A Taste of Sónar, Roundhouse

Can summer in Barcelona be encapsulated in Camden?

by Joe MuggsSunday, 20 March 2011

Buraka Som Sistema demonstrate the universal language of... musicAll images by Matthew Cheetham

The Sónar festival occupies a very special place in the New Music calendar – and is this year expanding outwards temporally and geographically, with new franchises in Tokyo and A Coruña, Galicia. Now into its 17th year, the parent festival in Barcelona serves as a vital meeting point for those of all stripes who refuse to acknowledge the polarisation of avant-garde and populism, or of club culture and the mainstream music industry. With 10 or more main stages and untold off-piste club events around the city, it would be impossible to condense even a single day and night of Sónar Barcelona into a standard gig-venue show, but that's what A Taste of Sónar tried to do last night.

There's a fine line between encouraging networking and simply filling rooms with the gaseous bellowing of industry blowhards

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