Spring '26

On Tuesday, January 27, Jesse Vandamme, Arno Van Vlierberghe, and Ibe Rossel will join presenter Ruth Joos. Together, they will discuss three books, carefully selected by our editorial team.

Are our prisons a necessary evil, or a failing system? The debate about the sense and nonsense of prison sentences is more relevant than ever. With overcrowded cells, scarce alternatives, and ongoing discussions about human rights violations in Belgium, it is time for a thorough confrontation.

What role do prison sentences really play in ouèr society? How long is 'long enough'? And what radical alternatives can we implement to break the vicious cycle?

Come listen and discuss during De Arena on Tuesday, February 10, with:

• Annelies Verlinden (Minister of the Interior)
• Amir Bachrouri (Former chairman of the Flemish Youth Council, critical voice and law student)
• Walter Van Steenbrugge (lawyer, specialised in human rights)
• Joëlle Rozie (professor of criminal law at the Faculty of Law of UAntwerp)

A perfect night out for book lovers. Join us for Uitgelezen, the ultimate literary night!

Host Ruth Joos welcomes three interesting guests (like Ibe Rossel, Melissa Giardina, Jesse Vandamme, Raf Njotea) to discuss three carefully selected books and give a personal recommendation on top of that. The
evening includes a musical interlude and an exclusive sneak peek at an unpublished work. Last but not least, you are able to win all the featured books in our raffle!

How do we navigate today’s complex challenges? Our debate series The Arena offers a necessary alternative to the quick, simplistic answers provided by the media. Each edition we welcome a changing panel of leading experts and thinkers such as Annelies Verlinden, Petra De Sutter, Amir Bachrouri, Walter Van Steenbrugge and Yasmien Naciri. Led by Lisbeth Imbo, we explore the depth and highlight the nuances.

A perfect night out for book lovers. Join us for Uitgelezen, the ultimate literary night!

Host Ruth Joos welcomes three interesting guests (like Ibe Rossel, Melissa Giardina, Jesse Vandamme, Raf Njotea) to discuss three carefully selected books and give a personal recommendation on top of that. The
evening includes a musical interlude and an exclusive sneak peek at an unpublished work. Last but not least, you are able to win all the featured books in our raffle!

How do we navigate today’s complex challenges? Our debate series The Arena offers a necessary alternative to the quick, simplistic answers provided by the media. Each edition we welcome a changing panel of leading experts and thinkers such as Annelies Verlinden, Petra De Sutter, Amir Bachrouri, Walter Van Steenbrugge and Yasmien Naciri. Led by Lisbeth Imbo, we explore the depth and highlight the nuances.

A perfect night out for book lovers. Join us for Uitgelezen, the ultimate literary night!

Host Ruth Joos welcomes three interesting guests (like Ibe Rossel, Melissa Giardina, Jesse Vandamme, Raf Njotea) to discuss three carefully selected books and give a personal recommendation on top of that. The
evening includes a musical interlude and an exclusive sneak peek at an unpublished work. Last but not least, you are able to win all the featured books in our raffle!

For three years (2022-25), Natural Contract Lab (NCL) has been walking-with1 the SZenne river and its communities of kin, its plants, people, mud, knotweed, nettles, seen and unseen,... From the source emerging under a willow tree in Naast to the confluence where the river meets three bodies of water in Zennegat. In this symposium the NCL group will present the Living Bill2 for the SZenne river in the format of a hybrid symposium that unfolds from the Protocol for Reciprocal Care3 for bodies of water under deep ecological transformation. During the day, NCL will share their transdisciplinary approach interweaving rights of nature, restorative justice, ecological grief, sensory scenography, participatory rituals and walking methodologies. There will be three parts, which will unfold like a walking-with1 with a storyline, a conversation and a tribune. While walking-with the waters of Ghent, we greet, dialogue and sense the landscape. In VIERNULVIER,  weave in guests in a conversation and presentation of the Living Bill for the rights of the SZenne river by the alliance. ( the alliance includes all the ones who have walked-with, the beings, and other rivers that are in solidarity with the SZenne river)

A perfect night out for book lovers. Join us for Uitgelezen, the ultimate literary night!

Host Ruth Joos welcomes three interesting guests (like Ibe Rossel, Melissa Giardina, Jesse Vandamme, Raf Njotea) to discuss three carefully selected books and give a personal recommendation on top of that. The
evening includes a musical interlude and an exclusive sneak peek at an unpublished work. Last but not least, you are able to win all the featured books in our raffle!

Milow is going all the way for his eighth album, “Boy Made Out of Stars”. Not only is the Leuven-grown singer-songwriter unleashing 15 new songs on the world, he is simultaneously launching 15 music videos and his own magazine that tells the story behind the record. ‘That way I want to underline how hard I believe in these songs,’ he says.

Milow divides his time between Europe and California, and this duality echoes the album's themes, giving fans a visual journey that reflects his transatlantic lifestyle.

Two internationally renowned selectors take turns spinning idiosyncratic deep cuts, iconic records and forgotten treasures. All night long. 

Lefto Early Bird has built up a global fanbase thanks to his radio shows and DJ sets. With broadcasts on Kiosk Radio, The Lot Radio and the former Worldwide FM from his home base in Brussels, as well as various programmes on NTS, he has become an international landmark of good taste, whether it's jazz, electronica, techno, house or hip hop. As a special guest on various live shows, he is praised for his selections that are ahead of their time and his dedication to the talents that will shape the future.

Amsterdam-born and London-based DJ Jyoty is considered by many to be a pioneer in her own right. She has become a trailblazer in dance music with international impact. From her early years on the radio to headlining festivals and hosting sold-out venues around the world, Jyoty's inimitable talent as a DJ, music selector, curator and interviewer has earned her a global following.

For nearly 30 years, Earth's Dylan Carlson, has inhabited a uniquely elastic role in rock, an exponent of experimental drone-based guitar music and a signature practitioner of the detuned riff. The only constant in this band's aesthetic is change, contrary to their recorded music that relies on heavy yet hypnotic forms of repetition.

Earth are an American rock band founded in Olympia, Washington and led by the guitarist Dylan Carlson. Initially active between 1989 and 1997, their early work is characterized by heavy guitar distortion, drones, and lengthy, minimalist song structures; their 1993 debut album is recognized as a pioneering work of the drone metal genre.

Carlson often jokes he had “one good idea” and ran with it. In reality, Carlson has had loads of great ideas. This is apparent in Earth’s continuing discography. While their style remains anchored in lingering repetition, every Earth record is different to the last.

When Earth returned in the 2000s, with Adrienne Davies on drums, Carlson resisted the temptation to rehash the sound on which Sunn O))) and others had since capitalized. In 2019 Earth pared back down to the core duo of Carlson and Davies, with the guitarist limiting his layers of effects in order to hone a more “sensual” style.

Where Moderat is known for dark electronic productions, Apparat shows Ring’s more intimate and melancholic side.

Apparat will be touring Europe with ‘A Hum Of Maybe’, which will be released in early 2026. In addition to his solo work, Ring is best known as a member of Moderat (with Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary from Modeselektor), the trio that played three sold-out shows at Ancienne Belgique in 2022 and also performed at Rock Werchter.

Get ready for an unpredictable night out in our renewed BALZAAL with a trippy line-up full of emotion, experimentation and beats that hit as hard as they comfort. Catnapp blends drum and bass, jungle and hyperpop into something raw and compelling. Zonmai blurs the boundaries between rap and chanson with her autotune and French melancholy. Rostgoed throws genres overboard and lets queer energy pulsate through the speakers in sounds between (electro) pop and nightcore.

Deeply rooted in Buenos Aires bass music scene, Argentinian native Ampi Battaglia Lopez started performing as Catnapp in 2010, fusing elements of drum and bass, jungle, dancehall and hyper pop, all filtered through a unique artistic lens of her own.

Later on, she further evolved artistically, always with the main goal of creating music that is fun, interesting and genuine all at the same time. Embracing Berlin's thriving creative energy, this period also saw the launch of her label, Napp Records, initially as a platform for her own releases and later as an incubator for other artists she felt inspired by. 

In 2018, Rihanna selected her tracks “Flame Bitch", “YPMH" and “Backwere” for a runway show at New York's Fashion Week and a year later, Catnapp starred in the Emmy award winning Netflix series Unorthodox, which also features two of her songs, further amplifying her global reach. Since then Catnapp has fully come into her own. Her electrifying live performances have been featured at major European festivals and are a testament to her artistic vision, masterfully juxtaposing soaring melodies with harsh beats, delicate vocals with powerful rap verses, and playful charm with edgy, sometimes uncomfortable, intensity.

Double bill with Klinck Trio and dudal & de Roover: from lovely soundscapes with a bite to mesmerizing tape loops. Klinck Trio creates slowly unfolding soundscapes where melody and silence are interwoven, resulting in a delicate, childlike space of intimacy and discovery. Dudal & de Roover brings tape loops that patiently and organically move toward grainy ambient.

About dudal & de Roover
The Belgian musicians Pieter Dudal and Adriaan de Roover explore the tactile, ritualized art of tape loops, where every gesture — cutting, shifting and layering tape — shapes the evolving sound. Their practice has developed through live performances at Meakusma Festival and residencies at arts centers such as VIERNULVIER, Ancienne Belgique and Volta, combining acoustic and electronic sources into immersive soundscapes that unfold with both careful craftsmanship and organic growth.
Based in Brussels, Adriaan de Roover has been carving a unique path in experimental electronic music for over a decade, with releases on labels such as [PIAS], Dauw, Consouling and Fog Mountain. He is an experienced collaborator, installation artist and commissioned composer — recently creating music for a fashion exhibition by Milk of Lime (DE) and a 4DSOUND project co-produced by STUK Leuven and MONOM. His latest album, Other Rooms (Dauw), was praised by Bandcamp, HHV and The Vinyl Factory.
Dudal is the moniker of Pieter Dudal, a Ghent-based sound artist and musician. He is the founder and curator of the labels Dauw and blickwinkel. His work intertwines lo-fi melodies with slowly evolving textures, resulting in delicate electroacoustic compositions. In 2021, he released his debut album Can You Say It Again, and he currently hosts a monthly show on Kiosk Radio in Brussels.

Although ‘Saudade’ is usually translated as an emotional mix of loss, lack and love, the concept is approached by BJO and Naima Joris with a vibrant musical energy. 

With ‘Saudade’, Brussels Jazz Orchestra and Naima Joris seek the beauty of melancholy where an upbeat song is inevitably infused with the deep blues of Naima's voice. Together with the balanced power and musical ingenuity of Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the singer undertakes an atmospheric journey through the repertoire of Amália Rodrigues, Leonard Bernstein, Cesária Évora, Abbey Lincoln and Stromae, among others. 

About Alpha Maid

Beginning from a sense of frustration at the predictable and boring narratives and systems that we live under, and the feeling that such rules were the rules of the universe, Alpha Maid formed an interest in particle physics.

“We only know 4% of the universe, there is hope in that and the unknown 96%. I found excitement and wonder in that. The theories I was reading about relied more on the conditions of the present moment, and it made the idea of living in the moment feel more accessible. It started to be possible to see present time from all these different angles, and to have infinite more options to choose where to be next.”

Written across many years and different places, the LP documents a journey and the people Alpha Maid met while moving around, collating moments of the present. Her guitar remains a constant amongst an array of sonic influences throughout: from dub which honours her Jamaican heritage and the Windrush Generation, to the twinges of an emo love song in On Smoke.

“Is this a queue” revels in the magic of that which we cannot see and coherently understand, and the narratives that have been shrunk down to fit. Remembering, continuing, forgetting, paying attention, building, navigating, contributing, time.

For fans of claire rousay, Chino Amobi, Olan Monk, OKO DJ and Susu Laroche

No one knows how to package Dutch-language pop music in such an exciting and mysterious way as Eefje de Visser. With a new album under her arm, she is coming to prove this once again at De Vooruit.

Eefje de Visser is known for her unmistakable sound and the exciting, intimate atmosphere she creates both on her records and live. With mesmerising choreography, layered harmonies and an enchanting light show, she takes you into her unique universe. Her 2020 album “Bitterzoet” and the accompanying concerts earned her just about every music award in the Netherlands and Belgium in two years' time. On 10 October, “Vlijmscherp” will be released, forming a diptych with “Heimwee” (2024). Electronic drums and wrenching harmonies merge on an album full of drive, menace and hope.

‘Heimwee’ and ‘Vlijmscherp’, to be released as a double album, form a magical realist whole in which Eefje de Visser is constantly searching, from darkness to light, from alienation to stability, and from fragility to strength. The final tour of the double album will bring her to Ghent next year, where she has made her home for many years. Not to be missed, because Eefje de Visser's true power is revealed live.

‘Like a snail on a razor blade.’ That’s how a friend of Liesa Van der Aa described her new album Caramel — as softness that wraps itself around sharp edges, but never lets itself be cut. An apt image, because Caramel is Liesa’s most personal work to date.

The “younger, softer sister” of Liesa Van der Aa, her previous album Easy Alice still moves in the same jazzy universe. Although, to name a few references: you hear echoes of Laurie Anderson, this time intertwined with the early classics of James Blake and fragments of Billie Eilish and FKA Twigs. Electronics, contemporary classical, baroque, jazz and hip hop — Caramel wears all these coats at once, as Van der Aa herself likes to describe it, casually layered on top of each other. And on top of that, more than ever before, the masks fall away. ‘I wanted to make a record that feels like you're hearing someone think out loud,’ she says. ‘As if you're sitting on the edge of someone's consciousness, without everything being spoken out loud yet.’

His new album, “I Know You're Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try”, which will be released on 6 March 2026, is no exception. It promises to be a compelling album on which the artist's spoken word poetry holds your hand through grief, euphoria and hope despite everything.

British-Nigerian Joshua Idehen is a spoken word artist and rising star. After contributing to The Comet Is Coming's Mercury Prize-nominated album Channel The Spirits, he formed Calabashed with Alabaster DePlume, a spiritual jazz band named by NME as one of the bands to watch in 2021, and collaborated with Daedelus, the Los Angeles-based maestro of electronic music, on the critically acclaimed mini-LP Holy Water Over Sons. In 2023, he released the solo mixtape “Learn To Swim” in collaboration with producer Ludvig Parment (better known as Saturday, Monday). In November 2024, the EP “Mum Does the Washing” was released. The video clip for the title track has already been viewed more than 390,000 times.

Since the release of his album “Droomvoeding” at the end of 2023, Brihang has had one high point after another. Sold-out tours, swirling crowds at festivals, arena shows, and gold records: he has had it all, and no one would dare call it undeserved. After a rollercoaster ride that has lasted more than two years, the grand master of the small gesture is seeking the intimacy of theater halls in 2026. A final series of shows will serve as the grand finale to an incredible period, before he retreats into silence once again for a good while. The last one turns off the lights, cut on the set.

TLF Trio is an experimental music ensemble consisting of cellist Cæcilie Trier, pianist Jakob Littauer and guitarist MK Velsorf.They released their first album, Sweet Harmony, on the French electronic and experimental label Latency in 2022 and an EP, New Songs & Variations, with new material and reworks by German techno pioneer Moritz von Oswald on Latency in 2023. 2025 saw their sophomore full-length album, Desire, come out via 15 love on September 4.

Sentimental yet brutal, provocative yet kind, Belgian duo schntzl play live electronic music that makes you reevaluate sound itself. Hendrik Lasure (piano, electronica) and Casper Van De Velde (drums, electronica) are key figures in the Belgian jazz music scene, active across numerous projects, yet in schntzl they find their most singular form: hyper-visual, emotional, and uncompromisingly bold.

After twenty years of dark grandeur with Editors and trips with Smith & Burrows, Tom Smith is returning to the core: voice, guitar, piano, emotion. His first solo track, "Lights of New York City," sounds like a nighttime stroll through memories: melancholic, warm, and wondrous. At De Vooruit, he brings that same feeling live: smaller, but perhaps even larger because of it. 

Don't expect bombast, but expect that recognizable, deep voice that now has the space to breathe. An evening for those who love music with heart, soul, and rough edges.

London-based producer Ryan Lee West, better known under the name Rival Consoles, is notable for making synthesisers sound human and atmospheric. Over the course of a critically acclaimed eighteen-year career, his music has diversified from the challenging electronic output of his early EPs, to gradually becoming more conceptual and metamorphic with his albums.

For fans of Aphex Twin, Kiasmos, Floating Points, Jacques Greene and Kelly Lee Owens

Yello Staelens - aka Yong Yello - was once part of the legendary hip-hop collective Eigen Makelij, with Tourist LeMC, among others, and became the producer of Glints. Meanwhile, we know him as the new crown prince of the Antwerp sound.

His debut album “Marcel & Het Magnetisme Van De Goot” (2021) yielded instant hits like Circles, Luchtkasteel and Waanzin, and brought him to the biggest festival stages in the country: Pukkelpop, Rock Werchter, Lokerse Feesten... All impressed by his unique blend of poetry and punch.

'Ik moet dringend op vakantie' was recently followed by 'We geve ni', a collaboration with LOïS. Two catchy songs with catchy melodies, a summery beat and vintage samba - a promising foretaste of the new album, to be released on 12 September 2025.

DJ and sound curator Nosedrip is teaming up with visual artist Victor Verhelst for “Gossamer”, an immersive A/V show created especially for Club Wintercircus' unique 360° video system. 

This show is part of VIDEODROOM 2025, but it is an odd one out in the programme of the festival in collaboration with Film Fest Gent. Not a new soundtrack for an existing cult film, but an original audiovisual work of art that can already claim cult status.