Sónar 2009

Programme

SonarComplex

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13.00 Rominger (Pendrive Records / ES) Live

Although their sound is very personal and recognisable, the universe of Perdi, Leo and Yeray is difficult to define. The band's approach covers electronica, pop, soundtracks, rock, ambient and folk, all mixed together in a spectacle verging on a circus act. After releases on the California label Vocoid and on Pendrive, the trio are currently recording their first LP for the Granada net label Miga.

17.30 Joe Crepúsculo vs La Estrella de David y los Thelemáticos (Discoteca Océano / ES) Live

Joe Crepúsculo takes amateur pop aesthetic and exploits it to create small techno-pop delicacies from another universe. With two albums under his belt - the most recent having been hailed by the Spanish press as one of the high points of 2008 - Joe explores a territory midway between handcrafted and flea market sounds, backed by totally bizarre lyrics that are part mundane, part popular philosophy. Accompanied by La Estrella de David (Beef's David Rodríguez) and Barcelona-based Asturian group the Thelemáticos, they promise to lead us by the hand into unexplored territories of pop.

19.30 Filastine (Post World Industries / US) Live

Profoundly involved in the anti-globalisation movement, his 20-piece band Infernal Noise Brigade marked the rhythm of the WTO protests in Seattle as well as clearly revealing which side of the fence Grey Filastine sits on. This Barcelona-based, internationally sought-after artist handles the richest and most complex styles with total ease, taking the sounds of the street into the most inhospitable corners: electronica packed with tricks and a special predilection for percussion and ethnic sounds, allowing him to mix Bollywood with Balkan beats, breakcore and hip-hop and emerge unscathed.

21.00 Institut Fatima (DE-ES) Live

Inspired by situationism, free improvisation, space universalism and spontaneous creation, Paul and Carsten (two German musicians based in Barcelona) explore new ways of controlling the generation of electronic music. Using small cameras, they operate their machines without touching them with their hands, so that their live act becomes a wireless show, full of movement and surrealism.

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13.00 Nikka (Lovethechaos / ES) Live

The most natural thing for Nikka is being among machines: she plays and experiments with them with such familiarity and confidence that she seems to have been born to do it. She is reflected in them like a mirror, and gives her audience a complex melange of sounds, rhythms and feelings that are apparently melancholy, but which have a strong personality. In her live show, she will be collaborating with Alba G. Corral on visuals.
17.30 Colch-ón vs. Suma (Foehn / ES) Live

Colch-ón, the solo project of Frank Rudow (Manta Ray), is a continuous experiment involving sampling, home-made electronic basses and noises created and manipulated in situ. Tetric and tantric pieces, which are simultaneously circular and broken up, which collide with the organic nature and sweetness of Suma, a new benchmark on Foehn. Music and audiovisuals as part of a single effort to create an experience that verges on the orchestral.

19.30 Tarantula vs Orquesta Caballo Ganador (Producciones Doradas / ES) Live

Vincent Leone, Joe Crepúsculo, Eneko Trece and Daniel Descabello take punk, electronica and transcendental pop to the most surprising iconoclastic, ruffian and erudite corners. They have won over critics and audiences alike through innumerable live shows and unrepeatable albums, sometimes offered to fans for free. For Sonar, the Orquesta del Caballo Ganador joins the combo to present one of their most magical moments.

21.00 Bèstia Ferida (Ozono Kids / ES) Live

Adrián de Alfonso (Veracruz, Don the Tiger), Arnau Sala (drummer with Les Aus) and trumpeter Mark Cunningham (icon of late seventies New York no wave and long-time Barcelona resident) make up the lineup of Bèstia Ferida: an internationally renowned conceptual noise trio with echoes of free jazz and post-rock, who have distortion and free structures as their only guidelines.

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13.00 Carlos Suárez (ES) Live

This Venezuelan composer and ethnomusicologist has created over forty acoustic and electro-acoustic works. His research trips around Venezuela and the Caribbean since 1989, mainly in the Afro-American cultural areas of the Caribbean and indigenous regions of the Amazon, have formed the basis for many recordings and studies of music and sonic landscapes. Sonic landscapes in danger of extinction, recorded in Venezuela and Galicia over a fifteen-year period, are used as raw material in this concert. These sounds have been processed and reconfigured in order to create a sonic perspective that is the basis for performance, using several instruments in Suárez's collection. These come from various cultures which the artist has studied in Venezuela and in Galicia, some of which are more than 600 years old.

17.30 Ben Frost (Bedroom Community / IS)

Australian-born Ben Frost, now living in Iceland since 2005, is one of those composers which can't be labelled. His music goes from the most rural ambient to post-minimalism, and though it's not a light approach, has easily appealed and worked with artists such Björk, aminaa or Valgeir Sigurðsson. Two years after being published, his wild "Theory of Machines" still represents one of the highlights of nowadays experimental electronica.

19.30 Pau Riba i Mil Simonis (ES) Live
Pau Riba, iconcoclastic, multifaceted and transgressive by definition, is a true institution on the Catalan scene, with a solid career as singer-songwriter with an ever-present sprinkling of provocation and controversy. In his current live act he shares the stage with Mil Somonis - with a lineup including Mil pesetas members, Don Simón and Telefunken - that add colour to Pau Riba's more hallucinogenic, playful side with an evocative and highly original minimalist instrumentation that sheds new light on the high points of his repertoire.

21.00 Penca Catalogue (ES) Live

Along with collaborators like Strand, Tape, Castropol, Kresy, Jumbil y Bacanal Intruder, Penca Catalogue leads itself into a new musical direction to couple two sides that they never thought they would look at each other: on one side, the remains of the British post-rave phenomenon and 2step rhythm, and on the other side 90's North American Indie-rock (Mercury Rev, Pavement, Yo la Tengo). A curious combination with lots of added shoegaze distortion and typical soul voices. A brave experiment under the name of gaystep.