Who needs mirror balls and spotlights when you can have fireworks of all colors and shapes? On Monday night, Reina Maria Cristina Avenue became a gigantic dance floor for a quite unique Pyromusical, which served as the culmination of the events of the 30th anniversary of the Sónar festival.
The event organizers, helped in the mixing by Phran, offered a musical selection built with healthy eclecticism, historicist desire, a taste for experiment and, above all, the desire to make people dance.
Well-known artists, some more than well-known, from the festival performed: see the case of the longed-for Ryuichi Sakamotoheard with Pan Sonic, Fennesz and the OBC in the 2004 edition, and with Alva Noto in 2006, 2011 and 2018. A first block was dedicated to him that started with the title cut of ‘Chasm’ (2004), fusion album of his most diverse instincts, and also included his version of ‘By this river’ (Brian Eno) with Alva Noto or an orchestral take of the theme from ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’. On that same block, space for avant-garde pop from here (Desert, Marina Herlop) or some outbreak of futuristic dance music (Koreless).
The second block started with Björk (absolute goddess of the festival in 2017, although she had already performed in 2003) and her heavenly ‘All is full of love’, but she was more focused on rap and so-called urban music: ‘hits’ of C. Tangana, Bad Gyal, Little Simz, Bad Bunny or course, Rosalia they alternated with some injection of house (‘Blind’ by Hercules and Love Affair) or sumptuous pop (‘Blue jeans’ by King’s wool).
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The revolutions rose in a third block with techno (Plastikman, Jeff Mills), IDM from another galaxy (Aphex Twin), ‘space disco’ (Todd Terje) or disco-funk in an irresistible loop: always immense ‘Around the world’, by daft punk, who debuted in Spain at Sónar in 1997, at the Mar Bella Pavilion. And the pace did not slow down with the fourth batch of songs, starting with ‘Fight for your right’, an ode to the party of Beastie Boysand even intensified with the contributions of LCD Soundsystem either The Chemical Brothers (‘Hey boy hey girl’ on Kink remix).
Some especially unbeatable classics were left for the final fireworks, from the double disco knockout of ‘Le freak’ and ‘Good times’ by chic to the inexhaustible ‘Blue Monday’ of New Orderpassing through the ‘Computer love’ of Kraftwerk. The farewell could not have been more euphoric: the multi-genre classic ‘Always on my mind’, in the approach of Pet Shop Boysilluminated by the most overwhelming explosions of the mini-festival.