There is just under a month left until a new edition of Bilbao BBK Live takes place. Highlight it on the agenda: July 11, 12 and 13 in Kobetamendi. Among the main artists on the lineup, some exclusive, are Arcade Fire, Grace Jones, Massive Attack and Slowdive. The programming has suffered several drops and added several new ones, and the schedules are already known.
This includes, of course, the billboard at Basoa, Bilbao BBK Live's electronic music stage, one of the most beloved of the entire festival. The attendees themselves are full of praise for Basoa for its exquisite programming and unbeatable location: the stage, located in the “forest” (basoa in Basque) and wonderfully illuminated, could not be more magical.
Among the notable names in Basoa this year is Sofia Kourtesis, author of 'Madres', 8th Best Album of 2023 for JENESAISPOP. Kourtesis – a Peruvian living in Berlin – is one of the artists who will play on the first day in Basoa, the Thursday, 12, presenting their dreamy house starting at 10:00 p.m. The Basque DJ residing in Amsterdam will inaugurate the poster Neska -known for its flora & fauna electronic music party- firing off its techno rhythms at 5:00 p.m. Ketiov, alias of the Polish DJ living in Madrid Wojciech Taranczuk, will follow at 7:30 p.m. with his “sensual, queer and rhythmic” bases. So much so that, in his song 'Icon', so dancey, he samples Wendy Williams saying her legendary phrase “she's a legend, and she is the moment.”
After Kourtesis' DJ set, which will be focused on 'Madres', according to the information provided by the festival, it will be the turn of hi-NRG from Cormac (photo) at 00.30. A good time to discover a king of the European dance floor – he is from Northern Ireland – who, with his Italian and house rhythms, knows what it's like to see the sunrise on a Monday morning. The day will close DJ Tennis -nickname of the Italian -Manfredi Romano- starting at 3.00 mixing post-rock, dance and Italo disco probably in the same way that he mixes ingredients when he cooks, since he is a chef and owner of a restaurant.
On Friday the 12th the Basoa will open at 5:00 p.m. the b2b of DJ Gostosothat is, Álvaro de León, member of the Madrid collective Undermad, and Fatal Path, alias of the music journalist Rodrigo Suárez, who has worked at Radio 3 playing electronic music. At 7:30 p.m., Ogazón He will “massage” his audience by playing with the common points between techno and house. But don't be confused: their sets are boring enough. DJRum – a Londoner seasoned in piano, jazz and hip-hop – will play from 10:00 p.m., combining genres with the fluidity of a master. Jennifer Cardini He will take over at 1:00, presenting his acclaimed mix of techno, disco, house and electro, with which he has toured from Paris to the whole world. At 4.00, Marcel Dettman, a German raised in Berlin… and in the Berghain, will offer a different proposal in Basoa, deploying his arsenal of new-wave, post-punk and industrial rhythms until dawn. From darkness to light.
John Talabotone of the first Spanish electronic producers to make the international leap, and resident DJ of Bilbao BBK Live every year, will close the Kobetamendi party on saturday 13 “for the fifth and last time.” Scheduled at 4:00, their sets over the last few years remain in the memory of so many festival attendees and there is no doubt that will be the case again in this edition. Before, at 1:00, another name that you know very well will have projected his magic on Basoa, Nicola Cruz, a Franco-Ecuadorian producer who has brought his mixes of house and Andean music to global audiences. Nicola has played several festivals in Spain in recent times, but his set in Basoa offers an opportunity to attend one of his hypnotic sets from closer proximity.
The day will start with the Bulgarian queer artist Niki Lauda at 5:00 p.m. fusing “mainstream pop female voices with broken percussion.” It seems that, in his case, nostalgia is guaranteed. Niki will be followed at 7:00 p.m. by a set from the Brooklyn DJ Gabrielle Kwarteng which, mixing house, afrobeat and highlife, diving between different sounds and diasporas, promises to be plethoric. And, at 10:00 p.m., the “tribal, psychedelic and alien” textures of the Italian DJ budino It will intoxicate the atmosphere before the next two sets, which we have already mentioned. In total, fifteen names that make up another Bilbao BBK Live electronics lineup that is not to be missed.
