An annual institution of experimental sounds in Barcelona, Sonar jumped the Atlantic this year and touched down in two of Chicago’s most elaborate settings this weekend for what organizers hope will be the first of an annual stateside showcase of the avant garde in the shaping of sound.
The free three-day event included several lectures and a selection of movies but performance was the focus and the festival was handed the keys to Chicago’s Millennium Park and the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion for the opening night concert on Thursday evening. Cloudy skies and the early arrival of fall temperatures might have tamped down the crowd numbers a bit, but did nothing to impact the performers on stage.
Plenty of lawn space and no shortage of seats in front of the stage were available as Detroit wunderkind Jimmy Edgar set into his live set. Working alone on the massive stage built to fit a symphony, Edgar filled the space with plenty of volume break beats ringed with jazz-tinged noise around the edges. His set whisked through tempos but held a sonic consistency. It might have been too loud for the crowd on hand, but her certainly did his job of putting the Pavilion’s sound system through its paces.
Up next was The Slew, Kid Koala’s latest project that shows off how his turntablist skills can be put to work playing rock music. The set was noisy and bombastic with plenty of rough edges around the grinding scratched guitar riffs coming from the two sets of turntables being worked on stage while live drums and bass were provided by the former rhythm section of Wolfmother. This was jarring rock for the vinyl set.
The final set of the opening night was the only DJ performance on the official Sonar schedule (numerous Sonar after parties and club nights also took place in Chicago this weekend.) The task of closing the opening night fell to Martyn’s capable hands, and the Dutch DJ/Producer was more than capable of giving the crowd what they were looking for. Opening with Debbie Deb’s “Lookout Weekend” his set veered between styles and genres with a focus on complex rhythms and heavy beats. He must have sensed the crowd was older and got everyone to their feet with Inner City’s “Big Fun” toward the end of a set that he seemed ready to continue long past the curfew set for the night by the city.
On Friday the events moved indoors, across Michigan Avenue at Chicago’s striking Cultural Center. With later afternoon lectures on the first floor, for the next two evenings performances alternated between the second floor theater and stately Preston Bradley Hall one floor above. While the music wasn’t all abstractions from here on out, the settings turned things into seated affairs.
This arrangement seemed almost cruel Friday evening when Nosaj Thing brought his chunky trip hop concoctions to the event. Playing in front of minimalistic visuals provided by Fair Enough, the LA producers could surely have had every member of the overflow crowd moving had the room not been filled with auditorium chairs. Instead those lucky enough to be packed into the room had to settle for bobbing their heads to his thoroughly sliced breaks and rough-edged slabs of other noise.
The music took a more abstract approach with Berlin-based Markus Popp performing expanded takes on the soundscapes he put together for his latest release as Oval. Pops and plunks washed and echoed beneath the world’s largest Tiffany glass dome that sits over the room. Rhythmic elements provided free jazz moments and teases of bass growled from the powerful and finely tuned sound system. The seated crowd was much better positioned for this set, as Popp, stoic behind his laptop, strung together pieces of noise until the definitions of melodies appeared and his sonic structures took shape. The sources of the noises non-descript, but their combined purpose present and ringing.
Unfortunately I was not able to attend the performances from the rest of the weekend, which included another full evening of shows at the cultural center and an apparently packed night at Smartbar. I did however score some time to talk with Popp about his approach to music and why it took close to a decade for his recently released double LP O to come about. Check back later this week for that interview.
Leave A Comment!