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Sónar and Sónar +D 2022 showcase Catalan music and digital creation
For Sónar 2022, the advanced music festival has included a total of 22 performances by Catalan groups and soloists in a line-up packed with big names on the international scene. The festival programme includes a broad range of proposals from the most interesting global trends today, offering a unique opportunity for Catalan musicians to perform their creations before local and international audiences.
Sónar will include performances by: ANNA, Arca, AWWZ, b1n0, DJohnston, El Bobe, ETM, Gela, Hamill Industries & Kiani del Valle, IHHH & Desilence, Ivy Barkakati, Juicy Bae, Lucient, Maria Arnal & Marcel Bagés, MBODJ, Miret, Morad, Pedro Vian & Mana, Rojuu, Simona, Tarta Relena and Virginie.
The Catalan music proposals included on the Sónar bill confirm the consolidation and full integration of Catalonia’s experimental scene within today’s leading international trends. The array of clubs and festivals, both in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, ensure fluid, organic import and export of influences and energy from other music scenes.
Presentation of the Catalan music scene with Javier Blánquez
This year, as in previous editions of the festival, the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies (ICEC) is partnering with Sónar with an activity organised under its internationalisation brand, Catalan Arts – Music. On 16 June, at 12 midday, Javier Blánquez, a journalist and teacher of the history of modern music, will give a session for international journalists accredited at Sónar where he will talk about the Catalan scene and present the latest music creations made in Catalonia.
With the goal of enhancing dissemination of these groups’ performances at Sónar 2022, Catalan Arts has published the playlist Sónar 2022 #CatalanMusic on the Spotify Catalan Music channel. Furthermore, in order to achieve a broader dissemination of Catalan participation in the festival in general, the ICEC has published the electronic flyer Catalan Music at Sónar & Sónar+D, intended to help Catalan agents and companies increase their visibility in the global circuit.
Catalan creative technologies sector out in force for Sónar+D 2022
The ICEC is supporting Sónar+D 2022, the international creativity and technology congress organised in parallel to the main festival, which will also feature a strong Catalan presence.
Almost 30 activities within the programme, including talks, installations and exhibitions, involve Catalan experts, professionals and companies at some level. At Stage +D, a completely new space devoted to lectures and hybrid performances, the scheduled talks include “What art can teach us about the Web3“, with the participation of Fernando Cucchietti from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Thursday, 16 June, 3.15 pm); the presentation of “Bioacoustics, the science of the sound of Life, can take humanity back to Nature” by Michel André, founder and director of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia’s Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) (Thursday, 16 June, 5.00 pm). At 4.30 pm on Saturday 18 June, there will be a presentation of “5uuoPRPPW%A%“, three unique audiovisual projects by some of Barcelona’s most talented visualist artists, DOES, gtxdlr & Laura Rigau and ¥€$Si PERSE, and at 6.00 pm, the artist Tupac Martir will present “Haita“, a performance with music based on Mexican songs and Portuguese fados that uses cutting-edge scientific and creative technology.
Within the Lounge+D by Patreon, for accredited journalists only, there will be a small corner called Corner+D by Patreon, with personal Q&A sessions, meetings with the community, and a series of debates with artists and speakers appearing at both Sónar and Sónar+D. This space will also have a strong Catalan presence, including a Q&A with Maria Arnal and José Luis de Vicente (Thursday, 16 June, 3.00 pm), a demonstration of the operation of the “Hyperorgan“, developed by Blancafort OM and the technologist Santi Vilanova from Playmodes (Thursday, 16 June, 3.45 pm), meetings focused on music, technology, art and blockchain projects, and three “meet & drinks” sessions with Catalan DJs.
At the SonarÀgora, organised this year in partnership with ISEA 2022 Barcelona and Hac Te, the IDIBELL (Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research) will present the results of its experiment “Being a curious music mind” (Thursday, 16 June, 1.30 pm); the Barcelona company Voctro Labs will talk to us about the singing voice synthesizers they have been developing for the last ten years (Friday, 17 June, 1.30 pm); and the UPC artists and scientists who took part in the AI and Music S+T+Arts Festival in October 2021 will analyse the products developed at the session “Creativity and AI, Three case studies from the AI + Music S+T+Arts Festival” (Friday, 17 June, 3.00 pm).
Finally, the new exhibition area SonarMàtica by Tezos includes a number of installations, noteworthy amongst which are those developed by Catalan artists and technologists: “Carbolytics” by Joana Moll, “NAN (Not An NFT)” by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and “Non Dimensional Cities”, in which Dutch developer Marnix de Nijs works with the New Art Foundation. In addition, the sound artist Lugh O’Neill has created “Karst” during a residence organised by Sónar and the CCCB. Lastly, the “NFT Exhibition” includes works by artists such as Alba G. Corral, Anna Carreras and Franc Aleu.
Sónar+D is an initiative by Advanced Music and CCCB, supported by, amongst others, the Catalan Ministry of Culture, through the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies’ Catalan Arts brand.
