Article about SONAR - 西班牙

首先，稍上遲了很久的祝賀。這個版的成立真是對西班牙感興趣的
朋友們天大的福音。

這裡來野人獻曝一下。配合這個月版上的主題，這篇刊載在 2003 年
六月號 The Wire 雜誌上的文章，是介紹巴塞隆納近年來最有名的電
子音樂節 SONAR。一年一度，從 1995 年開始舉辦的 SONAR，如今已
經成為全球最重要的電子音樂節之一，它不僅固定聚集了全世界最優
秀的 DJ 和電子音樂家們，或許更重要的是，正如這篇文章當中所提
到的一樣，它更逐漸成為一種自由和開放精神的象徵。

已經邁入第十一年的 SONAR，今年將在六月十七至十九日舉行，如果
各位有興趣，可以參考它相當前衛的官方網站:

http://www.sonar.es/

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The Wire

Issue 232

June 2003

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Editor's Idea

Way back in June 1995, I found myself dispatched with a suit
case full of magazines to Barcelona, with instructions to flog
them at this festival called Sonar. With no idea what to expect
("festival" having previously denoted a campsite somewhere in the
Quantocks), the approach to the event's entrance gate at the centre
of Contemporary Culture was an thrilling then as it remains today,
ten years later. As your body adjusts to the midday Catalan heat,
you push thought the crowds on Las Ramblas, heading past a fine old
Art Nouveau farmacia, and by the time you pass the entrance to the
mysterious sounding street, Carrer del Doctor Dou, you are beginning
to feel the thud of powerful turbo sound systems under your soles
in your soul. In 95, the area immediately outside the CCCB entrance
was populated only by a few local kids kicking a football and lobbing
firecrackers. Nowadays you'll find yourself hounded by the legion of
satellite trades that go hand in hand with any large outdoor event;
hair braiders, beer and water out of ice-filled oildrums, tobacco and
narcotic services, etc.

This month, Sonar hosts its tenth festival, an event which promises to
be the biggest yet. Its growth is a remarkable story, aided in no small
measure by the support of the local council, who have seen it as a
complement to the regeneration of Barcelona's inner city. Back in 95,
the day events seemed pretty quiet: most of the outdoor courtyard, which
nowadays is rammed with thousands of people, was at that time screened
off with a discreet line of small conifers. You never had to queue either
to imbibe or discharge fluids, and there was hardly an advertising logo
in sight. You could peep over the shoulder at what some of the continent's
most artful and creative DJs were spinning on the potter's wheel, and
watch from close up performances of alchemical intensity from the likes
of Jorge Reyes, Biosphere, Scorn and Kenny Larkin.

It was a remarkable experience in other ways: meeting so many festivalgoers,
label owners and musicians revealed, in a way that wasn't clear from
sitting behind a desk, the accumulation of a network of musical
interconnection and unity of purpose that was extending far and wide
across the European mainland and beyond, enlightened and trans-generational.
This was a Europe that was unbelievably far from the vision of Mitteleuropa
so often (and still, lamentably) propagandized by the popular UK press,
one that apes English and American pop forms in silly accents. On the
contrary, this generation was self-confident, attuned to technology,
communications and distribution systems and finding a common language
in electronica's liberating channels of non-verbal energy.

It was inspirational, and continues to be after ten years in which the
enterprise has mushroomed on a mammoth scale. There are those who complain
about the size and the branding, and it's true that there remain contentious
issues around, for example, the lack of remuneration for smaller artists
who add underground credibility to the event, unlike the more bankable
names.

But Sonar's absurdly small team, like the dedicated people who put together
the ATP festivals, are not opportunists, but utopians focusing an alternative
global network in unusual spaces. Nevertheless they are produced in a real
world of contingency. In that light, marshalling hundreds of musicians,
each with their own demands and peculiarities, coping with the security
and pleasure zones of almost 100,000 visitors, they have created an
experience unlike any other, one that still feels like it's about
connecting people and ideas rather them only trying to sell you stuff.
These events contain plenty that intersects with the Wire's orbit, so
we'll be turning out in force in Barcelona and Los Angeles once more
this month.

Rob Young

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* Copyright in the UK and abroad is held by the publisher or by
freelance contributors.

** 文章中提到了一些巴塞隆納的地名，這可能要請加泰郎來解說會清楚
的多。


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