Sónar - 2009 a preview
Sónar can tempt the festival attendant anno 2009 with a better line-up then last year.
On the music front the Catalan’s have enlisted the services of some golden oldies.
Orbital, Grace Jones, Carl Craig and The Bomb Squad make the older generation feel well at ease in the presumably hot mediterranean summer.
The festival this year isn’t about to go retro all the way though – even if some of the artists performing are regular visitors. La Roux, Animal Collective, Buraka Som Sistema, Lars Horntveth + BCN216 and Ryoichi Kurokawa are some of the fresher faces that will show up in the Catalan capital this week.
In the showcases section the ever present Mary Ann Hobbs and the Red Bull Music Academy is this year supplied with a raster-noton, Ghostly International and Ed Banger Records collection.
Since Sónar is more then just the music, Soundscaping would also turn its reader’s attention to the non-musical aspect of Sónar. This year’s SónarMàtica’s excebition is titled “Mecànics, craftsmanship for the third millennium”. “Mecànics” is an exhibition that reflects this return, at the heart of the information society, of the “DIY” philosophy as applied to the creation of sound production instruments. With that in mind, in this project SonarMàtica includes the driving forces behind artistic creation in the twenty-first century: centres of production. Medialabs are the tip of the iceberg of a new cultural paradigm based on the idea of a process, collective co-operation and the exchange of knowledge. This journey takes us around some of the most important centres of production in a renascent and creative Barcelona that is devoted to this new culture. It shows us ongoing projects, workshops, postgraduate projects and open rehearsals. This is craftsmanship for the third millennium, open to all. “Mecànics” is the third and final exhibition in the SonarMàtica nineteenth-century trilogy, a research project drawing comparisons between the nineteenth century and the twenty-first century. The two previous exhibitions, co-curated with Jose Luis de Vicente, were “Et Voilà!” (2007), which highlighted the relationship between magic and technology, and “Future Past Cinema” (2008), which looked at the recovery of pre-film formats in contemporary.
Sónar festival is revealing that it’s catering to a wide audience is the introduction of Sonarkids . Sónar creates SonarKids, a new festival of music and creative experiences for kids and parents, which will be held on Sunday 21 June on the Sónar by Day locations. The event will include renowned Spanish and international artists who will adapt their styles to their younger audience, with numerous activities to awaken and stimulate their creativity. SonarKids is designed for children to learn by enjoying music and art in a way that they probably haven’t done yet. Soundscaping commends Sónar’s inclution of the younger generation.
If you cannot make it to Barcelona, you can always eavesdrop at Sonar Radio
