Le Guess Who? Festival Stories

How do we envision a future where our presence is uncertain, denied, erased? What might it feel like, if revenge were to become a practice within that future? Can the haunting carry our rage, our despair, our ancestral weight, and our spiritual practices? DJ and sound researcher Raziyah Heath's work aims to uncover the cross pollinations of Afro-diasporic (sub)cultures and sonic threads, focusing on the variations, range and intersectionality of the experiences that result from this. In thi...

Youth clubs and cultural spaces have long provided young people with a place to connect, socialize and try new things. They have had a huge but almost invisible effect on music, culture and society. Yet, over the past two decades, many have disappeared due to funding cuts and shifting priorities. The question of how such spaces are organized, financed and sustained is therefore more urgent than ever. In this podcast, the third in a series of conversations recorded at Le Guess Who?’s Sound &a...

Music is perhaps widely known to serve as a means of collective and individual healing. But to what extent do we take sound seriously, beyond the auditory experience? What thoughts come to mind when we consider sound as its own sovereign being, containing substance and functioning as an actual medicine—a means that can influence physical and mental well-being? In this podcast, the second in a series of conversations recorded at Le Guess Who?’s Sound & Culture Summit, four artists and mus...

Artistic freedom is too often reduced to “freedom of expression”, but for artists and independent cultural organizers, the ground is much more complex. It’s not only what someone can say, but where someone can go, how someone can live, who someone can reach, and whether someone can sustain the work without fear. In this podcast, the first in a series of conversations recorded at Le Guess Who?’s Sound & Culture Summit, three music and arts practitioners from Syria, Georgia and Malaysia j...

On the closing day of Le Guess Who? 2023, the festival features the first international performance of Ndox Electrique, whose music is inspired by an ancient ritual of the spirit-world originating from Senegal’s n’döep ceremonies. Here, Atiyyah Khan, an arts journalist, researcher and DJ from Johannesburg, introduces the group and provides context to the origins of this healing ritual that connects so strongly to their sound. Words & audio by Atiyyah Khan Photography by Giann...