With around 50 names, the BRDCST 2026 programme looks stunning. From Friday, 3 to Monday, 6 April, BRDCST welcomes you to AB, Palace cinema and the VanhaerentsArtCollection art gallery. Guest curators Keeley Forsyth, Ichiko Aoba and Stephen O'Malley are each putting on an evening here in their own unique way. The programming tentacles reach from Bolivia to South Korea and know no boundaries in terms of genre. At BRDCST, hip-hop, free jazz, ambient and art pop go hand in hand. Plus all the acts have one common denominator: a unique sound that makes algorithms go haywire.
3 BRDCST curators announce their programme
Japan's Ichiko Aoba plays to virtually sold-out venues everywhere on her European tour but is acting as curator for the first time during BRDCST. Her biggest coup de coeur is the Japanese band GEZAN, with whom she has a very special bond. Also joining Aoba's programme are Icelandic JFDR, named as an inspiration by Björk, and Parisian improv guitarist Julien Desprez.
Under the credo Stephen O'Malley presents Ideologic Organ, the inspiration behind the drone company Sunn O))) is celebrating the 15th anniversary of his eponymous label. At BRDCST, he is presenting, among others, the cellist Lucy Railton, Golem Mecanique, Jessika Kenney and the American composer Thimothy Archambault.
Keeley Forsyth is first putting forward Rainy Miller, who brought out one of the hottest albums of 2025 with Joseph, What Have You Done?.
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.
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’.
The official opening is not scheduled until autumn 2026, but during BRDCST, AB is testing the brand-new spaces AB Salon and AB Antenna in Steenstraat/rue des Pierres to the full. The AB Salon has been given a major upgrade compared to its previous incarnation. This intimate venue now boasts a stand and a top-notch sound system.
The line-up includes the Icelandic theremin player Hekla, the Galician bagpipe player Carme López , the Irish fiddler Ultan O'Brien and the superb Klinck Trio. Watch out in particular for the international collaboration between greyfade label boss Joseph Branciforte and Jozef Dumoulin. In addition, virtuoso pianist Frederik Croene will perform a morning concert as an ode to deceased aviation pioneers such as Yukio Seki. Tubist Berlinde Deman will give a midnight concert. At AB Antenna, Liege-based neoclassical pianist Grégoire Gerstmans will host an extremely intimate Headphone Concert three (!) days in a row.
We have already announced our collaboration with the impressive VanhaerentsArtCollection. A hidden gem located in a former industrial site just a stone's throw from AB. Not only will concerts take place here, but BRDCST visitors can also see works by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, David Hockney, Jeff Koons and Paul McCarthy, among others.
Stephen O'Malley is to fill in the programme here on Saturday, 4 April - see above. Sunday, 5 April will see the South Korean Park Jiha, the young Iranian/Kurdish tanbur player Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian, Joy Guidry (US) and Maalem Houssam Guinia, who has previously collaborated with James Holden.
Fenne Kuppens (Whispering Sons) recently declared: ‘It has always been a dream of mine to make a solo album. So who knows, maybe one day it will happen.’ BRDCST is therefore offering Kuppens a five-day residency during which she will have plenty of time behind the scenes to work on new material. She is presenting the results of this residency at the festival.
BRDCST welcomes electro from Los Thuthanaka, DJ Haram, Nihiloxica and Lord Spikeheart
Leading online music platform Resident Advisor - which focuses on electronic music - noted one striking trend in their 2025 annual review: ‘A renewed fascination with noise and distortion.’
The prime example is Los Thuthanaka, the project by American-Bolivian Chuquimamani-Condori (better known as Elysia Crampton) and her brother. Their eponymous début album was named “Album of the Year” by leading music magazine Pitchfork. BRDCST agrees: it must have been just about the most alienating musical uppercut of 2025. So BRDCST 2026 will be closing in style with this project.
Besides Los Thuthanaka, the programme also includes more abrasive electronics, such as Aphex Twin-approved percussion collective Nihiloxica, previous BRDCST guest Lord Spikeheart and Brooklyn-based DJ Haram.