- A chat with the co-director of one of electronic music's biggest festivals.
- The tagline for Barcelona's Sonar festival is "Advanced Music and Multimedia Art." There's a reason for that. Since its beginnings in the mid-'90s, the event has aimed to bring worlds together. Worlds that don't often meet. These days it may be de rigueur for a festival to book Holger Czukay, Sven Väth and Atom Heart next to one another. Sonar is one of the reasons that it seems completely normal. Through the years, the festival has also forged long-standing partnerships with artists like Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin and Matthew Herbert, which has meant that world premiere performances (and special one-offs) are almost a given. We met with Sonar co-director Enric Palau in London to talk about the event's origins and its unique place in the world of electronic music earlier this year.
TracklistSteve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians - ECM
Arto Lindsay - Prefeelings - Righteous Babe
Holger Czukay - La Luna - Tone Casualties
Cybersonik - Technarchy - Plus 8
Bjork - Pagan Poetry - One Little Indian
Ramadanman - The Woon - 2nd Drop
Jeff Mills - Basic Human Design - Tresor
Matthew Herbert - The Final Meal of Stacey Lawton - Accidental
Girl Unit - Wut - Night Slugs
Scorn - Scorpionic - Earache
Magnetic Man - Crossover - Columbia