Music | Joy in being overwhelmed

Eagerly awaited: the performance of the Ibex Band. They contributed to more than 200 albums in the 1970s and 1980s. Photo: Photo: © Selam Woldermarian (Muzikawi) A long musical journey from indie nerd heaven to the edges of the known world and beyond - and has been going on for 20 years now. This can be understood both musically and geographically. In the first few years, the program of the music festival “Le Guess Who?” in Utrecht focused on Canadian indie and avant-garde acts, but the festival soon steadily expanded its horizons. There is now hardly a corner of the world from which music has not reached Utrecht.

This year, for example, the Palestinian poet and journalist Mohammed el-Kurd opened "Le Guess Who?" with a poetry performance in the Great Hall of the Tivoli Vredenburg. Afterwards, the post-rock fathers Tortoise played on the Ronda stage in the same building, followed by Alsarah & The Nubatones in the Great Hall. The artist, who has long lived in the USA but is still musically connected to her homeland, avoided political comments. Only when she announced a song called “Sudan” was the weight of events felt.

Eagerly awaited: the performance of the Ibex Band, which in the 1970s accompanied everyone of note in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, from Mulatu Astatke and Mahmoud Ahmed to Tilahoun Gesesse to Aster Aweke.

Already in the first hours of the festival, which celebrated its 20th birthday this year, important markers were set: The singer Alsarah was born in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which is now marked by the most devastating war of today. The Ibex Band, which broke up in the late 1970s after several members left the country because of the political situation, also did not address the conflicts that are currently flaring up again in Ethiopia. Guitarist Selam Seyoum and bassist Giovanni Rico are the only ones still there. However, his much younger teammates had learned what was important during several stays in Ethiopia, assured Seyoum with a smile.

It goes without saying that no one is taking away his and Rico's bread and butter: this guitar and Rico's bass, he said, can be heard in 3,000 songs. Last year the album “Stereo Instrumental Music,” which was released on cassette in 1976, was released. Its magical textures are reminiscent of early recordings by Hailu Mergia and Mulatu Astatke.

How do you perform something like that 50 years later without the patina of the recordings? Perhaps you could call it historically informed recording practice: the group does not succumb to the temptation to recreate the sound of old recordings, but it is also not about a new interpretation in the context of the 21st century. Seyoum's guitar may be vintage, but with it he recreates the often melancholic compositions with his entourage from the moment.

During “Le Guess Who?”, Utrecht is an inspiring and also quite overwhelming place of listening, dancing, marveling and learning.

Last but not least, it is concerts like that of the Ibex Band that make “Le Guess Who?” virtually irreplaceable – other examples in the festival’s history include the friendly, chaotic performance of the Somali Dur-Dur Band a few years ago, a re-hearing of the long-lost folk singer Vashti Bunyan.

About ten years ago, The Ex brought a delegation from the Ethiopian scene with them, the Turkish singer Selda Bağcan played one of her first big shows outside of Turkey here, and Ayalew Mesfin even made his European debut here. The festival's charm also includes things like a 24-hour Dub session, for the second time this year, or Colombian sound systems (artist collectives) in a sports studio and much more.

And “Le Guess Who?” maintains its connections. This year, an extremely unusual trio presented the “Bethlehem” project in the Jacobi Church: Lawrence Sammour, choir director of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem since 1970, recorded music centered around old liturgical motifs for Christmas Eve 2023 with Sary Moussa and Abed Kobeissy for the art center The Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem and Radio Alhara, which was recently released by the busy Canadian label Constellation Records and could now be experienced in Utrecht.

The collaboration between the Vodou ensemble Edu from Togo and the Congolese-born Julien Hairon was intense in a different way, enabling an overwhelming trance experience on Saturday evening. At the De Helling concert hall on the other side of town, Saturday was bathed in Cape Verdean colors, including the national dish cachupa, educational musical performances and vintage vinyl.

And that's just a really small overview of what happened last weekend. A brutally exhilarating concert by the legendary Japanese Melt Banana was on the program, as was the hypnotizing rock by the Nigerian Touareg band Etran de L’Air. Regulars The Ex brought a five-piece brass section, the Nakibembe Embaire Group from Uganda came to Utrecht with a gigantic xylophone, and there's a lot more to tell.

It is no exaggeration to call it an unheard of luxury that these four days in November offer. Utrecht is an inspiring, but also quite overwhelming, place to listen, dance, marvel and learn. Even if it hurts that you keep missing things. The festival has long since spread across the entire city, to theaters, cinemas, churches and clubs. The distances are often long - a lot of things take place at the same time, and often the room is too small and the queue is too long, which is why even planning the day using the app takes a lot of time. “Le Guess Who?” has to be worked on a little bit, you have to risk that an experiment won’t be successful, an act will be canceled at short notice, or artists won’t meet expectations…

One became a little worried when “Le Guess Who?” put a shortened version of the festival up for discussion in a survey last spring. After all, the all-clear was given in this regard in the fall. The times, which are not getting any easier in the Netherlands, are now to be addressed with a staggered pricing model in which those who want and can pay a little more.

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