Sonar 2014
Various Venues, Barcelona | 12 + 13 + 14 June
Sonar is one of the world’s biggest festivals of ‘advanced music and new media art’. Entering its 21st year, it’s become an extremely slick exposition of a techno-utopian interpretation of what culture (broadly defined) and technology means today. This a music festival that expects you to see some great artists, tweet about it, and then engage in panel discussions the following day.
Thursday
We arrived early on Thursday to get our press passes and take in the Sonar+D (‘new media art’) part of the festival. There were lots of people with serious-looking Macbooks, all attending the huge round of talks, events and shows based around the festival’s commitment to innovation & technology. Picture dozens of programmers, and more than a few venture capitalist-types looking for the Next Big (profit-making) Thing. A frenetic mood sat heavy over the otherwise docile, drone-like tappers of keyboards and flickers of iProducts.
Out of all this came the AppCafe, where you could play on new apps for mobile devices (Monument Valley was great, like a platform game designed by Escher and Studio Ghibli); similar was MarketLab, which had (mainly) physical products for you to see; and then there was SonarCinema, which is self-explanatory. Throughout, talks and workshops took place around the various venues. A highlight for us was the fascinating round table on how the role of the electronic musician has changed over the past couple of decades, with Simon Reynolds (music journalist), Simon Rigg (founder of Phonica), Simon Williams (musician) and Philip Sherburne (music journalist).
Suitably mind-enriched, we strode to the music part. James Murphy & 2ManyDJs plied their Despacio project all day long, and it was so bloody good we didn’t really bother seeing anyone else, except Chris & Cosey, who seemed to have an entire synthesiser warehouse on stage with them. Richie Hawtin/Plastikman closed out the day in imperious throbbing light-show style.
Friday
We eased ourselves gently into Sonar, then, knowing that two more days and nights lay ahead. Indeed, on arriving Friday afternoon, we felt half of Barcelona had arrived en masse. The five Sonar by Day areas all seemed full. Bonobo came on soon after 7 to massive cheers, and he and the band put out a solid if unadventurous set.
A while later and Theo Parrish swaggered onto the Sonar Village stage. A few tracks in and Stevie Wonder’s Another Star lifted us all from our weary legs and propelled the crowd to uninhibited, dad-dance frenzy. Unfortunately there were some technical problems half way through, Theo got pissed and shouted at the tech guys, and the vibe didn’t quite recover.
We then headed to Sonar by Night. We wandered around the various venues for a while and saw most of Caribou, all of Todd Terje, a bit of 2ManyDJs and a bit of Loco Dice. Dan Snaith continues to embody ‘stage presence’ in a smart, un-fussy, Brooklyn way and guided the crowd through ostensibly ‘difficult’ songs with a veteran’s assurance. Todd played it pretty safe, a live set of mostly his tracks with a nice Bee Gees edit in there, before he rather peremptorily laid down Inspector Norse. 2ManyDJs were as predictable as ever, but no less the enjoyable for it – although MGMT’s Kids was a 2007 era track too far for us, and we finished our evening/morning with Loco Dice pounding out SonarClub. I’m afraid he played the kind of set that gives rise to the lie that “all dance music sounds the same”.
Saturday
We made it to Sonar by Day early afternoon and waited, like the dweebs/fans we are, for DJ Harvey to start. As soon as he started playing, the whole atmosphere lifted and we begun to enjoy ourselves again, as if revitalised by sheer gonzo-italo alone. It was like taking in a herby elixir of voodoo-spiced funk draft, concocted by a aviator’d, Jesus-looking beatnik. Most the tracks he played escaped us, except Tom Moulton’s mix of I Don’t Know Why by the Brand New Heavies towards the end, so we’ll have to leave it to the beards on DJ-history to train-spot.
That closed the Day, so we headed out for the Night. Chic completely stole the show, with Nile Rodgers charming the flip flops off everyone. “Chic Cheer”, a personal favourite, got the crowd singing Faith Evans, albeit haphazardly, and I don’t think anyone could blame Nile for hanging around, soaking up applause.
UNER played a dynamic- and No 19-heavy set at SonarCar, which (oddly enough) provided a great soundtrack to the dodgems round the corner. Daphni and James Holden held it down for the more esoteric Sonar goers, the latter not really managing to shake off a slightly precocious air of IDM-ness. Shortly thereafter the heavens opened, and Tiga was left looking disgruntled as rain parted the crowd at SonarPub, like a grumpy accidental Moses, dense crowds taking contested shelter under the venue’s enormous awnings.
A final round of Estrella and we were caput. Sonar once again demonstrated that large cities can host electronic music festivals, and significantly expand their ‘traditional’ remit beyond the escapist revelry common to most others. For festivals of the ‘put up a tent, book a DJ, see what happens’ variety: take some lessons from Sonar and see if you can’t drag yourselves into the 21st century without causing too much hassle.
– – – – – – – – – –
Words: Robert Bates
Photography: Nacho G Riaza
CONNECT TO CRACK
