Sónar 2024 – 14 June 2024 (Barcelona)

After a good opening day, with performances by Sevdaliza and Olof Dreijer with Diva Cruz, on Friday, it was time to return to Sónar at night, with the performances of Air, Jessie Ware and Kaytranada marked in red as essential… However, if you are looking for those chronicles in this text, we will save you 15 minutes of your life, because for family reasons the writer could not attend the night, of which we only include the photos taken by Mida Mideta, as well as the chronicle and photos of Friday’s Sónar by day.

Ela Minus, Sónar 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

Our first contact was to be with Colombian Ela Minus in the Sónar Hall. All the good things on her only previous LP, Acts of Rebellion (2020), were amplified in a show where harsh and heartbreaking electronics prevailed over the sensitivity of her voice. There was time to present what were essentially new songs, to get the whole pavilion dancing while she stood with her back to the audience and “fiddled” with her spectacular mixing desk, and even to play with some audio-visuals in which the countdown clock that marked the end of the show stood out, creating a feeling of finiteness similar to that of the last spoonful of that dish you like so much. Almost 50 minutes in which we couldn’t stop dancing, thanks to their unreleased songs or “Megapunk”, and that makes us eagerly await her new album, which is sure to be at the top of the best of the year lists…

Verde Prato, Sónar 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

We rushed to the Complex+D stage, only to find ourselves facing a diametrically opposed proposal like Verde Prato. The Basque singer gave an eminently pop concert in which the sweetness of her voice was the common thread between songs that were as close to the electronic music of ‘Maite, Nauzu Zeharkatu‘ as they were to the soft punk of her cover of ‘Zu atrapatu arte‘ by Kortatu. Quickly, and without realising it, we had reached the end of a concert which, as a surprise, featured another cover, ‘Opinión de Mierda‘ by Los Punsetes, which was very well received by the audience that remained in the auditorium at the time.

Kabeaushé, Sónar 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

Seeing the Basque artist’s show in its entirety meant that we missed the majority of Kabeaushé‘s performance on the stage in the Village. Against a backdrop of red lights, a theatrical blonde wig and questionable bullfighting costumes, the Kenyan was a fast-paced, electronic version of Belgium’s Stromae, jumping into the crowd and doing jerky dances. In the end, thanks to “These dishes aren’t going to do themselves” and, above all, a great song like “Banguk“, he managed to make even the most reluctant dance to his proposal.

Laurent Garnier, Sónar 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

Then, on the same stage, it was time for the big name of this edition of Sónar by day, both for his importance in dance music and in the history of the festival (he has performed more than 20 times) and for his last-minute cancellation on the same stage last year. Laurent Garnier knew from the start that he was the winner, thanks to the fact that he had the audience at his feet from the first second, and he was celebrated like a pop star from the start. We decided to stop by the stage from time to time during the almost 3 hours that the Frenchman served up little pills of techno and house, but we have to say that we don’t know if, having seen him so many times, we missed anything different apart from the people’s arms being thrown up in the air from time to time…

Kelly Moran, Sónar 2024 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©

To end the day, we decided to see what Kelly Moran had to offer at Complex +D. Apart from the American’s virtuosity on the piano and the initial shock of seeing piano performances on another “fictitious” piano projected on the stage behind her, her show was sometimes too slow and monotonous. Maybe something less minimalist and closer to jazz or electronica. would have been more appropriate for the time of the evening.