Sónar 2007 Diary - Saturday-by-day events
» Published by trym on Aug 08, 2007
Soundscaping Collective exclusive feature from Sónar 2007
Saturdays at Sónar are always special; shows start at the same time in the afternoon but the crowd is mixed on this day. Not everyone is fresh and ready for festival, you also see the odd tired and sobering-up face of a late-night raver from Sonar By Night the evening before. The music of Saturday afternoon however, is often perfect for a lazy and chilled morning, easing oneself into the day. Often, because the sight that greeted us at SonarDôme at two in the afternoon was a steaming tent under the scorching sun, loud cheering and packed with people, as the crew of Go Mag (DJ Ursula, Vidal Romero & Manu González, latter the editor of the magazine) took to the stage and played a set of highly danceable music to get everyone in great mood and brimming with energy. The Catalan capital sprang to life in a matter of minutes and signs of wear from the night before were shred to pieces.
Following the Go Mag performance, the same stage saw Fibla deliver an interesting performance of his warm and fuzzy, playful electronica aided by a trio with acoustic instruments (Paul Stouthamer on cello, Marcus Gimero on bass and Geert Krosenbrink on violin), performing songs from the debut album, Lent, and also the new album, released this summer. Fibla, and his label Spa.rk, is a another favourite of Soundscaping, and the live performance of the Fibla material added extra detail and richness to the sound, ensured by the trio’s acoustic finishes supplementing the lovely electronic tinkerings of Vicent.
Another highlight of Saturday was Various Production playing live in Escenario Hall. High expectations were associated to this performance after listening to their album heavily over the last few months. It seems every genre has some purveyor who sees the potential of adding vocals to an otherwise instrumentally-biased genre and thus expanding the boundaries of that genre. Rough examples could be Basement Jaxx’ work for the house genre, Kosheen for the drum & bass genre, etc. and now then for dubstep we have Various Production, bringing their varied production (sic) to Sónar to treat the gloomy hall venue of MACBA to a show with heavy bass, dubstep rhythms with three vocalists changing on vocals and singing together on several songs. But to both start off and end the show it was up to Adam and Ian, mystery-shrouded main duo of Various Production, to fuse dubstep and triphop with the cinematic, and an extra spoonful of bass. Then, an ensemble of singers, one girl and two guys, entered the stage in turn as this near-prodigious band treated the crowd to all their recent hits, and of course the crowd-pleaser Hater.
After an electric performance by Various Production, Mira Calix played another set at Sónar, but this time solo without Alexander’s Annexe. This was a set more reminiscent of Warp material and provided a pleasant end to the shows of Sonar By Day for Saturday, as Chantal Pasamonte played a set including both older material and from her recently released, third album for Warp, “Eyes Set Against the Sun”, a combination of wistful and somewhat dark, but also delicate and playful electronica on an experimental tip. Set to her music, Mira Calix also had some mesmerising visuals of shadowy objects against a neon-blue-like background, hands, flowers, etc. twisting and turning into various shapes and showing in symmetric constellations.
Other shows of Saturday included a new project, KTL, of Stephen O’Malley, of Sunn O))), teaming up with Peter Rehberg to render their fusion of darkness and noise unto sunny Catalunya, an unnerving creature of noisy black metal and über-experimental electronica. British Andy Stott, playing a set of dubstep, IDM and techno mixed about in various shapes to make compositions fitting Stott’s creative mind. Other acts on the day included Detroit-techno resurgence from Claro Intellecto, Hey Willpower known for their passion of R&B and soulful hip hop, and Khan of Finland, with the latter performing his blend of odd pop and instruments, aided by beat-boxing and piano.