Sonar - International Festival of Advanced Music

Sónar presents the first Sónar Chicago on the 9th, 10th and 11th of September 2010

The Slew feat. Kid Koala, Oval, Martyn, Lesley Flanigan, Ben Frost and Nicolas Bernier + Martin Messier: La Chambre des Machines and Jimmy Edgar are some of the confirmed artists. The Catalan contingent consists of Bradien, bRUNA, Huan and Faraón.


After the excellent experience in 2009, when two events were held in New York and Washington, Sónar returns to the United States, this time to present a three-day festival, created especially for the occasion.

The objective is to take the philosophy of the Barcelona festival to the North American city, with all the features that have made Sónar an international touchstone: with an ambitious and high quality line-up featuring plenty of electronic experimentation and its derivations and unusual venues of the highest calibre, in this case the Jay Pritzker Pavilion – designed by Frank Ghery – in the popular Millennium Park (the 9th of September) and the famous Chicago Cultural Center (the 10th and 11th of September).

Some of the artists confirmed to date are The Slew (the scratch-rock project led by the wizard on the decks Kid Koala), Oval (a key project in 1990s electronica, featuring Germany’s Markus Popp, back with a new album), the Australian – resident in Iceland - Ben Frost (one of the most acclaimed sonic experimentalists working today), Nosaj Thing (the Los Angeles beatmaker featuring a show with serious visual impact), the Dutchman Martyn (a key name at the techno-dubstep crossroads), Nicolas Bernier + Martin Messier: La Chambre des Machines (a Canadian duo that base their show on rudimentary noise machines from the early twentieth century) or Lesley Flanigan (a New York artist who constructs her music with hand-made instruments and the sounds created by her own voice) among others.

Catalan performers are headed by two artists from the renowned Barcelona label spa.RK: Bradien (an experimental and tropical pop trio) and bRUNA (the creator of electronica with a heavy emotional charge). Two new projects seeking new musical languages will also be present, in the shape of Huan (folk, noise and experimentation) and Faraón (psychedelia, Krautrock and jazz).

As well as all that, Sónar Chicago expands its line-up with its collaboration with Adventures In Modern Music (AIMM), the five-day festival organised by the renowned British magazine The Wire and the promoters at the Empty Bottle, one of the city’s most important venues. In its eighth outing this year, it presents shows by The Rhys Chatham Trio, Sleep and Efterklang, among others.

Meanwhile, SonarCinema presents five films: “Synth Britannia” (the BBC documentary telling the story of the birth of synth pop in Great Britain), “Amplified Gesture” (a film produced by David Sylvian on the art of improvisation), “Sensuous Cornelius” (the excellent filming of the live show by the Japanese musician), “Finisterrae” (the full-length film providing the image for Sónar 2010) and “Sónar Around The World” (which documents an entire year of Sónar, produced and made by Televisió de Catalunya).

Sónar Chicago is the result of an initiative by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs -the public office planning and promoting musical, performance, and visual arts events in Chicago-, the Institut Ramon Llull, -the consortium made up of the Government of Catalonia and the Government of the Balearic Islands-, Advanced Music -the creators of Sónar festival - and AC Entertainment -the promoter of the Bonnaroo festival-.

Details of the complete line-up and the performance times and days of each of the artistic projects in Sónar Chicago will be announced soon.