with a band, because I really dig the arrangements. The music gets groovier and that gives it more strength. Of course, our instruments are already in the house. So, if it’s possible, maybe we can do something special there...’

Photo: Nick Helderman Eerie Wanda. We had a chat over some beers and he blew my mind with a fresh set of fascinating secrets. He told me he was going to release his new album on Polyvinyl and how they were making plans to tour the east and west coast of the States and do another big European tour.

gets even bigger with Michael Rault (Burger Records), the enigmatic and obscure Swedes from Death and Vanilla and the enchanting Eerie Wanda from our own little country. Last but not least: the legendary Nick Garrie, who hasn’t played in Holland since 1969. Talking about a line-up!

Cabinet of Curiosities

Who came up with this idea and how did this night come together? ‘Le Guess Who? actually contacted me for this night. They asked me if I would like to this and I was very enthusiastic right away. I have to say that I was very busy at the moment and I was on tour as well, so I had to

Now it’s 2015 and Gardner released his second album ‘Hypnophobia’. He has been touring for months, but he will be back with his band for a very special night at Le Guess Who? in November. Here he’ll be hosting ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ (after his debut), a showcase

Sounds interesting! About Os Mutantes, what do they mean for you? ‘In particular, I love their melodies and their lyrics. But above all, I appreciate them because they are such an innovative band, they were making music on a completely different and new level. I like everything about them, it’s such a legendary band.’ Now that I think about it, this night is pretty much the same as the interview we once had about the records that you love. Only now you don’t tell about them, but you’re putting them on a stage! ‘Exactly! For me it’s cool that I have been able to put together a line up that I can enjoy myself. It’s great to say: here are the bands that I like, enjoy them!’ Jacco Gardner presents: Cabinet of Curiosities will take place on Sunday, November 22 at TivoliVredenburg’s Pandora.

treasures BY UUT.NL

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 5

De Koekfabriek (by Kitty Beem)

www.dekoekfabriek.com / Slachtstraat 2, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Buy your cookie and get a coffee! Spread the cookielove in ‘De Koekfabriek’; a tiny coffee bar situated close to the Neude. At De Koekfabriek it’s all about the cookies. These are hand-baked by mentally challenged bakers. In return, they receive a bakery education and a great place to work. Walk in for a unique coffee experience, pick one of their delicious cookies and receive a coffee for ‘free’. The coffee is served by the best barista’s in town with a social mission in mind. Besides cookies and coffees you can also find fair trade products like lemonades, juices and (chocolate) pies.

Get out of the city (by Yoram van Hees)

Gys (by Anna Schouten)

www.gysutrecht.nl / Voorstraat 77 and Amsterdamse straatweg 113, Open seven days a week

Bikes! You can use one to get from one festival location to the next but it is also the best way to get around in the city or to escape all of its hustle and bustle. Option 1: From festival location Ekko, follow the river to the north for 5 kilometers and you will end up in the village of Oud Zuylen, with its small picturesque medieval castle and a small terrace by the water. Option 2: Follow the Vleutenseweg in the direction of (festival location) dB’s, but keep going straight and cross the yellow bridge. Then follow the signs for Castle De Haar/ Haarzuilens and you will find one of the most beautiful castles in the Netherlands. Option 3: Go east. Through the city. Follow the signs ‘Amelisweerd’/’Rhijnauwen’ or ask a local. Everybody knows how to get there for a walk in the forest. Or pancakes. Or both. Happy cycling!

Rabarber (by Kiki Mossink)

www.rabarber-utrecht.nl / Zadelstraat 20, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Photo: Anna Schouten

Pauline and Else are the owners of the lovely ‘petit cafe’ Rabarber (also known as the vegetable: rhubarb). They just opened their venue and the place looks great. A small terrace before you walk in, and inside there is a window table or on a barstool. The best part of it all is the menu: breakfast all day! From French toast to granola to shakshuka (eggs with tomato served in a pan). In the afternoon you can enjoy local beers and ‘bitterballen’ or a cup of coffee/tea with delicious homemade pie.

Le Clochard (by Kiki Mossink)

www.leclochard-utrecht.nl / Ridderhofstad 22, Open seven days a week

Oh, how I love this place… From the moment you enter the street where the bistro is located, you feel a pleasant atmosphere. Just wait until you enter the bistro! It looks as if the interior never changed in the last 40 years, which – according to me – makes the place even more beautiful and interesting. They have a fireplace where you can sit around with a glass of wine or special beer and wait for a table. The menu consist dishes of the French cuisine: cheese fondue, frog legs, escargots… But they are also famous for their chicken satay, steak and spareribs! Make sure you go there!

Photo: Arjan Post

Photo: Anniek Visser

www.kunsteneerlijkekoffie.nl / Twijnstraat 23, Open seven days a week

If you are a big fan of biologic and fresh food, KEEK Kunst En Eerlijke Koffie is the place you should visit for a delicious breakfast or lunch (address: Twijnstraat 23). When walking around in Utrecht you cannot miss this restaurant, since the exterior walls are painted yellow. On the inside, KEEK is a bright and open place, whereby the kitchen is placed in the middle – you can actually walk through it. Everything you can eat at this cute restaurant is made by KEEK itself and is freshly prepared everyday. KEEK keeps up with ‘grandmas way of cooking’: no hassle, but using only important and simple ingredients. Recommendation: the cheese scone, which comes with different toppings. In the mood for sweet treats? KEEK also sells yummy cakes and cookies – they do great as a ‘dessert’ after your lunch. Take-away is also an option.

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Beers & Barrels (by Anna Schouten)

www.beersbarrels.nl / Oudegracht aan de Werf 125, Open seven days a week

Mariaplaats 44, Open seven days a week

When I first discovered this place, the small eatery wasn’t too full of guests. Nowadays more people found this spot which serves lovely Italian-orientated food. While you wait for your order, the staff does her magic in the tiny kitchen. It all happens right in front of your eyes. You can choose from the nicest Italian meals: sandwiches with ‘Caprese’ or pastrami, antipasti plates to share with friends, or try the tastiest pasta aglio e olio you ever had. Finish your lunch with a cappuccino or espresso.

De Ontdekking (by Kiki Mossink)

www.deontdekkingutrecht.nl / Voorstraat 110, Open seven day a week, from 8.00 (weekdays) or 9.00 (weekends) in the morning

No breakfast at home or in need for a place to meet up? De Ontdekking has it all. Take a cup of coffee while you get your work done or go with a friend and order – what they call – a ‘high-breakfast’. This contains a canterbury filled with bread, jams, smoked salmon, ham and cream cheese. For an additional charge you can also get some scrambled eggs to go with it. What to drink? You get fresh orange juice and coffee or tea with the breakfast, but they also serve really good smoothies and special teas (hot chai latte or cold ice tea). This is all homemade by the staff. Oh and wait… don’t forget that there is pie! Carrot cake, cheesecake, pear-almond pie or scones with jam and clotted cream… Also all homemade. I can’t wait to go there again!

Kimmade (by Kiki Mossink)

www.kimmade.nl / Mariastraat 2, Open seven days a week

I think this is one of Utrecht’s smallest restaurants. They only have twelve seats inside and two tables outside. But if you like authentic Vietnamese street food, you should definitely go there for take-away or wait for a seat. You can place your order at the counter or the staff will with rice or noodles, spring rolls and soups. The menu suits everyone! It will take no longer than ten to fifteen minutes before the dish arrives at your table and you can enjoy the exciting flavors. The meal will take you straight to Vietnam in your mind, while you are still in the center of Utrecht. Even if it’s late in the evening, they serve Chicken Lemongrass, Beef Satay or crispy Vietnamese pancakes with the same smile as the rest of the day.

Gys was established barely a year ago, and within that time a second restaurant already opened. You can find Gys at Voorstraat 77 and Amsterdamsestraatweg 113 (the second location is out of the city centre, where it forms an eye-opener between the many döner kebab houses). Gys is such a popular place because it is hard to find a biologic and at the same time cheap restaurant. Everything on the menu will cost you €10 or less – also the dinner meals. Gys combines the use of biological and regional products with the possibility of eating an extraordinarily vegetarian or vegan meal. Next to that, the interior offers you something pretty to look at: dip-dyed chairs and walls, lamps with plants and moss inside of them, and many wooden details. Green seems to be the favourite colour of Gys’s owner, which gives the restaurant a fresh and clean look.

KEEK (by Anna Schouten)

Caffé P (by Kiki Mossink)

Photo: Fleur Joesten

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Photo: Fleur Joesten

Photo: Arjan Post

We all know that burger restaurants are popping up in a great amount in cool cities. Well, heck yes to that! Beers & Barrels opened its doors in 2015 and is located at Oudegracht aan de Werf 125. Its location is already worth a visit: one of the beautiful dark wharfs in the middle of the city centre. The industrial interior with metal and dark wooden elements makes this a sturdy looking place. Try their delicious burgers or go for a steak, salad, or surf & turf meal. Besides that, the name already tells that beer forms an important part of the restaurant. Not only does the restaurant offer ten different tap beers, but it also shares a big love for bottled beers and gives you the possibility to add a tap to your table (imagine how awesome that would be when you are having a party at their place).

Het Kaufhaus (by Anna Schouten)

www.hetkaufhaus.nl / Achter Clarenburg 32, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Once you arrive at Utrecht Central railway station, you can start shopping right away. Second-hand store Kaufhaus (which is the German word for ‘department store’) is located at the beginning of the city centre: Achter Clarenburg 32 (address). It is a lot better and more unique than the popular, commercial stores in Hoog Catharijne shopping area. There are tons of good things about Kaufhaus: the music they play and the fact that you can buy everything that you see in there. The store has got a living room vibe: next to the clothing racks, you can relax at the couches and buy yourself a drink. Kaufhaus sells clothing, jewelry, furniture, plants (cacti!), and records – everything is cheap and mostly second-hand.

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 6

BO NINGEN Four Boundless Japanese Artist bio: With their enigmatic stage presence, bizarro rock outfit Bo Ningen (Japanese for ‘Stick People’) elevated Words To The Blind, a conceptual performance piece with Savages, as the crowning moment of last year’s Le Guess Who? festival. Strangely enough, this Japanese foursome met in London a decade ago, operating within the chasms of the city’s musical landscape ever since. With a playful kind of frenzy, Bo Ningen skips base with post-punk, heavy metal, acid rock and experimental noise. Amidst all that perplexing cacophony, the band fleetingly sequesters moments of compelling beauty as well. In the spring of 2014, London based, Japanese quartet Bo Ningen released their third studio album carrying the minimalistic title ‘III’. This month, they will be performing at Le Guess Who? Festival as part of a program hosted by Levitation (formerly Austin Psych Fest).

Interview: Maarten Timmermans / Artist bio: Jasper Willems / Translation: June ten Have, Jessica Clark / Interview originally published in Gonzo (circus) #124, 2014

Lunatics from Osaka Bo Ningen’s four band members all originate from different cities in Japan. They met by conindicence in London. Kawabe (bass/vocals): “We travelled to London

for various reasons, during the same year. Individually, we started forming bands during our high school period. You know how these things go, nothing all too serious. I came to London to study at an art academy. Our other guitarist (Kohhei Matsuda) already played in multiple groups. We met in 2007 at an evening focussed on Japanese bands and we started to jam together, basically. Bo Ningen’s music is hard to describe. It is located somehwere in the wastelands between psychedelica, krautrock, noise, and inventive metal. The Japanse underground scene is very separated, according to Yuki Tsujii (guitar): “Japan can not be compared to the Western music industry. Sometimes, a specific scene gets loads of attention, but it can fade away even faster just as easily. This way, most bands stay underground. There are a lot of Japanese artists we only got familiar with after moving to England”. As a result, the musical scene back home can be considered very divided; there are lots of small venues that strictly focus on a specific genre. This gives fans the opportunity to dig very deep into the scene(s) of their choice. “Every club has its own theme”, Kawabe says. “Tokyo and Osaka have tons of small venues. The promoters tend to book acts within the same style. As an outsider, it can be very difficult to find a good place to hang out. Even between those two cities, there are

mayor differences. They tend to look like different countries sometimes. This started in the sixties, because of the cultural differences. Tokyo has always been more influenced by America and Europe”. Although the band members feel the gap is narrowing bit by bit, they confirm Osaka is the place to be if you are into music that’s a little more extreme. “People from Osaka have always been a bit crazier. Not me though, I’m as ordinary as they come (laughs). People who live in Osaka, are born and raised there most of the time, while the Tokyo residents come from all over Japan. That explains the various influences in the music scene.”

No limitations Bo Ningen played a show in Brussels during a psychedelic mini festival. Pushing the band in that direction would be restricting them too much, though. You can also hear influences from metal, krautrock, noise and even acid punk. On their albums, as well as live, the music is characterized by this stimulating energy. On the last LP, ‘III’, we discover that there is another side of the band we haven’t heard before. The song ‘Mukaeni Ikenai’ almost sounds ambient, being the result of a long jamsession. “We already had a couple ideas that were going in this direction stemming from previous albums. For some reason, they remained untouched though. This time, we were all very tired and all of a sudden we wrote this track. There is no better explaination. It just happened.” These jam sessions are the main origin of tracks that end up on the band’s albums. If you listen to the LPs carefully, you’ll notice that the band is getting better at translating the intense, energetic liveshows to the sound of their records. “The first albums were recorded in a very short amount of time. We had more time to spend while working on this album, and we were more aware of the possibilities the studio had to offer. The production

ended up more precise. We had a much better idea of how we wanted the instruments to sound, how we wanted the mix to sound, et cetera. In the beginning, we did not really know what we were doing. This time we tried to capture the essense of our live performances.” During those performances, the band usually wears very eccentric outfits. “It’s not something we do because we are fashion addicts, we just believe in being ourselves on stage. To us, our outfits are part of this. There is no specific train of thought behind what we wear. Other bands may think carefulle about what they are going to wear at their next gig, but this is just us showing who we are. Our bodies respond to the music that we are making. We don’t want to be limited when we are out there. We are all about breaking boundaries.” Also typical for Bo Ningen’s sound are the vocal ranges of Kawabe, variating from screaming to singing the highest notes, almost always in Japanese. On the most recent album, there is one song in english, ‘CC’. “In my previous bands, I was the bass player, never the singer”, he tells us. When I joined this band, I got to play a new part, and was giving the opportunity to experiment with my voice. I practice my vocals during our jams. What I sing has to fit within the style of the song. Sometimes it’s quite the search. Our lyrics are mostly indirect. We don’t say “I love you”, and there are no politics or philosophies. Since we started as Bo Ningen, there is one main theme that keeps finding its way back: I try to connect past, present and future lyrically. Although it remains to be really abstract. Even my Japanese friends don’t always seem to understand.”

Bo Ningen will play Le Guess Who? 2015 as part of Levitation presents on Saturday November 21, at TivoliVredenburg’s Pandora.

Couchsurfing a unique way to meet likeminded music fans

During Le Guess Who? festival, more than 150 artists will be performing in Utrecht. This means hotels in Utrecht will be fully booked during the festival weekend. In 2014, almost 40 percent of the visitors who stayed the entire festival came from abroad. That’s why the festival also wants to connect people via our couchsurfing initiative, as a way to host all the visitors at residents’ homes; basically, everyone who has a bed or couch to spare. But who are these generous souls?

Interview: Dennis Denissen Who are you and what do you do? We are Nikki and Marcel and we are on CouchSurfing since 2011. We often have people (bands, volunteers of festivals, tourists) sleeping at our living room and we love traveling this way too. We’ve been CouchSurfing cities like New York, Jerusalem and Dublin and we’ve met a lot of cool people by doing so.

What were your guests like during previous edition(s) of Le Guess Who? On CouchSurfing it’s standard that you bring a small gift for your hosts. We for instance often bring stroopwafels when we go traveling and our Belgian guests brought us a lot of great beers and wonderful chocolate, one of them worked for a fair trade chocolate brand. How did they end up at your place? It was in 2013 and we had a message through Couch Surfing a few days before the festival from two guys from Belgium. We’ve got a lot of info about festivals and music on our profiles, so they guessed that we would go to the festival too. It’s always nice when you’ve got some shared interests when people are CouchSurfing at your home! Can you describe your experience of having them over, can you tell us something about that? They only had a ticket for the Friday evening, but they

stayed for Le Mini Who? too on the Saturday and we had a great time. We did a small pub crawl too and they fell in love with the city of Utrecht. Which memory did you find most special thinking back of that weekend? They had the idea to leave in the morning on Saturday. But when we told them about Le Mini Who? they were very enthusiastic about the concept. They stayed one day longer than intended and we had a lot of beers together, shared some good stories and they fell in love with Broodje Ploff. Would you do it again or recommend it to other people in Utrecht? No doubt! We love CouchSurfing and showing all the great things that Utrecht has to offer. We for instance also went to the festival Live Build in Utrecht with a guest from Norway and to the Utrecht English Comedy Night at Hofman Café with a CouchSurfer from Israel.

Are you also feeling generous today? Then please feel free to find your way to our website or Facebook, and find your sleep-over buddy there! It should be an amazing way to meet new, music-loving friends from all over the world.

Annette Peacock LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 7

Artist bio: Annette Peacock’s wondrous, immersive trailblaze across recorded music’s rich history has marveled the likes of David Bowie, Brian Eno and one-time collaborator Salvador Dalí. Peacock once jokingly told The Quietus she has been fighting her way back to reality ever since taking LSD at Timothy Leary’s Millbrook estate in the early 1960s. Her plunge into otherworldly sonic wellsprings made her one of the first artists to synthesize her own vocals, pioneering the realms of minimalism, free jazz, rap, classical music and psychedelic funk along the way. After Robert Moog gifted Peacock one of his elusive prototypesynthesizers, she started implementing the makeshift device into her already individualistic, free-form lingo of songwriting and composing. To hear music skip so radically across exotic new touchstones, who needs reality, right? Timing and an unwillingness to compromise are key terms for Annette Peacock. After the recent rerelease of her debut album, Revenge, she will be releasing new material this autumn for the first time in fifteen years – hopefully in time for Le Guess Who? festival, where she will be performing as part of the Sunn O)))-curated program.

Author: René van Peer / Artist bio: Jasper Willems / Translation: June ten Have, René van Peer, Jessica Clark / Interview originally published in Gonzo (circus) #129, 2015 There has been silence around Annette Peacock for quite some time. While a few of the albums made by this remarkable singer-songwriter and Moog-pioneer have been rereleased, her last ‘new’ songs come from 2000. Interviews with her usually focus on her pioneering record I’m The One, which originates from 1972; it is here that Peacock goes to extremes of expression in her singing, feeding her voice through the circuitry of an early Moog. “Everybody kept telling me that could not be done,” she says, in a triumphant tone, still relishing the fact that she pulled off something which was considered impossible; but also that she managed to forge a trail blazing position in an industry that’s still dominated by men. She does find it regrettable that people keep focusing on that early period. “I can understand it though,” she sighs. “There have been long gaps in between albums. It has been fifteen years since An Acrobat’s Heart was released at ECM, and before that I went on a 12 year hiatus. After I’m the One, it took

“I hope the timing is finally right.”

six years for X-Dreams to be completed. Musicians who aspire to a career will release something each year; that’s not the way I work. I only start a new project when I have something important to say, when I want to solve a musical issue or when I want to enter uncharted stylistic and musical terrain.”

“Another reason why there was so much time in between releases is that people and the cultural climate in general could not follow what I was working on at the time. The market and the cultural tendencies evolve slower than individuals who do not want to conform to genres that are popular at a specific moment. Why would I want to record new material if people will not grasp it? I can wait until the time is right, and the market and I are on the same level. Yet it is incredibly depressing to have to wait 20 to 40 years for people to start to value my work. I’m enthusiastic about each of my records after I have finished it, and it’s disappointing to meet with such a lack of response. If possible I want to avoid that feeling. The consequence is that people will mainly look at what I have done in the past.”

“I want to get up with the feeling there’s something new to discover” IMPRESSIVE SPECTRUM It is not only Peacock’s albums that are quite rare; the same can be said for performances, which makes it even more special that she will be performing at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands, by invitation of Sunn O))), and that it will be paired with the release of a new album. She is high-spirited about this prospect, but a little insecure at the same time. “I use the recording studio in a way that’s completely new to me, quite reminiscent of what I did back in the sixties with the Moog. I’m no stranger to digital editing, but have only used it to convert my music from analog signals to a digital medium to make it suitable for re-releases on CD. That was very complicated and frustrating, because computers compress the files and make the sound very brittle. It takes a lot of effort to compensate. This time I’m doing everything in a digital environment, which has been a revelation: You have control over every aspect of sound. When you play the piano, the aspects of the tone are related to and limited by the physical makeup of the instrument, but in a digital environment you can build up a sound from scratch. Just like using a synthesizer you decide the entire envelope of a tone, from attack to decay. You can extend the tone for as long as you wish, and colour it in minute detail. All those possibilities become part of the creative process - and, to a certain extent, even serve as its foundation. It’s fantastic! You’re in total control of the sound, and that’s incredibly exciting.”

Science Fictionesque Synthesizer Sounds The influence of Peacock’s investigative way of working on her music is evident on her first two albums, Revenge (re-released last year as I Belong to a World that’s Destroying Itself) and I’m the One. On both albums she displays an impressive range of emotions. She whispers and beguiles; but it is her tempestuous outbreaks that make your hair stand on end. Even without modifications she knows how to move you with her voice. The intensity reaches scorching heights when she squeezes her voice through the circuitry of the Moog--mounting and ever-changing modulation boost her expression to even higher levels of intensity. On I’m the One, her possessed, beyond-human vocals and her uninhibited use of the synthesizer, with its bleeps and bloops and science fictionesque wails, make a wonderful contrast with the unmistakably relaxed and funky accompaniment. I Belong to a World that’s Destroying Itself is significantly more rough around the edges. More free in form. It is evident that she had been moving around in the American jazz-scene for some years when she recorded it. “The sound on I’m the One is balanced and seductive, because I was able to record it in excellent conditions in the RCA studios. Revenge was done at different locations with musicians that happened to be available, during the cheapest hours of the day. We played everything in one take. It was spontaneous; very young, very wild, rough and punky. You can hear the ingenuous self-confidence of youth, but you can also hear that the technicians didn’t have a clue about recording live synthesizers.”

The Moog synthesizer was Peacock’s trademark in those early years, as she was one of the few musicians to play the instrument back then. Together with her husband, jazz pianist Paul Bley, she picked it up directly from the inventor’s workshop. “A music journalist from The New York Times played Walter Carlos’ Switched-on Bach to us during a visit. The Moog had just been invented. It was very exciting: an entirely new instrument! I just had to have one. I was working on some music with extremely low paces during that time. I imagined that if I could control the length of the tones, I could slow down the music even more, to a point where I could enter a world of pure vibrations.” “We visited Robert Moog and convinced him to give us a prototype. There were no manuals; nobody knew how to handle the machine. There were a couple of guys in New York who used the Moog in commercials, but they were being very mysterious about it. They didn’t want to share their knowledge. I figured out my own ways of working with it. I found a way to put my voice through the synthesizer, something everybody kept telling me couldn’t be done. After that, the question arose how we could include the Moog in live shows. I did not want to go on stage. Until then, I wrote the compositions that Paul performed, but I never joined him as a musician. My first idea was to do it from behind a curtain, like a musical Wizard of Oz. Of course Paul declined; he wanted to put this attractive young woman in the spotlights.”

Every moment counts Peacock is quite frank about it: she may be a singer, but performing live is a nail-biting experience for her. “Performing is good for your music. In the end, it’s all about the response of the people you play for. You want to communicate. But I don’t feel at ease on the stage. I have to be totally focused. That’s good, because in that mood I can make every note and every moment count. Each concert feels like I’m doing it for the first time – nervous, but spontaneous as well. I didn’t start out as a band member, I started as a composer. I didn’t have a chance to build confidence as a performing artist. When Paul had talked me into going on stage, I was terrified. I threw up before the show started. I have never done many concerts. When I’m the One was released, RCA wanted me to go on tour with a rock band. I preferred to play with jazz musicians, to keep my work free and improvised.” What that sounded like can be heard on the album Improvisie, credited to Paul Bley but in fact the brainchild of Peacock and percussionist Han Bennink. The recordings, made in Rotterdam in 1971, are two long improvisations in which Peacock and Bennink propel the music with boundless energy and imagination. In one of the pieces, Touching, Peacock weaves her voice through the wild convolutions ripped from the Moog and Bennink’s crushing strokes. “He had such incredible power. When I heard him for the first time, I had this vision of a drummer who also happened to be a butcher. I wanted to work with him, but Paul was taken aback by his energy. ‘He will beat us to a pulp,’ he said. I replied that we had the power of electronics. It was a wonderful experience. He is one of few musicians who know how to play freely within the beat.”

No repetition Annette Peacock is somewhat apprehensive about the reception that her live show and new album. Her performance at Le Guess Who? will be her third gig in five years. “I never know how the audience is going to respond to the music. Even if they know my albums, the music will sound different. I will most definitely play a couple of songs from the new record. I really hope the timing will be right at last. I know it’s exactly what I want it to be. It is going to be a pop album, something that I’ve never done before. It sounds exactly the way I envisaged it, but will the people and the market finally grasp my intentions? I have noticed a growing interest in what I do, so that seems to bode well.” “One of the keys to success, however, is repeating yourself. If you do that, people know what to expect from you, and can buy every next album without first listening to it. I don’t care for that approach. I want to get up every day with the feeling there’s something new to discover. Doing this I effectively thwart my own chances for success. Nobody knows how this album is going to turn out. The only thing I can say is that the music is not experimental. I’ve had lots of fun working on it, but now I can only await its reception.” Annette Peacock will play Le Guess Who? 2015 as part of the program presented by Sunn O))) on Sunday November 22, at TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 8

Songhoy Blues: desert R&B from war-torn Mali Profile: June ten Have Garba Touré, Oumar Touré, Aliou Touré and Nathanael Dembele were living in the northern part of Mali when the country was torn apart by violence and war with the arrival of jihadists. The Ansar Dine movement, otherwise known as the followers of the faith, claimed the environment in 2012. With the introduction of sharia law in the vicinity, music was forbidden. Simply singing a song or listening to music could lead up to corporal punishments such as getting whipped in front of a crowd or even getting your hand or tongue cut off.

The four passionate young men were forced to fled to Bamako, the capital city in the south, and decided to form a band together as a way of protest and being able to offer consolation to other refugees who had to leave everything behind. They named themselves Songhoy Blues and brought back hope with their stimulating desert R&B, inspired by traditional Malinese music, the hiphop and R&B they grew up with, and the more contemporary guitar sounds of hometown heroes like Ali Farka Touré and Baba Salah. The shows in local bars and maquis (typical African pubs) grew more popular every time and were not only visited

by people of Songhoy origin, but from all parts of the country and with various backgrounds. It didn’t take long before the band was discovered by Marc Antoine Moreau’s Africa Express, a concept that offers local musicians the opportunity to record and produce their music together with international renowned artists. Songhoy Blues was linked to Yeah Yeah Yeahs-guitarist Nick Zinner, who soon became a very good friend of the band. Together they recorded the song “Soubour” (Patience), as well as their first full length album: “Exile in Music”, which was released early 2015. This wasn’t the end of Songhoy Blues’ collaborations, as Damon Albarn

(Blur, Gorillaz) also noticed the men’s talent. He invited them to travel to the United Kingdom as his support act. Since then Songhoy Blues have become so popular that they have been to every large city in Western Europe and the United States, and are the focus of the documentary “They Will Have To Kill Us First”, where they share the abrasive story of their native country. Songhoy Blues will play Le Guess Who? 2015 on Sunday, November 22 at RASA. The same day, They Will Have To Kill Us First will be screened for free at Louis Hartlooper Complex.

“It’s like being forbidden to see the woman you love. Music for us is like a woman we love.” – Garba Touré

Bennie Maupin a lifetime of exploring and defining jazz Profile: June ten Have Translation: Dennis Denissen, Barry Spooren He helped define Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters as well as records by Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and Pharaoh Sanders. He plays bass clarinet, tenor- and soprano saxophone, alto flute. At the age of seventy-five, his career is as alive as ever, and he still vibrantly climbs the stage. Meet Bennie Maupin. Born in 1940 in America, Maupin began his musical carreer playing the piano, and kept on adding more and more instruments to a very impressive list of musical masteries. After finishing his studies in the sixties at the Detroit Institute of Musical Art, Maupin decided to move to New York where he joined the R&B quartet The Four Tops and picked up the instrument that would pave the way for international recognition for the rest of his life: the bass clarinet. He discovered New York’s local jazz scene while finding his way in the Big Apple and was asked to join The Marion Brown Quartet for what would be his first appearance on record. Saxophonist Marion Brown’s project would prove to be an ideal entrance to the musical world for Maupin, as opportunities started pooring in. He decided to give it all that he got. In this period he worked with jazz legends like Chick Corea, Pharoah Sanders, Roy Haynes and Horace Silver. One day, Maupin received a phone call from Miles Davis. Right off the bat, Bennie was incredibly enthusiastic to work with him, on what would later become known as Miles Davis’ jazz masterpiece Bitches Brew. Maupin couldn’t play his favourite instrument, the saxophone, though. Davis’ decision to put him on clarinet proved to be a good one, as the memorable melodies he played yielded him worldwide fame.

Not long after, Herbie Hancock also found his way to Bennie Maupin, and offered him a spot in his band to record the album Mwandishi (1970). This wasn’t the only conjunction between the two: Hancock kept gravitating towards Bennie Maupin, and the two would collaborate on many projects to come, including Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Maupin also went on tour with him, and embraced the life as a professional musician to the fullest. Maupin started to produce his own records halfway through the seventies, with The Jewel in the Lotus being the first in 1974. His own oeuvre counts six records, meaning he likes to take his time to get things just right. Being very charitable in sharing his knowledge to following generations, Maupin is also well-known tas a lecturer. No way is he even thinking of giving up playing his instruments. As ever, Bennie Maupin’s life is still fully dedicated to exploring and definining jazz. Bennie Maupin will play Le Guess Who? 2015 as part of Sunn O))) presents on Sunday November 22, at TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal.

FR S AT U R D AY N OVE M B E R 2 1 — V O O R S T R A AT UTRECHT

— 7TH EDITION —

S U N D AY N OVE M B E R 2 2 — OOSTERWESTERKADE UTRECHT

LE MINI WHO? TRIES TO DO WHAT ITS BIGGER BROTHER DOES ON AN INTERNATIONAL SCALE; bringing active, outgoing, inspired and upcoming, local musical scenes together with a likeminded audience. In two afternoons, the city centre transforms into a festival area.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON VOORSTRAAT & SURROUNDINGS Plato — The Village Coffee & Music Klijs & Boon — Café de Voortuin Puha — Kapitaal — Hostel Strowis Revenge — De Bastaard Café Tilt! — Swordfish & Friend ACU — Studio Ayqido Café Het Hart — Sussies — SLA DAK — The Ink Society — Hutspot Kollektive — Le Bazarre

SUNDAY AFTERNOON OOSTER- & WESTERKADE Koffie Leute — Broei Goede Vrijdag — DRUK

VOORSTRAAT & SURROUNDINGS

TRANSMIT MUSIC

insider tip! insider tip! insider tip!

& HUTSPOT

LE MINI WHO? TEAM TIPS

Meet Job Smit, founder and owner of new booking agency Transmit Music. We asked him about the genesis of his music company and the acts he’s hosting at Hutspot (adjacent to the Neude square): "I always had a passion for music. A few years ago I started dj-ing with a friend. We didn’t had a booker so I did everything myself, which I really liked. The past years I met a lot of talented artists who were really passionate about their work, but needed someone to take care of the business stuff and make it happen. That is the reason I started Transmit Music: to help artists with their career and transmit © Melanie Marsman

their music. At the end of last year, I quit my day job

Couleur Café — Rinke: “When you Google

Canshaker Pi — Jacob: “One single song

and started Transmit Music ."

‘Couleur Café’, it will probably take long until you find something that is connected to this Dutch band. Let’s say promotion is not their thing, but music is. Couleur Café = cynical popgaze for angry romantics, an association celebrating female fashion. Or at least that’s how they describe themselves. They’re young (from 1997, holy shit!) and they are dark. A colleague at De Bastaard (the coolest bar in Utrecht, not only because I work there) introduced me to this band and I’m glad he did. The connection was obvious, so we invited them to play at De Bastaard (and their friends from Pure Muna.) Expect nothing fancy. Just great music, all kinds of beer and a pool table.”

was more than enough to know we

melodies with fuzzed out guitars and slacker rhythms they serve noisy garage pop extraordinaire.”

had to have this band at this year’s Le Mini Who? festival. ‘Looking For Love In Ibiza’ could’ve been Pavement’s biggest hit, but it’s not. Stephen Malkus would be proud though. Four white kids from Amsterdam playing some slacker and garage pop songs like there’s nothing to it. Things will change for them in 2016, the only thing they have to do is stay around and go on like this. Canshaker Pi will get wild in

PLATO, Saturday 21st. Do not miss this.

WE WELCOME OUR NEW NEIGHBOURS! One of the main reasons we started organising LE MINI WHO? four years ago was because of the emerging local entrepreneurs in the city centre of

Boner Petit “Combining catchy

Geysers “Analog synths and

drum computers that date back to the 80’s combined with catchy vocals.”

Goodnight Moonlight “A young boy of just 18 years old makes weird pop in his bedroom and sings about plants and the boy he never will be.”

Moon Tapes “Indie/dream pop

from Amsterdam with catchy reverb drenched riffs and vocals.”

BEWARE! SMUTFISH IS COMING TO TOWN!

The genius mind behind Smutfish , the best Americana

act from The Hague, is painter and (song)writer Melle

year. Always very willing to open their doors for some good live music. This

de Boer. The band played SXSW, Into The Great Wide Open and toured with Daniel Johnston. In an optimistic mood we invited Melle to our party and he gladly accepted. It was as easy as that! Now we invite you to his party, but unfortunately there’s no room for everyone

year we’re happy to introduce a couple of new neighbours to our community:

(he’s playing at DAK , one of our most intimate venues).

tattoo shop The Ink Society, antique/vintage store DAK (both at Oudegracht,

That’s why this show is highly exclusive and only for

along the canal), salad bar SLA, shop Hutspot, Kollektive, coffee bar Koffie

those 25 lucky ones who registered on time.

Utrecht. These unique and small venues serve as the perfect framework for blooming musicians. We consider ourselves very lucky this town is full of peculiar spots! Since 2011, new shops, bars and coffee places pop up every

Leute and creative hotspot DRUK . All run by the nicest people and a great taste in music.

21/22 NOVEMBER 201

THE VILLAGE COFFEE & TINY ROOM MUSIC

LIVE ELECTRONICS & SOUND ART TAKING OVER WESTERKADE

LOTRONIC + TIEFSCHNEE HOSTING YOUR PERFECT SUNDAY Lotronic —

Lotronic started as a

Tiefschnee —

Tiefschnee is a se-

small festival in 2014, with quirky (inter)national

ries of adventurous music events organised

electronic acts. Every month now, Lotronic col-

in Utrecht and beyond by three experimental

labs with Koffie Leute for experimental evenings and this time they unite with Le Mini Who? for a special Sunday afternoon edition. Lotronic presents Slovene producer/composer/pianist Tine Grgurevic (when he's on stage you can call him

Bowrain ) and Von Nohrfeldt (off stage name

musicians from The Netherlands. For this Le Mini Who? edition they'll present two very special concerts in the tiny soap manufacture of Werfzeep, located in DRUK (just behind Koffie Leute). Wouter van Veldhoven will perform

Rutger Muller). With roots in jazz Bowrain ap-

a site-specific work using old tape machines.

proaches both electronics and piano in a fresh

His music balances somewhere between dusty,

way combining influences without losing soul

lo-fi experimental electronics, installation art

or feeling. Von Nohrfeldt confronts the mystic

and jangly ambient. Robin Koek will present

and eery side of 20th century classical music

a new work, possibly combining his electron-

with the rhythmic drive of experimental techno,

ics with a live instrumentalist. Koek's works

glitch and IDM. The intricate acoustic details of classical and avant-garde instrumentation are intertwined with digitally generated drones, rhythms and effects.

explore states wherein acoustic, digital and analog signals intertwine and form in to one body of sound. Currently his focus is on compositions that explore the spatial potential of

We’re hooking up with Tiny Room Records again, because they love helping underground and awesome acts just as we do. Most of Tiny Room’s roster already played Le Mini Who? before (like Sven Agaath and This Leo Sunrise last year), but these two gems are awaiting their debut on our playground. The World Of Dust (was on our wish list for more than a year, so we’re pretty damn pleased) and Howart, highly recommendable for fans of psychedelica (experimental but yet moving, ambient soundscapes with poppy melodies). Enter the coffee empire of The Village and immerse yourselves into the world of Tiny Room!

sound. These works immerse the audience and construct a new reality.

RIES DE VUYST + HIS GUITAR = 100 T he legendary Ries de Vuyst is a master blues guitarist and good pal of Broeder Dieleman . He comes from the windy shores of Zeeland, Holland’s very own Brittany, where old traditions are still very much alive. This year, Ries de Vuyst celebrates a centennial: he was born 60 years ago and started playing his left-handed Höfner guitar 40 years ago. Together, that makes a hundred. He gave himself and the rest of the world the perfect birthday present: a new album titled ‘Oondert’, which means ‘Hundred’. Beautiful and true songs in local Zealandic dialect.

— LE BAZARRE —

LE BAZARRE SETS UP CAMP ON THE NEUDE SQUARE Thanks to Le Guess Who?, in two years time our Le Bazarre could evolve into a renowned and always packed market to hunt for the best vintage, vinyl and design pieces. November 21st will be the third time Le Bazarre sets up camp on the Neude square. Wind your way through the stalls, find out what drives our local community and grab some food at one of the mobile kitchens onsite. Entrance to the market is also free.

LINE UP & TIME SCHEDULE AVAILABLE AT ALL LE MINI WHO? LOCATIONS OR VIA FACEBOOK.COM /LEMINIWHO COLOFON Le Mini Who? Rinke Vreeke Jacob Hagelaars

Design Jimme Bakker Lyanne Tonk

MIKAL CRONIN

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 13

With the addition of strings, a wind ensemble and a suite with seven parts, III seems a lot more dramatic than your previous records. Can you explain this ‘dramatic’ transition? Mikal Cronin: ‘Dramatic is an interesting word. I just got more and more interested in adding non traditional instruments into a rock ‘n roll song. Just trying to find where it could work was really fun and interesting. It really changes your view! Suddenly you can have a song with just strings and your voice. It was really important to me that it became really dynamic. That’s what I aimed for, because that’s basically what I like in a record. It should be dynamic, it should go up and down, the songs should really be different and have their own timbres. When I started writing the songs I would hear the sounds of different instruments in my head. There were times when I would just replace horn sections with an organ or a guitar part, but this time I wanted to go with my instinct and just record a French horn. It just keeps it really interesting to me to find new sounds to play with and incorporate. Make it sound interesting and striking.’

Could you elaborate on your writing process? ‘I usually find the basic chord progression and melody, then I’ll leave and do whatever a person normally does. The song will keep looping in my head, like an annoying pop song that you can’t get out of your head. I’ll build it up from scratch in my head and think stuff like: oh this should open with strings with this melody. It’s kind of like this obsessive thought.’

We find Mikal Cronin in a luxurious hotel next to the Vondelpark. His signature long manes are cut off; a strange sight for the people who know him as a dirty garage rocker. He looks mature, which is quite a contrast to his last appearance with Ty Segall in Paradiso. We talk to him about his new album and his self-proclaimed ‘coming of age story’ on an uncomfortable designer chair.

Did you approach recording differently because of the bigger arrangements? ‘I had to be more careful, because we still worked on a tape machine. I had a 24 track 2-inch tape machine instead of a 16 track machine this time, so that was nice. You definitely have to be careful because you can fill those tracks pretty easily. I try to arrange everything and have everything to go, so I’m not wasting somebody else’s time in the studio. I just use garageband, because I’m used to it and it works good for me. I’ve made demos for fun on a tape machine, but it’s just easier to have unlimited tracks.’ I read that your mom plays a lot of classical music and you’ve played saxophone since you’ve been ten. That’s quite a different upbringing than most rock musicians. What kind of influence does that have on you musically? ‘It basically meant that there was always music around the house. Music has always felt natural to me. When I picked up the saxophone it was just terrible little kids songs. Through high school I played in jazz bands, wind ensembles, marching

bands, stuff like that. But yeah, I didn’t start playing guitar till I was eighteen-nineteen years old. I didn’t even write songs then. During high school I started playing saxophone in this dance-punk band, which was my first introduction into playing in a rock ‘n roll band. After a while I started playing guitar, which took me ages before I could play comfortably!’ MCII was thematically about contradictions. On MCIII the first thing I noticed on the track list was the abundance of titles that reference a guy in control of his life. Can you tell me about the theme of MCIII? ‘The record has two themes. The A-side covers ‘normal’ themes like the struggles of growing older, dealing with emotional problems and relationship things and all that. I was also thinking a lot about the idea of being present as a person inverse escapism through anything. Music, books, movies, the internet, drugs, whatever. It’s just so easy to be distracted from yourself, your mind and your inner dialogue nowadays.

Dealing with issues you should be dealing with, but instead you sit down and watch a television show while you put yourself in this different world where you don’t have to experience anything. I found myself struggling with the balance between the two a lot. So a lot of the songs on the A-side deal with that idea: finding the balance between being self-aware and escapism. The whole B-side is focused on my personal development, my ‘coming of age story’.’

This suite, this coming of age story, is pretty personal. What drove you to write and share such a personal experience? ‘I was interested in making an arc of songs with one storyline. A lot of concept records are fictional stories, which didn’t really fit me. I thought it would be weird to add something like that into the personal songs and records I’ve been making. So I looked back to a time in my life when I was much younger, about ten years ago. When I think about that time I recognize that it was definitely a big part of my coming of age story. It really set me in the path that I’m on more or less now: making music.’ Was it hard for you to choose to make music for a living? ‘Yeah, because I moved away to a new town right after high school. It was the first time I ever moved. I got outside of the bubble I was existing in. I knew I would always make music in some way, but I gave it up for a while just to study. I thought it would be more important to study and get a good job and everything. I ended up studying psychology. It was a difficult time in my life for a lot of different reasons. This bubble exploded with me having to drop out of school and getting back surgery. I had a herniated disc that came on when I was nineteen. Largely because of that I got really depressed. I was in constant pain, couldn’t sleep, had bad anxiety and didn’t know what to do. Everything was so confusing and I was just finally outside of the bubble I grew up in… I was experiencing these kinds of problems for the first time in my life.’ ‘The B-side goes through that portion of time, emotionally, and it goes through to the breaking point where I have to move back home, drop out of school and get intense surgery. I had to recover from the surgery and this emotional breakdown. It really shook my world apart. I started writing songs, playing in bands and playing shows. It woke me up and made me realize that it was music that made me happy. It’s a sad and intense story to me, but it definitely has a positive outcome on my life.’

“ During high school I started playing saxophone in this dance-punk band, which was my first introduction into playing in a rock ‘n roll band”

Interview: Domenico Mangione Photo: Melanie Marsman MCIII is out now on Merge Records. Mikal Cronin will play a special, one-off show with Strings and Horns at Le Guess Who? 2015 on Sunday, November 22 at TivoliVredenburg’s Ronda.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 14

Le Gig poster Take a visit to our Le Gig Poster exhibition in TivoliVredenburg! You can find the best and most beautiful silkscreened, custommade Le Guess Who? concert posters, designed by 45 national and international gig poster artists from the US, England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, China, Austria and The Netherlands. All exhibited posters are pieces of official artwork, established in cooperation with the depicted artist and hosting venues. Most posters are for sale, so don’t miss your chance to purchase the limited edition silkscreens of your favorite band or artist while supplies last. Highlights in the exhibition include Boss Construction(USA), Señor Burns (DE), The Bicycle Press (ES), Crosshair (USA), Douze (DE), The Impossible Machine (NL), Spiegelsaal (DE), Zum Heimathafen (DE), Lil’ Tuffy (USA), Rainbow Posters (DE), Willem Kolvoort (NL), GUYBURWELL (USA), Michael Hacker (AT) and Handprinted Stuff (NL), among many outstanding others.

Le Gig Poster? is initiated by silk screen artist Joris Diks (Handprinted Stuff). The exhibition will be open daily throughout the festival. www.legigposter.com

visual arts, sjamanism, minimalism, and plush animals

Charlemagne Palestine Profile: June ten Have Translation: Dennis Denissen, Barry Spooren

Through this intensifying relation with the creative world, he started to develop himself as a multitalent.

If you’ve never heard of the man before, you’ll probably be surprised when visual artist/composer/performer Charlemagne Palestine takes the stage. The American, with Jewish as well as Eastern European roots, makes a very colorful appearance with his love for exuberant prints, headgear and - his trademark - plush animals.

Fourty years on, Palestine has a lot more stories from “way back” to tell. His oeuvre not only entails more than thirty albums he has released, but also a variety of videos, installations, books, paintings and sculptures. His immense musical repertoire is a product of working with musicians such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Le Guess Who? veteran Michael Gira.

As a young man he first encountered music through a part time job as a whistleblower and organ player in a community church in his birth place of Brooklyn, New York. This church is located right next to the MoMa, one of the world’s leading museums for contemporary art, in which he was allowed to play music in the garden. Doing so, his audience was made up of more than twenty thousand people every single day; everyone wandering through the districts and visiting the museum could hear his musical expressions. He got to know a lot of people though his occupation as an organ player, who all recommended putting his talents to good use. Charlemagne Palestine decided to go to arts academy, and thanks to the many girls who also chose visual arts, his love for the arts deepened.

These records feature Palestine singing and playing piano. He developed an intense, mesmerizing style that is very much of his own over the years, which is inspired by sjamanism and ancient, exotic tribes from all over the world. His style is described as minimalistic by critics, although he couldn’t care less about a conceptualisation of his artistic output. Nothing is limited in his performances, in which he is completely focussed and plays himself into a trance-like mindset. This way, he gives his audience the best he’s got, something which he accomplishes every single time. Charlemagne Palestine will play Le Guess Who? 2015 as part of the program presented by Sunn O))) on Saturday November 21, at TivoliVredenburg’s Hertz.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 15

Deradoorian The eccentric name of Angel Deradoorian may ring some bells. Through the years, we could hear her beautiful, clear voice in songs from artists like Vampire Weekend, Flying Lotus, Brandon Flowers, U2 and Björk. She is also one third of Avey Tare’s (Animal Collective) band Slasher Flicks. But the main reason you may know miss Deradoorian is because ever since she was 19 year old, she was a part of the band Dirty Projectors. After five years of being a dirty projector, she chose her own path and went solo. Her debut album ‘The Expanding Flower Planet’ saw the light last august. Spending her childhood in a house full of creative minds in California, music like James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire and Radiohead reached Deradoorians ears at a very early age while music lessons were offered to her and her brother and sister. No wonder she grew up with the dream of becoming a musician. Or an artist, ballet dancer, sprinter or cheetah. Music won. This desire led her to become an early drop out. “My disappointment in the public school system and feeling a lack of inspiration and desire to learn made me want to leave High School. Sometimes the negative gives the drive to find the positive. It was time to go to college and pursue art and music. After doing that for a short time, I realized I wanted to travel and perform. This evolved into me wanting to create more on my own.” Which brings us to 2012, the year she left Dirty Projectors. Her first solo Ep ‘Mind Raft’ was already three years old at this point, but the words ‘going solo’ had not yet officially reached her lips. “I’ve always had an inclination to make my own records, and I have, but it took me some time to get to this point. I also enjoyed playing in bands. In my mid20’s though, the decision needed to be made for me to stay with Dirty Projectors or go my own way. It would have been very difficult to attempt the two, as I work better focusing on just one project.” Which she did. After years of working together with the big and smaller names of the industry, Angel Deradoorian was creating something that was hers entirely. Not only did she write all the music, she recorded most of the instruments herself as well. “Being on my own felt good and scary at the same time. To have all that control and decisions to make was daunting yet exciting. I could do whatever I wanted. There’s a lot that comes with that, though; to own the responsibility for all actions. It took me some years to feel comfortable in a leadership role, but I’ve always had that aspect in my

Interview: Mabel Zwaan

personality. I’m also able to work well in groups, so I’ve gotten to experience both now.” Indeed, there has been a lot to experience within the 29 years she parades on this earth. Even between her EP ‘Mind Raft’ and her debut album, the experiences kept on coming. “There were many major changes. Many of which people go through in their 20’s. Self-discovery, thinking outside of yourself, changing perspective and the judgment to be more open and receptive, not hating myself and what I was making and not comparing myself to others.” The result of the scala of experiences is, of course, ‘The Expanding Flower Planet.’ The album is named after a tapestry of an embroidered Chinese flower mandala on the wall of her studio. In combination with her alien-like artwork and the extraordinary, quite futuristic sounds, it feels like Deradoorian has, in fact, created a surrealistic planet with the album. You may call these sounds the baby of those experiences with colorful inspirations, which flow into a combination of psych, electronics, bass, dreamy melodies all glued together with the voice nobody can stop talking about. “Sometimes things naturally take their course. I like to pay attention to the subtleties I experience as a person. Just feeling what my next move is or feeling how to create. Not always thinking. So the tapestry was inspiring in what it resonated to me visually, and I just took those feelings and put them into the songs. Many other things inspired this album as well, though. The alien artwork comes from Daniel Higgs, who thought it would suit the music. There are some astrological inspirations on the album, but nothing overwhelming. It’s more a journey of self and having the opportunity to create all alone.” Even her Armenian heritage is a small ingredient that plays a noticeable role. “I’m quite removed from the Armenian background of my family, unfortunately. My father is my only connection to my heritage, as much of his family in Armenia passed away long ago. I am inspired by Armenian and Middle Eastern music, though. It feels good and natural to sing in those scales and draw those feelings into my music.” Angel Deradoorian has fluttered out of her cocoon of collaborations and became something only she could ever be. Whether there will ever be a reunion with Dirty Projectors, or if her voice will create magic on some others records will be a surprise. Right now, we can enjoy the album and her Le Guess Who? live performance that will lift us to another planet, for sure.

The Expanding Flower Planet is out on Anticon. Deradoorian will play Le Guess Who? 2015 as part of Levitation presents on Saturday November 21, at TivoliVredenburg’s Pandora.

treasures BY UUT.NL The JAB Vintage (by Anna Schouten)

Meneer Smakers (by Cees Martens)

This vintage store opened last September in the already existing barbershop Hype Kappers (address: Oudegracht 186). Before that, The JAB started as a shopping event for the owner’s friends every four weeks. Within a year, The JAB expanded greatly, while owner Jade is actually still a student. The concept of the shop: easy vintage. No waste, no hard feelings and fair prices. The owner wants to make vintage and secondhand approachable to everyone; it is not only for crazy creative people who wear strange outfits. Still scared? Jade has got a special superpower to look at someone and be able to tell what he or she should be wearing. Just walk into the small store – it has only got a few clothing racks which exist of a carefully chosen selection –, ask for a coffee and listen to the advice. Note: The JAB sells both female and male clothing.

If you like meat, you’re in for a treat! (Don’t worry, they’re also vegetarian-proof). Meneer Smakers is a place to be reckoned with when you talk about the best burgers in town. Baked with care, served in style and holding overwhelming taste, it is not hard to describe the burgers of Meneer Smakers as a reason to come again, and again, and again. There’s plenty of choice and each burger has a unique set of ingredients plus a lovely name. So you’re a vegetarian? Don’t worry, even the veggie burgers are worth mentioning! Not so hungry after all? Just sit back and relax while drinking some craft beer while your laptop or phone is being charged. And just so you know, all the awesomeness that is being served is also available for pick-up!

Oudegracht 186, Open Tuesday through Saturday

www.smakers.nl / Nobelstraat 143 and Twijnstraat 62, Open seven days a week

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Goede Vrijdag (by Cees Martens)

Bigoli Deli (by Cees Martens)

If you keep following de Oudegracht in the direction of Ledig Erf, eventually you’ll reach a very small but special place that reeks of delightful coffee, some lovable kitsch, a healthy mix of high quality music, exotic plants and a relaxed view. A small but bright neon sign spells out ‘GOEDE VRIJDAG’, and gives you a grip on where you need to look. Three young gentlemen have decided that Utrecht needed a new place which is more than an overstyled, next gen store or lunchroom. They are happy to invite you into a former bridgekeepers house where you can enjoy the refreshing ambiance and a cup of coffee, tea or some Berlin soda. It’s a place with attitude and playfulness that will cheer up every bit of your day.

There is a place in Utrecht that will take your sense of taste on a journey, all the way to the Mediterranean! Next to the Neude is a brightly (orange) coloured store and lunchroom that serves freshly made sandwiches with a wide variety of ingredients and fruit/vegetable shakes bursting with flavour. Enjoy freshly baked olive bread with mozzarella, pesto, sun dried tomatoes and more southern delicacies. But also a sandwich pastrami – wasabi dressing and other flavours are within your range of choice, so do not forget to carefully check their entire menu. Go sit inside at one of the few tables or enjoy the sun on their benches in front of the store.

www.goedevrijdagutrecht.nl / Oosterkade 1, Open all week except Tuesday

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

www.bigoli.nl / Schoutenstraat 7, Open Tuesday through Saturday

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 16

Jerusalem In My Heart Canadian electronics and Libanese tradition Artist bio: Radwan Ghazi Moumneh of Jerusalem In My Heart is a vital cog in the machinery of Quebec’s flourishing fringe music scenes. As the house engineer of Montreal-based stronghold Hotel2Tango, Moumneh has worked his studio magic on the likes of Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, SUUNS, Ought, Colin Stetson, and many more. His own musical output is impressive as well; Jerusalem In My Heart’s fantastic Constellation Records debut Mo7itAl-Mo7it found Moumneh experimenting with Syrian wedding music and opaque electronic sound collages, and his latest LP, If He Dies, If If If If If If, has been met with quite favorable reviews.

Interview: Stijn Buyst / Artist bio: Jasper Willems / Translation: Dennis Denissen, Jessica Clark / Interview originally published in Gonzo (circus) #117, 2013

Lubomyr Melnyk Before he played the Quietus’ stage at The Great Escape the 15th of May, Emily Schofield of the Quietus talks to the virtuosic Ukrainian pianist and composer

Interview: Emily Schofield / Interview originally published on Thequietus.com; May 14th, 2015 Lubomyr Melnyk, the German-born Ukrainian composer, is known for his creations of ‘continuous music’: extensive explorations of piano notes played rapidly in complex series. It’s a technique that has taken years to perfect - Melnyk plays up to 19.5 notes a second - fabricating what he calls “tapestries of sound”, frequently beautiful sonic realms formed out of an unbroken stream of notes and transcendent ornamentation. We talked to Melnyk before he played Paris on his world tour, which takes in a set on the Quietus’ stage at The Great Escape in Brighton tomorrow, discussing ‘continuous music’ and why churches are the best venues in which to hear his music. Can you describe and explain the term ‘continuous music’ for those who may be new to this creative form? LM: Ahh… I can do a poor job. I’m sure that’s not true… LM: No really! It’s because there’s so much to say about it. But let’s see… basically it’s a whole new world of sound from the piano. And although it’s based on classical technique, it has developed far beyond the classical piano technique. It’s the classical technique advanced into a constant river of sounds. This river of sound is often melodic but it has many faces. There are many characters in the river. What drove you towards experimenting with this kind of form? LM: It actually started here in Paris. The scene inspired me. It started as a small initial interest in continuous music and what people call minimalism. It made entry on the world in approximately 1970. And that was my inspiration. But I was dissatisfied with the need for many musicians to do something to make a complex sound. I was inspired also by Eastern music... musicians from India, who do extremely complex things. I hoped that if a sitar player can do what they do, a pianist could do that too. So that’s where it started, you know, wanting to make something more complex. I wanted to do something that is beyond the ordinary as a musician and something very, very difficult. But I wanted to make something very difficult into something very easy. How would you say your classical training has influenced your exploration of continuous music? LM: It requires some base in classical piano, so that the fingers and the mind can control the keyboard and relate to the keyboard in a certain way; that is solely a classical way. That relationship is the start and then continuous music goes beyond that, you know, into a different

direction. But you have to start somewhere and the piano is an extremely difficult instrument to learn! Continuous music feels like it has a very emotive, transportive quality. Where would you say your music takes your listener? LM: Well, oh boy… that is a very good question! But you see, it can only be answered if somebody is able to define that dimension. And I don’t think we can define that dimension, though we all know it. For those who understand and who experience ambient music, that flow with it… It’s like you’ve stepped into a river and that you’re moving… You’re floating in this beautiful cloud or watery realm, and yet you’re not moving anywhere. You’re staying. And you’re not really moving. But there is this peaceful and very deep motion that’s happening inside your soul, inside your mind, inside… your whole being! Sort of filled with this beautiful light from this ambient music and it’s something really really nice, and I love it. And when you say this dimension, the audience and me I think we go into something similar. Every person experiences something individually, but yet we can relate to each other’s experience. How do you feel the kind of music you produce sits in an ever-advancing world of music technology? LM: I think acoustic music is the most important music. I think the pure acoustic sound is most beautiful. And I would like people more and more to use acoustic instruments in their sound creation. There are things that acoustic instruments don’t really do the same way as electronics do. I find that if things are only electronic that they are very detached, like there’s a need for something, like something’s wrong. If you have electronic sounds and you have acoustic mixed in with it, [it] makes a beautiful blend. I’m very happy to see that a lot of the ambient musicians, who are doing music now, do very often include acoustic instruments in there. When performing live, how much of your music is planned or following prepared pieces? LM: Well... each piece has themes and certain parts and sections that are there every time you do it and then there’s room for the musician to take off from that and develop it a bit. But not too much, because then you’re turning the piece into something else. But of course I never do the piece as exactly the same notes - you know we’re talking about a lot of notes! I mean for someone listening to it, even me listening to it in a very casual way, you would be able to say each time that it’s exactly the same. And yet I mean, of course there is going to be something somewhere [that is different], but there’s a small portion of freedom. You have to walk from this spot A to that spot B and it’s sort of a straight line but not completely straight, you sort of jiggle around a little bit. Lubomyr Melnyk will play Le Guess Who? 2015 with Deaf Center on Friday November 20, at TivoliVredenburg’s Hertz.

The Odd One Out Radwan Ghazi Moumneh: “Jerusalem In My Heart has existed for almost ten years now, but we only recorded our first album last October [2013]. I postponed the decision to record an album for a long time. Maybe the debut record would not even be here yet if Don [Wilkie] and Ian [Ilavsky] (of Constellation Records) hadn’t insisted on it so much. These things mostly happen the other way around, when an artist keeps on nagging at records labels to get the opportunity to record an album, It took so long because I wasn’t completely sure about the tracks. That Mo7it Al-Mo7it would be released by Constellation was obvious, although I did feel like I was the odd one out in the Constellation line-up.” Gonzo (Circus): The album got passed on to me by a Constellation connoisseur that did not like it very much, to be completely honest. RGM: There are a vast majority of eerie, abrasive passages on the record, whilst Constellation is known for their long strokes of instrumental music, which often positions itself at the softer end of the spectrum. I myself can hardly be the judge of that though. I think that for a lot of people, it fits the Constellation catalogue just fine. Next to that, it is fantastic to be part of the family: Ian and Don are very special people, they are extremely patient and back their artists one hundred percent. GC: Do you see Jerusalem In My Heart as a performance project, rather than a ‘regular’ band? RGM: Our performances in Montréal require a lot of guests: dancers, performers and actors. We have to minimalize our ensemble on tour: music and

16mm-film loops are projected on screens that are placed throughout the venue. The room in which we perform highly resembles an installation. Every show is different, even though it is just the three of us. Our imagery consists of manipulated film loops; in this way a unique happening occurs every time. On top of that we like to adjust ourselves to the size of the room in which we perform; we try to incorporate the architecture in our performance. That is why we ask for pictures and floorplans of the rooms in which we will perform for the tour we are preparing right now [2013, red]; to sketch a raw map for the placement of our screens. GC: Your texts are in Arabic. I am sorry that I do not understand a word of it. You do hint at the meaning by giving translations of the song titles, but didn’t you doubt whether to include a translation of the texts as well? RGM: The record is a conceptual whole regarding the text. However, that a vast majority of my audience does not understand a word of it doesn’t bother me that much. A lot of Arabians don’t understand a single English spoken record either. I don’t really like it when a record contains translated texts. I also have a lot of records that I cannot comprehend, but still adore. GC: The name Jerusalem In My Heart comes from a record by Libanese artist Fairuz. RGM: It is the title of an old compilation of her work; not a very good album, actually, but the title reflects the idea of our project very well. But isn’t it a political message really? RGM: Jerusalem is of immense importance to all different kinds of people, from both a religious and a historical perspective. For me, Jerusalem is a place that resides in my heart, but where I cannot be. To put it simply: I cannot travel to Jerusalem in a legal way, due to my nationality and my place of birth. There are a lot of political connotations of course. The name intrigues, which is important. People ask me all the time, ‘Where are you from? Are you Jewish? Israëli? Zionist? Arabian? Muslim?’ Jerusalem is a fucked up place, a very disturbed piece of the world. I have a very strong opinion about what Jerusalem is and what is should be, and as of now the city is the exact opposite of what it should be.” Jerusalem In My Heart will perform twice at Le Guess Who? this year: an audio/visual Jerusalem In My Heart set, as well as a live performance as part of the special collaboration with Suuns.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 17

treasures with treasures LGW? discounts

BY UUT.NL De Voortuin (by Cees Martens) www.cafevoortuin.nl / Voorstraat 4, Open seven days a week

De Voortuin, roughly translated to ‘The Front Yard’, is a place to chill with a beer in one hand and a self-brought lunch or snack in the other. It’s really tough to describe a place where you can listen to relaxing music, that strangely always matches your vibe. When outside, enjoy a street view that never gets dull and is always full of life. De Voortuin really honours its name, because whenever you come, you’ll see a safe haven or an oase on the brink of a busy square. Grab a beer, a wine or any drink you like and escape to the garden of the city. Cheers!

Klein Berlijn (by Sophie Derks)

www.kleinberlijn.de / Briljantlaan 5A, Open seven days a week

Klein Berlijn is a unique sanctuary for music, dance, theatre, DJs and the rest of creative Utrecht at the industrial area of Rotsoord, not far from the centre of the city. With industrial lights, graffiti and the bar decorated with posters with all shapes and colours, Klein Berlijn tries to bring the ‘underground’ vibes of Berlijn to the city of Utrecht. The bar offers a small menu for food, but you are always welcome to bring your own food as well. Ordering drinks is mandatory but looking at the wide range of German, Belgium and Dutch beers, this is in no way a punishment. LGW? discount: Movie time! Get your hungover head to Klein Berlijn on Friday from 6-8pm and enjoy a selection of documentaries of artists who will or already have perform(ed) on Le Guess Who?! Showing your Le Guess Who? wristband will grant you a 10% discount on your first drink, and they will serve you free popcorn and other snacks.

Just Like Your Mom (by Fleur Joesten) www.justlikeyourmom.com

Starting out as a rock ‘n roll tour support company, Just Like Your Mom discovered that eating backstage was not as good as it could be. Tired of all the unhealthy fast food, they started their own backstage catering company and developed themselves into a popular, healthy, vegetarian festival caterer. Just Like Your Mom is a caterer that serves healthy, 100% vegetarian dishes that are better for the environment, for people and especially for animals. The company is closely involved with the music, arts and culture sector and has been in the festival industry for years.

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Luc. (by Fleur Joesten)

www.lucutrecht.nl / Voor Clarenburg 8, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Luc. is located at a place where you do not necessarily expect an awesome restaurant, only minutes away from Hoog Catharijne, near Café Olivier. During the day it is a crowded shopping street. The building does not look very remarkable from the outside, which makes taking a look inside even more worth it. You will find that Luc. is a true hidden gem. Find a table on the small terrace or - and you will not regret this - pick a table inside. Because it is a truly wonderful place for lunch or dinner. The inspiration for the interior was acquired in Paris. With a fantastic result: many plants, greenery and interesting little corners everywhere you look. Bringing outside inside and creating a place where you feel at home, that was the idea. It worked out. A magical place, that is what Luc. is. So what about the food? On the menu you’ll find classics and surprising dishes. Both salads as well meat and fries are served here, but of course only made with the freshest seasonal products.

Blackbird Coffee & Vintage

(by Fleur Joesten) www.blackbirdcoffee.nl, Oudegracht 222, Open Tuesday through Saturday

For the most delicious coffee, the coolest vintage bikes and the loveliest retro furniture there is only one place to go to: Blackbird Coffee & Vintage. This coffee bar located on the Oudegracht is the perfect place to settle down with a proper cup of coffee, juice, or Clipper tea. Did you fall in love with one of the pieces of furniture? No problem, most of the vintage furniture is up for sale and can be taken home, just as you can purchase any retro bike hanging up in the coffee bar. The sweets are also worth trying and dying for.

L.A.N.scape RELEASE 30 OCT — DE NIEUWE ANITA

L.A.N. @LGW 19 NOV — EKKO

Photo: Fleur Joesten

EKKO (by Fleur Joesten)

www.ekko.nl/cafe / Bemuurde Weerd Westzijde 3, Open every Wednesday till Friday from 4.30PM till 2AM and Saturday and Sunday from 1PM till 2AM or later

EKKO is an eatery, next to a music venue. So visit a show and enjoy a weekly changing vegetarian three-course meal, which is prepared and served by volunteers. The atmosphere is casual, alternative sounds are played at the bar and a slight scent of the beer that someone else had yesterday evening is still in the air. The dishes are surprisingly creative, and next to the three-course meal they’ll serve a meatball of the month. LGW? discount: during Le Guess Who? EKKO will serve not one, but three different meatballs! Order their meat balls for only €7,- each with a salad and salsa included. If you like, you can order extra wedges for only €2,50. Please note that there are no three-course meals during Le Guess Who?

Photo: Sanne Heil

Plato (by Anna Schouten)

www.platomania.eu / Voorstraat 35, Open seven days a week

Did you attend an awesome gig at Le Guess Who? and found yourself a new number-one band? Then it is time to visit Plato: a big record and CD store, located at Voorstraat 35. This ever-busy store belongs to the favourites of music lovers. Plato represents upcoming artists: new talent gets a lot of attention in this shop. On the other hand, Plato offers quite a big vintage stash. In need of some inspiration? Just ask for Mania: a small magazine with many different tips, reviews, and interviews. The staff is also willing to help you out with their great musical knowledge. If you have got some spare time to visit gigs that are not specifically part of Le Guess Who?, you could check out the small concerts Plato offers. Just another great way to discover new tunes! LGW? discount: Can’t wait to buy your favourite record till our venues open again in the afternoon? Get over to Plato and buy yours with a 10% discount, whilst showing your wristband.

ABONNEER NU!

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LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 18

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An Interview With METZ The Canadian noise punks’ sonic ferocity is such that they’ve done tQ’s James Ubaghs some serious dental damage. Still, with gums bleeding, he picked up the phone to talk to the band’s Alex Edkins about their new album, METZ II

Interview: James Ubaghs / Interview originally published on Thequietus.com; April 30th, 2015 There’s more music than ever being pumped out of the internets these days, yet somehow for all the abundance of choice, it’s still oddly hard to scratch that everpresent itch for painfully abrasive, no bullshit, righteous punk rock. Canadian three-piece METZ manage to do it just about better than anyone else these days. Their 2012 self-titled debut was a ferocious smack in the teeth, and their follow-up METZ II is an even more ferocious smack in the teeth (thanks guys, I literally have no teeth now). Their post-hardcore, no wave-tinged skronk has only gotten heavier and rawer - which is a welcome relief, as most bands only ever seem to tone it down with time - and live they continue to play with a genuinely heroic level of commitment and energy. Over the phone, guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins discussed the new album, his mum and Grand Theft Auto, among other scintillating topics. You have an incredible level of energy as a band, how do you keep it up? I’ve seen you a bunch of times live and it’s always awesome, but just thinking about doing what you do for five minutes, just makes me want to have a nap. Alex Edkins: Well I was just right now taking a nap! I don’t know. I think we’re excited to just be able to do what we’re doing, but also I think it’s true that certain music can only be played in a certain way for it to translate properly. You really can’t hang back and chill and play these songs, if they’re going to be heard in the right context.

So there’s that and I think that whenever you put a guitar on and you crank up the volume it just feels awesome. And I’ve always gotten that from live punk music, and hardcore music, or noise music, or whatever. That’s always been something that’s resonated with me. And we try to create that feeling for other people, that feeling when you first go and get introduced to this stuff. For me it kind of changed how I looked at music. So we try to put it all out there on the stage every night and if you don’t do that it’s perceived as a failure in our eyes. With the new album, has your recording process changed at all? AE: I think on paper no. We went to some of the same places, we worked with the same two guys, Graham [Walsh] from Holy Fuck and Alex Bonenfant, and that was in an engineer-type way, and those are people whose instincts we trust. So on paper it’s very much the same, but I’d say the difference in my mind is that we went into it with different goals. I think we figured out that in a lot of songs, what would work with them would be a looser kind of feel. And we realised that with most of the songs, the sloppier, mistakes-left-in kind of approach sounded the best and felt the best. That’s definitely the difference I hear between the two records. In the first one, we were pretty clinical and meticulous in trying to get it perfect as it is in our heads, and with this one it’s less like that. We don’t have as much of an interest in that any more. We like music that’s a little rougher around the edges.

Lotic: pushing the fringes of electronic dance music It didn’t take Lotic long to take the journey from saxophone player and classical composer in Texas, to one of the most desired DJs in Berlin. Sometimes life can be quite unpredictable, and Lotic - known by friends and family as J’Kerian Morgan - can be considered a perfect example. His passion for music was cultivated at very young age, but through time he started to regard traditional musical instruments as a limitation instead of a creative expression, leading him towards the electronic side of music more and more. Inspired by the pop and R&B he was introduced to in high school, J’Kerian slowly he made his first steps in the direction of producing. At the age of twenty-two, he packed his bags and left home to try and turn his hobby into a living in Europe. He ended up in Berlin, where he became a resident DJ at Janus, a highly influential community of artists intent on pushing the fringes of electronic dance music. Together they made a respectable attempt to show the German capital that nightlife can be more than just techno. “The best club has a puddle of tears in one corner, and a puddle of cum in the other,” as Lotic famously once said. That’s probably also why he can be found behind the decks at some of the most eccentric locations, including sex clubs like Ficken 3000. Lotic’s latest EP Heterocetera, released via Tri Angle Records, captures a compelling duality between abrasive and alluring sounds, between chaos and control, filling up the void Janus left behind but keeping up its ideals. Through his art, Lotic ardently combats the heterosexual machismo agenda in club culture by establishing his identity as a black homosexual man.

Lotic will play Le Guess Who? 2015 with Yung Gud and Heems on Saturday November 21, at TivoliVredenburg’s Cloud Nine.

Yeah, the new album feels angrier, and more intense if anything. AE: Yeah I think it in some ways; it’s got more melody, and in some ways it’s way more dark than the first one. Do you ever see METZ moving away from a high intensity, abrasive sound? I mean, is an all-acoustic folk album on the cards any time soon? AE: Uh... it’s hard to say! We definitely want to continue making music, and to evolve, but I think the thing that ties the three of us together musically is punk rock. If we were to do that, I think it wouldn’t be together. Maybe one of us would go off and do that, if that’s what they were feeling like doing. But we play this music because it feels right, and it’s what we’ve always done. And I don’t think we’d change that as a three-piece; I think that would involve a different arrangement and different people. But who knows, that could happen. That’s not to say that we won’t change musically as a band, but probably in a more incremental way. I think we’ve changed and evolved over this album, but we certainly weren’t in any headspace hoping to do anything drastic. So you’re a really fucking loud band - have your parents heard you guys? What do they think? AE: Yeah, well, my mom is not a fan, and you know, God love her, and she’s just the best, but I totally get it! It’s not for your mom, or at least my mom. My dad is awesome and supportive and his photographs are incorporated into our artwork. He did the photos for both of our album covers, and the liner notes and stuff. So it’s really fun to have him involved in it. But it’s certainly not their style of music at all. And I’m glad, you know, because it’d be kind of weird if it was. I’ve always enjoyed music that was maybe disconnected from what the older generation was doing. Something that always spoke to me was stuff that was not accepted when it was new. And when you think back to stuff like and not to put us into direct comparison at all - The Kinks, or even Bob Dylan, it was considered noisy and ugly to the older generation. So I don’t necessarily expect my parents to love what we do! That’s not what we’re about. You’re doing something wrong if you’re not pissing off your parents. AE: I know! I think so. I honestly think so. That’s the kind of music that’s always spoken to me. It’s got to be pissing off someone, or it’s not doing its job.

Profile: June ten Have

So how’s the Toronto music scene at the moment? Have you been back home much at all? Any new bands you’d recommend?

AE: We were home a lot while we were making the record, and it’s crazy, it’s such a cool place for music and there’s always new stuff. Whenever we got off a tour there will always be a brand new band that is totally awesome. Who do I like? There’s a band called Weaves who are doing some really quirky pop, but who are really quite heavy live. There’s a great punk band called S.H.I.T.. Absolutely Free are doing a kind of Kraut-y-type of thing - hate using that term- but that repetitive thing. But yeah Toronto is pretty great. There’s another Canadian band, not from Toronto, called Viet Cong, who are great, who I’m sure you’ve heard of. They’re really, really cool and recorded with Graham as well, at the same place we did.

I was playing Grand Theft Auto V a while back and I noticed that there was a METZ track on the soundtrack. How did that come about?

AE: That came about basically as a total fluke. We were driving home from a show in our van, and we got a call from one of the guys from the company [Rockstar Games]. And he said, we’re interested in using a song, and so from there we talked about it. What I thought was interesting, it wasn’t the make or break of it, but something that we’re way more interested in, was that they let us do some original scoring for the game, as opposed to just using a song. They used one of our songs, but we also spent about a week making original music for a couple of the missions, or whatever you call them. So we kind of made a deal with them: ‘we’ll give you a song if we can do some scoring’. It ended up being pretty rad, where we got to experience that and also realised that the group of people doing that was actually quite small. There were some members of Tangerine Dream, Alchemist, and I think a couple people from Autolux, and us that were doing it. So it ended up being something that we were pretty pumped about, to be given the opportunity to try something new. Do you get royalties on every copy sold, because that game sold like a billion copies? AE: Oh man, that would be so great, but no. I can say that I think that rarely happens nowadays, where you’d get that kind of money. That’d be crazy. Because, yeah, we realise that’s literally one of the biggest games ever, but no, certainly no royalties. I’m sorry, that’s too bad. AE: Thank you for feeling our pain! But it was a very cool experience none the less. METZ II is out via Sub Pop Records. METZ will play Le Guess Who? 2015 with Protomartyr, fellow Canadians Viet Cong and A Place To Bury Strangers on Friday November 20, at TivoliVredenburg’s Pandora.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 19

Mustafa Özkent Profile: June ten Have Mustafa Özkent’s musical career started in the sixties, as singer and guitarist of Turkish pop group The Teenagers. He distinguised himself by using musical instruments in a highly alternative way, and thus, creating all new sounds. Like the name of his early band suggests, all of its members were under twenty years of age, which eventually became the reason Özkent went looking for new challenges to broaden his experience. His search led to the establishment of a new musical companionship, known under the name of Mustafa Özkent Orchestrazi. This gave Özkent the opportunity to step forward as composter and orchestrator. Requests from other musicians started to trickle in, and this spreaded his creative fusion of psychedelic rock, groove and jazz improvisement. In 1972, Mustafa Özkent Orchestrazi released their first LP called “Gençlik Ile Elele” (Hand in Hand with Youth). Because of the misleading cover art, showing a monkey in a recording studio, nobody knew what to expect of this group. However, this masterpiece would influence the Turkish pop scene more than Özkent could probably

the mad scientist of Turkish psychedelic rock music have ever imagined. It’s a colourful clash of western and Turkish inspiration that could not be compared to anything that had been released before, which showed off Mustafa’s love for science and experimenting. Ozkent continued making music. He composed for many Turkish television shows and movies and released dozens of albums in the years that followed. He is still an active musician nowadays, although only recently with the praise and recoginition he deserves. In 2006, Gençlik Ile Elele was remastered and rereleased by Finders Keepers Records, specialized in putting forgotten gems back in the spotlight. This time, it blew the minds of every music lover in Europe, leaving them wondering who this mad scientist of Turkish psych-rock was. The chance to figure this out and get a taste of what this man is capable of is near, because Mustafa Özkent will perform Gençlik Ile Elele for the first time in fourty years live on stage at Le Guess Who? Festival together with the Belgian ve Belçika Orkestrasi on Sunday November 22, at TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal. Gaye Su Akyol and Okay Temiz with the Fanfare du Belgistan will also perform.

The Notwist Profile: June ten Have Translation: Jasper Willems, Dennis Denissen

rock outfits around. The first album that marked this metamorphosis was 1998’s Shrink.

Germany’s The Notwist has an uncanny knack for reinvention. Founded by brothers Micha and Markus Acher, the band started out in 1989 as a two-headed post-hardcore formation. Eventually, electronic musician Martin Gretschmann and drummer Andi Haberl (who replaced Martin Messerschmidt as a drummer in 2007) came on board.

They didn’t receive mainstream attention until 2002, when they released their fifth studio album Neon Golden, which got luminous positive marks from critics. Their fanbase suddenly reached till the United States, and they became a worldwide success. A rich variety of classical arranged, rock orientated, jazzley schemed music with an electronic frame proved to be the ultimate combination, and inspired the likes of Radiohead and Broken Social Scene.

Even as The Notwist rocked Bavaria’s terra firma to its foundations with eponymous 1991 debut LP, the brothers have always upheld a larger musical purview. Micha and Markus are both avid jazz collectors and still tour as members of their father’s bluegrass band. While Nook and 12 revealed the brothers’ proclivity to indie rock a bit more, the Notwist’s biggest turning point came with the addition of Gretschmann in ‘97. Gretschmann was a cult figure in the Munich area, known for his avant-garde approach to electronic music. He became a vital cog to The Notwist’s progression as one of the most eclectic and innovative

Le Guess Who? is proud to present:

Selda Bagcan Live at Le Guess Who? 2014

Selda Bağcan is a legendary Turkish singer and political activist. Her psychedelic interpretations of traditional Turkish folk music and her political views have caused her to be repeatedly imprisoned during the 70s and 80s. Selda was the main guest of Le Guess Who? 2014. Here, she gave an equally joyous as emotional performance. St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs, both admirers of the singer, performed before she took the stage. These recordings have now been made available on a limited edition vinyl release of just 500 copies. See leguesswho.bigcartel.com for more info and pre-order.

“The iconic Turkish protest singer convinced a room full of people, to dance, hug, and cry. If that’s not festival magic, I don’t know what is.” – MTV Iggy

Last year the men of The Notwist amazed their audience again with their most recent release Close to the Glass, in which they seem to incline to something darker again. It was also well received by the press on Motel Mozaique as well as Best Kept Secret. And now they show their immaculate combination of different styles to the Le Guess Who? audience in Utrecht. The Notwist will play Le Guess Who? 2015 with fellow German explorers Faust on Thursday, November 19 at TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal.

LIMI T EDIT ED VINY ION L, COP 500 IES.

LE GUESS WHO? TREASURE GUIDE PAGE 20

treasures with LGW? discounts Berts Bierhuis (by Fleur Joesten)

Kapitaal (by Cees Martens)

www.kapitaalutrecht.nl / Plompetorengracht 4, Open Tuesday through Saturday

If you are into design, and not just the typical flashy pictures you see in advertorials on television or newspapers, than you really need to visit Kapitaal! Located on the Plompetorengracht, just seconds away from de Voorstraat, you’ll find a place where graphic designers, illustrators, visual artist, fashion- and product designers are free to explore their own creativity. You can see expositions from young artists, buy amazing self-made cards, all kinds of posters, magazines, vinyl and even socks. Inspired by the creativity, you can follow different workshops such as screen printing, etching and Riso. Are you looking for a spot to take a break? Chill between the coolest prints in the middle of the workshop and even play some ping pong. LGW? discount: Bring your Le Guess Who? ticket or wristband with you to Kapitaal and get €20,- discount on a introductory workshop silk-screening to design and create your own band merchandise (shirts or posters)! What? Instead of €50,- you just pay €30,-! Note that this is possible till July 2016!

Swordfish & Friend (by Sophie Derks)

www.swordfishandfriend.com / Oudkerkhof 43, Open Tuesday through Sunday

If you love antiques and oddities or even better: odd antiques, White Whale is the place for you! Real animal skulls, antlers from different creatures, stuffed animals and animals in formaldehyde are just a few of the oddities you can buy from Koos Weel, the owner of the shop. The back of the store is equipped with posters, antique furniture and other forms of art, all fitting into the overall theme of the store. LGW? discount: If you purchase anything above €10,- you’ll get a print of choice for free!

After two years of coffee making at events and workshops, baristas Olivier, Martijn and Dirk finally decided it was time for the next step: opening a coffee bar in Utrecht about nine months ago specialized in filter coffee. Together with Studio Vrijdag, Mr Beam, Werfzeep and Urlaub amongst other things, the Koffie Leute Brauhaus is located in the DRUK building on the Westerkade. Inside, it’s like you’re travelling from the 50’s till the 90’s (but mostly 50’s): vintage furniture, blue walls and an overload of old-school games. Here you can enjoy a good filter or slow coffee made from coffee beans originating from all parts of the world. LGW? discount: “Le Guess What?”; get one of the four special filter coffees with a 10% discount. If you can guess which one you got you get a 50% discount!

(by Cees Martens) www.centraalmuseum.nl / Agnietenstraat 1, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Centraal Museum is a place where old, modern and even contemporary art has found its place. In an eclectic collection of buildings, including a newly renovated monastery that functions as the main building, you can discover local and international artists of design, fashion and visual arts. But that’s not all. During Le Guess Who?, you can find the exhibition ‘Lekker Licht’ (‘Nice Light’) here, which is about the meaning of light in our life as a human beings. Lekker Licht makes you think twice about the way you perceive light. With light sculptures filling up entire rooms, music videos and an interactive side program, you will experience the important social, technological meaning and even religious function of light. LGW? discount: Showing your Le Guess Who? wristband will grant you free entrance to the exposition “Lekker Licht” at Centraal Museum.

The Village (by Sophie Derks)

www.thevillagecoffee.nl / Voorstraat 46, Open seven days a week

www.broei-utrecht.com / Oosterkade 24, Open Tuesday through Sunday

www.koffieleute.nl / Westerkade 30, Open seven days a week

Centraal Museum ‘Lekker Licht’ Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Even if you don’t have that much money to spend, this store is worth the visit. If only to get your creativity flowing again. It is also worth your while to visit the stores Facebook page: it is frequently updated with little highlights from the recent collection. LGW? discount: Did you just buy your favourite record and are you dying to listen to it for the first time? Head over to Swordfish & Friend and buy a record player with a 10% discount.

Broei (by Sophie Derks)

Photo: Arjan Post

Koffie Leute (by Sophie Derks)

This self-proclaimed store slash living room in the centre of Utrecht is one store everyone should visit at least one time. It seems like every creative bubble in Utrecht has its own little place in Swordfish & Friend. The store is composed out of design furniture, decorated with art like posters and illustrations, dressed with designer scarfs and backpacks, and warmed up by LP-records (which are partially selected by DJ St. Paul).

Photo: Mandy van de Pelt

For the true beer lovers this is the ideal shop to find that one special beer you cannot find anywhere else. You will also find bottles in the strangest sizes and funny shapes. Berts Bierhuis can almost be called a museum, offering 800 different kinds of beer originating from all around the world. The focus is mostly local and Belgian beers, next to that also a variety of German and English beers are featured. A range of beer glasses and other gifts is also offered. LGW? discount: Showing your Le Guess Who? wristband will grant you a 10% discount on all they have to offer. Be sure to buy a paper bag to cover up your beer, because drinking alcohol in the streets is prohibited in the Netherlands!

White Whale (by Sophie Derks)

Oudegracht 72B, Open Tuesday through Sunday

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

www.bertsbierhuis.nl / Biltstraat 46, Open Monday through Saturday

Home base of The Village is their cosy coffee bar at the Voorstraat, in the centre of Utrecht. The experienced baristas will hook you up with a delicious espresso, cappuccino or Flat White made of beans roasted in their own roastery, which you can enjoy on the super comfortable chairs and couches. In addition to serving high quality coffee The Village also serves music and art: The Village hosts live in store shows in collaboration with EKKO and TivoliVredenburg and exhibits art of upcoming artists. The recently opened second location at former prison Wolvenplein offers even more. It’s in house bakery makes sure your breakfast and lunch are as fresh as it gets and they also offer dinner and a wide range of bites & beers. LGW? discount: Showing you Le Guess Who? wristband will grant you a 10% discount on all food & drinks on both Voorstraat and Wolvenplein. Drench yourself in their coffee and make your LGW-hangover disappear with their amazing breakfast!

Photo: Fleur Joesten

Photo: Lisa van den Boom

Het Gegeven Paard (by Kitty Beem)

www.cafehetgegevenpaard.nl / Vredenburgkade 11, Open seven days a week

Housed in TivoliVredenburg, cafe ‘Het Gegeven Paard’ is the ideal location to prepare for your musical evening. A unique and cozy meeting place at the center of Utrecht. It’s hard to choose from their large assortment of beverages: how about 20 kinds of whiskey, or at least 12 sorts of gin. No alcohol? Then you should definitely try their biological fruit-vinegar; Home-made lemonade with pure fruit, incomparable to any other drink. LGW? discount: Everyday the Gegeven Paard will serve two different dishes of the day. One of them contains either meat or fish, the other will be vegetarian, only for €14,50!

The Daily Indie (by Fleur Joesten) www.thedailyindie.nl

The Daily Indie is a physical magazine that focuses on new and alternative music. Full of interviews, music tips, columns, album reviews, a big concert agenda and many separate sections.

Photo: Fleur Joesten

Broei is a cafe for many to like: located on the Oosterkade, with a view on the Vaartsche Rijn canal, you can sit both on the terrace or inside. The clean yet cosy interior with minimalistic cabinets filled with games and walls decorated with buyable art, invites you to stay for more than just one drink. Broei’s guests are a mix of students, families, and working people, which results in a unique atmosphere you can’t find anywhere else in Utrecht. Broei’s allvegetarian kitchen offers pastries, lunch, appetizers and dinner. LGW? discount: Are you hungover and hungry? If you buy a (veggie or fruit) juice and lunch (sandwich, soup or salad) combi, you’ll get a 20% discount! Fun detail: almost every product Broei sells is derived from local suppliers.

Photo: Fleur Joesten