Sounds of Sónar back in Barcelona

Sónar, the an­nual music fes­ti­val that is a must for urban club­bers re­turns to Barcelona from June 18 to 20, with big-name in­ter­na­tional head­lin­ers, such as The Chem­i­cal Broth­ers, Skrillex and Duran Duran. Tak­ing place in two venues, Sónar by Day will be based at the Fira Mon­tjuic, while Sónar by Night will be at the Fira Gran Via. In all, the fes­ti­val will in­clude some 150 acts in the three days it lasts.

The Chem­i­cal Broth­ers, will be one of the most pop­u­lar high­lights at the 22nd edi­tion of the dig­i­tal cul­ture music fes­ti­val, with the dance duo pre­sent­ing ma­te­r­ial from their new album, Born In The Echoes, in what is likely to be a spec­tac­u­lar live show on the Sonar­Club stage in the Sónar by Night sec­tion. Their live con­cert is sched­uled to begin at 1.30 am on Sat­ur­day 20.

How­ever, the night be­fore will see Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, weave his adren­a­line-pump­ing magic in a re-en­vis­aged show that promises to turn Sónar's biggest dance-floor up­side down. The six-time Grammy award win­ner will per­form at 3.15 am in the early hours of Fri­day morn­ing also at Sonar­Club. Mean­while, the other huge in­ter­na­tional name comes in the shape of peren­nial chart-top­ping rock band, Duran Duran, on Sat­ur­day 20 at 10.30pm also at Sonar­Club. It will be the Sónar debut for the British band that has sold more than 100 mil­lion records dur­ing its 35-year ca­reer.

Also pro­grammed to ap­pear over the three days of the fes­ti­val are per­form­ers such as Autechre, Lee Gam­ble, Evian Christ, Ki­as­mos, Kind­ness, Fat Freddy's Drop, Tourist, Daniel Avery, Ten Walls, So­phie, Holly Hern­don, Kate Tem­pest, Ves­sel, Niño, Mans O and He­lena Hauff.

How­ever, the elec­tronic music fes­ti­val will also fea­ture plenty of local tal­ent, with per­for­mances from some 30 do­mes­tic artists rep­re­sent­ing the full panorama of dig­i­tal and ex­per­i­men­tal music mak­ing, which in­cludes such di­verse gen­res as R&B, noise, techno, synth boo­gie, house, dub, bass music, elec­tro pop, fla­menco, chill­wave, latin beats, Italo-funk and trap.

Among the local con­certs to look out for is the Sónar debut of Madrid remixer and elec­tronic mu­si­cian, Pi­o­nal (Miguel Bar­ros), who will be ap­pear­ing with new ma­te­r­ial at SonarLab in Sónar by Night on Sat­ur­day 20 at 11.30pm. Other high­lights in­clude the Barcelona-based Span­ish trap sen­sa­tion PXXR GVNG on Sat­ur­day 20 at 1:40am at Sonar­Car in Sónar by Night and the mys­te­ri­ous foot­work duo ¥€$Ø at 3.30am on the same day.

Synth boo­gie will be rep­re­sented by the likes of Niño at the SonarHall stage in Sónar by Day on Sat­ur­day at 2.30pm, with ma­chine music by Cata­lan out­fit, Ca­boSan­Roque, on the Sónar by Day Sonar­Com­plex stage on Sat­ur­day at 8.30pm. Mean­while, Niño de Elche will per­form rave fla­menco, also at the Sonar­Com­plex ear­lier at 5pm.

Last-minute ad­di­tions to the line-up in­clude two new per­for­mances on the SonarVil­lage stage at Sónar by Day: Toronto mu­si­cian and com­poser Owen Pal­lett and his­toric US pro­ducer and remixer Arthur Baker.

For full in­for­ma­tion of the fes­ti­cal and events visit the Sónar 2015 web­site: http://​sonar.​es/​en/​2015.