19.-21.06.08: Sónar - a preview
» Published by szola on Apr 27, 2008
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With the Sónar festival being right around the corner, Soundscaping gives you a quick preview into this year’s festival.
Every year Sónar highlights a genre, approach or region. This year is no exception to that rule.
One of the themes of this year’s festival is going to be the “female factor”. What does the “female factor” consist of? Empathy, sympathy, emotion and intuition have supposedly been feminine attributes, as opposed to aggressiveness, individualism, stoicism and rationalism, which have traditionally been masculine. Feelings versus reflection, imagination as opposed to calculation. These clichés are passed on from generation to generation.
It is no coincidence that the Sonar 2008 programme includes a significant number of female, feminist, and feminising artists. They are characters with different styles and origins, men and women with talent, ideas and daring, who are able to show their more sentimental and vulnerable side. In artistic creation, none of that matters: femininity and masculinity are mixed together and are combined, but it is easy to see that the female factor is a significant presence in the most entertaining, daring and innovative ideas today.
Glodfrapp, M.I.A., Velle, Tara De Long, Camille and Ròisín Murphy are some of the artists who are part of the “female factor” at this year’s Sónar.
The other main theme of this year’s festival has been labeled Vive la France!
Whether in the form of hip hop, or appearing as hybrids which cross the energy of rock with a thousand and one subgenres and bastard sons of dance music, many of the French artists passing through Sónar 2008 drink deep from the blatant influence of the street in their music.
The French music scene will come alive, spreading the news of another onslaught of modern music from the tricolor state. The artists representing France at this year’s Sónar include Justice, Yelle, Miss Kittin, Busy P., Camille, Dj Mehdi, Chloé, SebastiAn, Pilooski, Dirty Sound System, Ed Banger Records.