Photo report: a day out with Minyo Crusaders during Le Guess Who? 2019

At the time of Le Guess Who? 2019, the group members of Minyo Crusaders were closely followed by LGW house photographer Juri Hiensch to capture the adventures in the run-up to their first Dutch performance. Minyo Crusaders’ performance at the festival was scheduled late in the evening of Saturday 9th of November and that gave the 10-piece the freedom to see some of the city of Utrecht.

In the afternoon Minyo Crusaders left for the canals of Utrecht to perform for the camera of independent filmmaker and sound explorer Vincent Moon (who also performed on Le Guess Who and is one of the founders of the French video platform La Blogothèque). Oudegracht became the location of this video project, decorated with Autumn leaves, where the ten group members performed a song with minimal instruments while the Autumn sun secretly shows something of itself.

Slowly but surely the anticipation of the performance grew bigger and bigger and it was time for the 10-piece to prepare themselves mentally and physically for a performance in a fully filled hall of TivoliVredenburg’s Grote Zaal. From this performance, a video has been made of in total two songs and it will be clear how Minyo Crusaders get the audience dancing rapidly with their infectious combination of Min’yō, better known as traditional Japanese folk songs, with Latin American and African rhythms and exotica.

(Click on the photos for a big version and a clickable slideshow.)

Photography: Juri Hiensch