“We are in the week of Sónar”. For a Barcelonan like the one who signs these lines, being able to shout this phrase out loud again is a joy and, in a certain way, also a relief. It is true that that Sónar+D CCCB was already held in September 2020, but the small audience in attendance was always seated and distanced and, everything is said, Sónar is not about that. It is about avant-garde, about advanced music, about the techniques of the future, but also about dancing, uniting, hugging and getting excited. All this is what is expected to happen from today until Saturday at the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona. For friends, the CCCB.
Right here, a little over a month ago, we told you everything that Sónar was proposing with its double date in a reduced format for this fall: the AI and Music S+T+ARTS Festival (a festival focused on the confluence between music and artificial intelligence) and the SónarCCCB. In total, the event brings together more than 300 artists, researchers and scientists who will offer more than 100 activities including concerts, conferences, demonstrations, workshops, projections and audiovisual capsules. Everything, with the public standing and without distancing. Of course: with a mask as long as you are not eating or drinking and always having presented a valid covid certificate when entering. We already know how things are...
We will be present every day of both appointments to tell you the best of what happens. What will it be? Hard to know for now. But, for now, we have very clear 10 performances -in chronological order- that, for sure, we are not going to skip. We invite you to discover with us.
1. Marco Mezquida pres. “Piano + AI” (Wednesday 27, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., L'Auditori)
The pianist, composer and improviser of both jazz and classical music Marco Mezquida will open the AI and Music S+T+ARTS Festival tonight with an unprecedented concert for everyone, but especially for him, in the Oriol Martorell Hall of L'Auditori . His collaborator, this time, will not be human. Mezquida will face an artificial intelligence instrument developed by scientists and engineers from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) that will recognize the different techniques of the pianist and will respond in real time, generating different synthetic soundscapes.
2. AWWZ b2b AI DJ (Thursday 28, 7:40 p.m., Hall Stage)
This is another of the co-creations designed especially for the festival. The Catalan producer and DJ AWWZ will also collaborate with an Artificial Intelligence designed by a team of researchers from the UPC. The show will intersect the classification of genres with AI, performance and the participation of the public, who will be invited to interact with the AI itself. This has been trained to, based on musical data, emojis and texts that reflect moods, conclude musical suggestions. AWWZ will choose from the AI results to string together their session, thus inviting reflection on questions of musical taste and the ability of DJs to read audiences. This could be a very interesting first look at the future of DJing.
3. Holly Herndon Pres. Holly+ feat. Maria Arnal, Tarta Relena and Matthew Dryhurst (Thursday 28, 7:45 p.m. to 8:25 p.m., Teatre Stage)
This is, without a doubt, one of the highlights of the AI and Music S+T+ARTS Festival. The American Holly Herndon (whom we were talking about a few days ago) lands in Barcelona with her new project Holly + hers, which has turned her into a practically virtual reality. Her tool based on her artificial intelligence is capable of processing polyphonic sound based on a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization on the blockchain). For a few days now, Holly has been at the Hangar creative space in Barcelona's Poblenou working with three of the most striking voices of the Barcelona avant-garde: Maria Arnal and the Tarta Relena duo. The auditory portrait of Holly + will sing the audio uploaded by the vocalists using the voice of the American, thus presenting a Holly + show unpublished to date together with her faithful creative collaborator Mat Dryhurst.
4. AI Rave by Dadabots x Hexorcismos dataset by Dublab (Thursday 28, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Pati de les Dones)
A few years ago, we would have given them up for crazy. But here we are, explaining that, for 12 hours, we will dance to the rhythm of a machine. Specifically, that of a neural network that has been trained with the archive of radio programs from the dublab platform, always under the supervision of the Dadabots laboratory and the producer Hexorcisms. In total, more than 1,000 programs broadcast over six years confirm the database that this artificial intelligence will use to, through algorithms, generate totally new music and make us dance outdoors in the CCCB's Pati de les Dones.
5. Object Blue & Natalia Podgorska live av (Friday 29, 7:55 p.m. to 8:55 p.m., SónarComplex)
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We put artificial intelligence aside and immersed ourselves in SónarCCCB. The first essential stop is at the SónarComplex. There, the versatile and always unpredictable Object Blue will join Natalia Podgorska to offer one of her first audiovisual shows after the pandemic. Characterized by deconstructing sounds to build on them again, Object Blue drinks from grime, techno, the most thunderous beats and the most elegant minimalism. The Chinese based in the United Kingdom arrives at SónarCCCB with her EP Sogno (published together with TVSI on Nervous Horizon) under her arm. Listening to it is enough claim not to miss her direct.
6. Tirzah (Friday 29, 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., SónarHall by Thunder Bitch)
I'm not lying when I say that in several electronica concerts in recent weeks in Barcelona I've heard the phrase “let's go on Friday, Tirzah will play”. The South London artist substantiates for the umpteenth time on her recently released album Colourgrade her passion and mastery of UK bass music in all its forms. Trip-hop, grime, garage, dubstep... Drinking from all these influences, she makes her lo-fi proposal one of the safest in terms of "intimate and confessional" soul, as they say from Sónar.
7. Cora Novoa & The Artifacts ft. Shooter A/V Set (Friday 29, 11:20 p.m. to 11:59 p.m., SónarHall by Thunder Bitch)
Another super unmissable. The project stems from the residence of the Galician based in Barcelona Cora Novoa at the Taller de Músics. The band The Artifacts was born there, starting from Cora's techno to explore paths close to urban trends such as flamenco, dub and even reggaeton. The visual will be handled by Tirador, an artist who starts from appropriation and collage. At SónarCCCB, he will question authorship through the appropriation of images, he will dialogue with technology and analyze the languages born on the Internet.
8. Marina Herlop (Saturday 30, 6:15 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., SónarComplex)
What can we say about Marina Herlop that hasn't already been said? The Catalan artist consolidates herself in the European avant-garde with her recent and brand new signing for the cult label PAN, through which she published her latest song, "Miu", which has received positive reviews from all the specialized press and which serves as a preview of what will be their third album. Marina moves between jazz, classical music, opera, advanced electronics, dance, performance and stage design. Ella's Pairidaeza show has amazed the city and her voice continues to break down the most traditional barriers. If you haven't seen it live yet, you can't not if you're at the CCCB on Saturday.
9. Il Quadro di Troisi (Saturday 30, 8:00 p.m. to 8:55 p.m., SónarComplex)
They don't like it being advertised a lot for fear of it serving as a claim and generating wrong expectations, but we are here to inform you and the truth is that Il Quadro di Troisi is the joint project of two flagships of Italian advanced techno like Eva Geist and Donato Dozzy. Together, they released an album in 2020 that they now perform live to swim in the idyllic waters of synth-pop. Inspired by director Massimo Troisi's surreal comedies and surrounded by analog synthesizers and drum machines, Il Quadro di Troisi promises to evoke preciousness in abundance at Complex.
10. Koreless (Saturday 30, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., SónarComplex)
It's going to be difficult for us to leave the SónarComplex on Saturday, yes. But, how are we going to miss out on what is surely the most traditional name on the entire SónarCCCB lineup? Koreless is the alias of Welsh producer Lewis Roberts, a guy who already turned Sónar upside down in 2016 with his audiovisual show 'The Well'. In recent times, Koreless has been working for FKA Twigs, while finalizing the details of his debut album. In his spare time, he has dazzled giants like Caribou with stellar remixes… and, we suppose, has prepared something big to close the SónarCCCB, combining advanced sound design with classic song structures and elements of British bass. We will close the adventure in style.