SONAR LOVE

This year's edition of Sónar in Barcelona took the "female factor" as its starting point for showing the increasing feminization of today's electronic music. We wanted to find the deeper truth in there, but without too much planning. To let the "female factor" surprise us, we just gave the programme a short glance and put only M.I.A. on our wish list. Lots of other stuff to fall in love with...

We've been to quite some festivals and music conferences over the years, but never to Sónar. So this was a first timer. With the day programme situated in Barca's old Gothic city center and the night programme in an industrial zone located halfway between the old city and the airport, it seemed our hotel reservation wasn't too smart a move. The hotel wasn't close to either location. But Sónar isn't just about the festival, Barcelona is stuffed with cool places and clubs adding to the overall atmosphere. We turned out lucky from that perspective, the Razzmatazz was just three blocks away. We had a great time there.

But first Thursday. To celebrate the launch of their new album “Seventh Tree” Goldfrapp had the honour to open Sónar's night programme on the 19th. Four big halls and the open space in between scened the stages for the coming three nights. For night one - just one of these halls was accessible, and maybe only filled up half when Alison Goldfrapp plus band entered the stage.

"What kind of a bassist needs four different basses?" we wondered. It turned out the Plexiglas shine through P-bass not only looked cool, but made a perfect instrument for melodic basslines laying the foundation for the best tracks of the evening.

Goldfrapp - "Train"
Live at Sonar 2008

 1 | 2 | 3