Sónar celebrates 30 years of future-facing sonics for its anniversary edition

It’s hard to believe that no one knew what ChatGPT was a little under six months ago. Since then, an AI-infused world has gone through every notion of optimism, controversy, and depression. Though, under the glare of the limelight, it’s easier than ever to imagine how AI technology could reshape the music industry as we know it.

Beneath the sun of Barcelona’s most western metropolis, there’s an intelligible buzz around what it all means. Street signs are pasted-up in an orange hue and delegates are proudly sporting t-shirts of the festival's past editions. This year, however, Sónar is set to combine the worlds of music and technology head-on, with a roster of global acts and 130+ activities and masterclass programming that cater to both professionals and inquisitive members of the public under the theme of “impact of Artificial Intelligence on music and the audiovisual and interactive arts.”

Sónar has been offering a platform for progression for over 30 years. Better than anyone, they have carved the Spanish capital into a vibrant hive of innovation that’s earnt a listing as a landmark tourist icon of Catalonia; or as they put it, to “create a festival that was as appealing to curious audiences as it was to those working in the creative industries… focused on discovery and experimentation but retained the hedonistic character of a festival.”

Sticking to Sónar’s multi-venue origins, the event is set across eight stages at two outer-city hubs - Fira Montjuïc a 200,000 square feet convention centre with easy connectivity from the Eixample district for Sónar by Day, and Fira Gran Via, an equally sizeable space in a new business development, with interconnected halls and walkways for music discovery at Sónar by Night.

While there isn’t necessarily anything hierarchal to the venues - for this is a festival of electronic music lovers who really know their shit - the SónarVillage is the main attraction for ‘by Day’. An opportunity to see some of the biggest acts (The Blessed Madonna, Black Coffee, Charlotte Agidėry & Bolis Popul) from the daytime programming in a colossal tent, encompassed by the Southbank Centre-esque building. Huge LED screens adorn the sides of the stage so that the audience can see exactly what and how artists are performing or DJing on stage – first brought to the festival in 2001 as the first innovation of its kind for an electronic music festival. The nearby SonarHall and SonarPark are set within the offshoots of the site and play host to some of the more experimentally-include offerings: live sets from the likes of pioneering composer Ryoji Ikeda, La Niña Jacarandá, and LEÏTI.

Sónar by Night, meanwhile, transforms the former aircraft hangar into a mini village for rave and dance culture from 9pm-7am. The layout is odd, with a massive expanse in the southwest corner and everything else packed up against the north. Anz is easily drowned out by the sound bleeding from SonarCar, and the metal surroundings pick up tinny echoes.

However, the standout performances easily outweigh any hiccups, and it’s SonarClub, with its colossal screens and booming sound system, that becomes the hub for the night’s biggest acts, and the first major buzz begins for Aphex Twin. Despite being no stranger to Sónar after first performing in 2001 and appearing several times since the atmosphere on the ground feels momentous. With a weighty back catalogue and love of spectacle, his hybrid set blends hardcore and club tracks as the concrete room floods with intense light and his unmistakable logo.

The visual artist responsible is collaborator Weirdcore, an elusive designer who builds visual worlds with an absurdist aesthetic. Whether it’s morphing tonight’s show into a sensory assault or creating visuals for the likes of M.I.A and even Miley Cyrus, his acid-tinged colour extremes hold a mirror up to the absurdities of Sónar and continues into the other side to the festival away from the nocturnal activity, where he offers a talk the afternoon after the night before.

The conferencing space, Sónar D+, is comparable to what many festivals have on offer in the 21st century – masterclasses, workshops, and keynote speeches à la SXSW, The Great Escape, and now, the neighbouring Primavera Sound. Nuggets of wisdom come from producer, writer, and thinker Elijah, who returns to the festival for his Yellow Square lecture, after previously attending as an artist, manager, and pundit. Backed by thought-provoking gambits, one slide states “the ‘industry’ wasn’t built to sustain the amount of active artists we have today’ – another comments on whether an industry was ‘built’. Elsewhere, Sónar D+’s Project Area offers a multi-sensory playground for seeing, hearing, and touching tools and instruments, putting the user at the centre of the activity with listening and gaming posts that represent future technologies and multimedia art.

For all its tailored highlights, however, Sónar also deals in polymaths of pop and rap. This year, curiously, Fever Ray and Little Simz pick up late-night slots, while house staple Peggy Gou performs in a more unusual context. It’s one hour into her 3-5am set and there’s no sign of “Starry Night” or new single “(It Goes Like) Nanana”; instead, she keeps the beats mechanically harsh and blends chameleon-like between the likes of The Chemical Brothers’ “All Of A Sudden” and Chris Lake’s remix of “Looking At Your Pager” by KH. It’s the correct tack for a festival so assured in its audience; where gateways only lead somewhere darker than the shadows already visited.

A focus on forward-thinking performance leaves little lost in translation as Eric Prydz presents his three-dimensional HOLO show on Saturday evening. Praised as one of the most innovative audio-visual performances in dance music, the project applies technology to live performance with a loose storyline that concludes in a strobe-filled wormhole, following holographic encounters with a beluga whale, astronauts, cityscapes, and mechanical arms. Yet, the most striking thing about HOLO is how human-centric it feels. Prydz is seen gleaming behind the lighting rig in brief moments of silence, praising the crowd while their jaws drop.

And so, as words fail, Sónar’s universal language of dance music speaks. Attendees are encouraged to keep on keeping with the best of the world’s electronic talent, and if the official billing wasn’t enough, the dubbed OFFSónar cleanses the palette with an alternate city takeover, backed by strongholds Elrow, Circoloco + more. All eyes now focus on the next 30 years of Sónar.