‘The ideal antidote’ (James Holden) to ‘the present global hellscape’ (DJ Haram)
With around 50 names on the line-up and three brand-new venues, the BRDCST 2026 programme looks quite overwhelming. Its tentacles now stretch further geographically than ever before, with acts from Iceland, Sweden, the US, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Iran, Germany, Morocco, the UK, Kenya, France, South Africa and Bolivia.
The festival still maintains its genre-fluid programming: hip-hop, noise, folk, black metal, neo-classical, drone, avant-garde, art pop, cloud rap, traditional Irish music, post-metal, improv, (free) jazz, gnawa, ambient, dub, grime and trance all flow together perfectly.
One thing the acts often have in common is a unique signature sound that confuses algorithms and allows you to distinguish them from AI-generated music even with your eyes shut. We look forward to guiding you through the programme, which is grouped into helpful clusters.
BRDCST curators Keeley Forsyth, Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))) and Ichiko Aoba announce their line-up
Japan's Ichiko Aoba is now playing to virtually sold-out venues everywhere on her European tour, but for BRDCST, she has become a curator for the first time. Perhaps her biggest coup de coeur is the Japanese band GEZAN, with whom she has a very special connection - she once worked with frontman Mahito the People in the duo NUUAMM.
GEZAN describe themselves as ‘a dizzying blend of punk, prog, jazz and artrock’ and are still a hidden gem in the West, while in Japan, they are playing to venues that might be the equivalent of Madison Square Garden. Also among the Aoba selection is Icelandic musician Jófríður Ákadóttir a.k.a. JFDR, cited by Björk as an inspiration, and Parisian improv guitarist Julien Desprez (see also: MOPCUT as well as ABACAXI), with his amazing performing style based on tap dancing technique (!).
Under the credo “Stephen O'Malley presents Ideologic Organ”, the inspirer of the drone group Sunn O))) is celebrating the 15th anniversary of his label. Cellist Lucy Railton - known for her collaborations with Kali Malone or her arrangements of Bach on ECM brings her much-praised debut Blue Veil, described by Pitchfork as ‘breathtaking’.
Golem Mecanique is the nom de plume of French multi-instrumentalist Karen Jebane, who pays a personal tribute to filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini and seasons her contemporary folk with the DNA of black metal. Next, Jessika Kenney is ‘internationally regarded for her spellbinding timbres’ and her collaboration with artists including Sunn O))). Finally, American composer Timothy Archambault delves into the native American Algonquin flute, skipping between avant-garde and minimalist folk.
Keeley Forsyth first presents Rainy Miller, who gave us one of the greatest albums of 2025 with Joseph, What Have You Done?. Crack Magazine: ‘Rainy Miller's sound is a smorgasbord of avant-garde abstraction, amorphous RnB, ambient, industrial, drill, and early grime.’ Forsyth – an actress currently filming for a brand new BBC television series – will soon be announcing her full line-up.
BRDCST label focus: AD 93 ("Label of The Year 2025", Pitchfork)
With Moin, Coby Sey, SKY H1, Holy Tongue, Valentina Magaletti and, most recently, the revelatory YHWH Nailgun, quite a few acts from London label AD 93 have already been on the programme at BRDCST. Coincidence or not: Pitchfork catapulted it to Label of The Year 2025, calling AD 93 ‘one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and ambitious record labels working right now’. In 2026, we are deliberately focusing on this label.
Our honoured guests: james K, who performs with a live band for the first time, with his speciality of ‘nineties downtempo, triphop and shoegaze with modern electronics and a dash of artpop à la Caroline Polachek, as if it comes to us straight from the future’, according to 3voor12. feeo, whose album Goodness is described by Pitchfork as ‘one of the most breathtakingly beautiful albums of the year’, with a nod to Beth Orton, Beth Gibbons and Tirzah.
Lankum offshoot One Leg One Eye is at BRDCST for the second time, presenting CRONE, which is again rooted in Irish traditional music but is radically disrupted by 'the raw aesthetics of black metal and noise’. Finally, Irish performer and experimental artist Olan Monk moves around the exciting intersection of 'elements of shoegaze, witch house, cloud rap and Irish traditional music’.
AB is launching brand-new venues AB Salon and AB Antenna with a series of special morning, night and headphone concerts
The official opening is not scheduled until autumn 2026, but during BRDCST, we will already be fully testing out our brand new venues AB Salon and AB Antenna. These are housed in the newly renovated adjacent building on Steenstraat/rue des Pierres. AB Salon has been given a major upgrade since its previous incarnation. For instance, this intimate venue – with capacity for 55 people – now has a great stage, improved seating comfort, and (again) a top-notch sound system.
Attending will be: Icelandic theremin player Hekla, Galician bagpipe player Carme López, Irish fiddle player Ultan O'Brien and the superb Klinck Trio presenting their debut My Hair Is Everywhere. We are particularly looking forward to the unique international collaboration between greyfade label boss Joseph Branciforte and Jozef Dumoulin, described by The Wire as ‘a new duo project exploring the sonic possibilities of the Fender Rhodes. About as far from 1970s Herbie Hancock as it's possible to imagine'.
Virtuoso pianist Frederik Croene will also be performing at a real morning concert with an ode to deceased aviation pioneers, such as – just to get you in the mood – Yukio Seki, the very first kamikaze pilot. Tubist Berlinde Deman will also be performing at a midnight concert and going in search of stillness with her love of the 16th-century wind instrument the serpent. For those who want to go gently into the night.
In AB Antenna (capacity: 100 people), Liège-based, neoclassical pianist Grégoire Gerstmans – who shone with his debut Hypnagogie, with leading magazine Les Inrockuptibles calling him ‘une beauté à tomber’ – will perform an extremely intimate headphone concert three (!) days in a row. You couldn’t wish for a more beautiful musical debut for a new facility.
Impressive art gallery VanhaerentsArtCollection welcomes BRDCST
As previously announced, our collaboration with VanhaerentsArtCollection, an ABSOLUTE GEM hidden in a former industrial building in the Brussels Anneessens neighbourhood, just a stone's throw from AB. BRDCST is honoured to have a place here. There will of course be concerts, but BRDCST visitors will also be able to see works by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy and Cindy Sherman, among others.
Stephen O'Malley is drawing up the programme there (see above) for Saturday 4 April. Here on Sunday, 5 April: South Korean Park Jiha, who straddles the line between gorgeous ambient and neoclassical. The Guardian: ‘The Korean composer calls to mind Björk and Philip Glass.’ Also here: the young Iranian/Kurdish tanbur player Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian, described by Dusted Magazine as ‘a revelation that has to be seen to be believed’.
Maalem Houssam Guinia – who has previously collaborated with James Holden – brings you the sound of the guembri, a three-stringed lute that forms the basis of his raw signature sound. His impressive album جوف الليل (meaning: Dead of Night) is described as ‘delicious raw, deep, hypnotic and spiritual Gnawa music from Morocco’.
Right from the opening track, “Just Because I Have a Dick Doesn’t Mean I’m a Man”, Joy Guidry’s (US) debut album Radical Acceptance clearly expresses the demons she is facing. A Black woman in a man’s body struggling with prejudice, mental health issues, racism and the fight against them. She brings the battle to a beautiful conclusion at the dividing line between ambient, gospel, experimental jazz and textured electronics.
BRDCST Artist In Residence: Fenne Kuppens (Whispering Sons) goes solo
Whispering Sons frontwoman Fenne Kuppens recently declared, ‘It has always been a dream of mine to make a solo album. So who knows, maybe one day it will happen. I’m just going to work hard to do it.’ And here it is: At BRDCST, Kuppens – who was already here at the 2019 festival with Whispering Sons – now has a five-day residency. She will be busy working on new material behind the scenes at the brand new AB Salon. Kuppens reveals a musical side we had not previously known: tranquil, spare, fragile and introspective. Come to BRDCST to discover the results. Intrigued? We sure are!
‘A renewed fascination with noise and distortion’ (Resident Advisor): welcome to Los Thuthanaka, DJ Haram, Nihiloxica and Lord Spikeheart
Leading online music platform Resident Advisor – with a focus on electronic music – saw a remarkable trend in their 2025 annual review: ‘A renewed fascination with noise and distortion (...) as a rejection of the overpolished club tools that continue to flood the scene.’
Prime example? Los Thuthanaka, the project of American-Bolivian Chuquimamani-Condori (better known as Elysia Crampton) and his brother Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, which became Album of the Year at Pitchfork with their self-titled debut. Resident Advisor: ‘It's a fucking trip. One that might forecast the future of electronic music.’ BRDCST agrees: it must have been just about the most alienating musical uppercut of 2025. So BRDCST will be closing in style with Los Thuthanaka.
Approved by Aphex Twin, percussion collective Nihiloxica has also moved towards an abrasive approach in their latest album, described by The Guardian as ‘a polyrhythmic assault, running the gamut from industrial techno to doom metal’. Previous BRDCST guest Lord Spikeheart ramps up the threat even more on his latest EP REIGN, with Igor Cavalera (currently the drummer at Soulwax). The result is a rock-hard Kenyan noise/hip-hop sound, influenced by black metal.
Finally, Brooklyn-based DJ Haram (who is also half of the 700 Bliss duo with Moor Mother) describes herself as ‘a multidisciplinary propagandist’ and was described by The Quietus as ‘abrasive, politically charged noise-rap meets fractured club sensibilities’. She sees her debut as a musical response to ‘the present global hellscape’.
Coincidence or not: James Holden once commented after appearing at BRDCST: ‘BRDCST is the ideal antidote for paranoia & hysteria.’ Looking at current world politics, it looks like he was predicting the future. So may BRDCST truly be 'the ideal antidote’ to 'the present global hellscape’.
Kurt Overbergh
BRDCST festival curator
