More than 8,000 people attended the 30 shows and activities programmed over the last three days in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion auditorium in the Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center.

Sónar Chicago offered a highly experimental line-up. Among the highlights were the shows by The Slew con Kid Koala, the noisism of the Iceland-based Australian Ben Frost, New York's Lesley Flanigan, the futuristic electronic post-funk of the Detroit artist Jimmy Edgar, the Canadian project La Chambre des Machines -with their genuine futuristic machines from the early twentieth century - and the session by the Dutch post-dubstep producer Martyn which turned Millennium Park in central Chicago into an unusual and enormous dancefloor.

The presence of Catalan artists at the festival was also a very positive aspect. The shows by Bradien, bRUNA, Huan and Faraón attracted a substantial audience and generated an enthusiastic response.

In collaboration with Red Bull Music Academy, the Sónar Club Night, with a full house in the Smart Bar, presented the legendary project Black Devil Disco Club and a set by Applebim, among others.

Sónar Chicago was possible thanks to the initiative of the Institut Ramon Llull - the consortium consisting of the Government of Catalonia and the Government of the Balearic Islands - the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Advanced Music, creators of the festival in Barcelona - and AC Entertainment, the promoter of the Bonaroo festival, among other events.

Visit the Sónar Chicago photo report.

The passes for Sonar Barcelona 2011 will go on sale at special prices on 14 October. The offer is limited and involves substantial savings.

Sónar 2011 Pass (includes 3 days and 2 nights): 130 €.
Special price available until 15 January.

Professionals attending SonarPro in 2010 will also have access to an interesting and exclusive offer for purchasing their accreditation for 2011.

SonarPro 2011 accreditation: 155€.
Special price for SonarPro 2010 accreditation holders only. Offer available only until 15 November.

On September 9, 10 and 11 , Sónar will be staging the 1st Sónar Chicago, a festival that will take place in the city’s highest level exceptional venues, and which bases its artistic personality on the DNA of the festival in Barcelona.

Over 3 days, the first Sónar Chicago will present over 30 activities, including concerts, conferences and film projections.

The opening event will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 9 September in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, located in the famous Millennium Park, featuring performances by the Detroit musician and producer Jimmy Edgar, who will be presenting his new album, the scratch-rock band The Slew amb Kid Koala, and the Dutch dj Martyn, as well as the Catalan projects Bradien and Faraón.

During the afternoons of Friday 10 and Saturday 11 September, the events will take place in the Chicago Cultural Center: they include shows by Australia's Ben Frost, one of today's most acclaimed sonic investigators, New York's Lesley Flanigan, California's Nosaj Thing and the legendary German experimental musician Oval, who will also be presenting new work.

The projects by Barcelona's renowned label spa.RK, Bradien and bRUNA, and the artists Faraón and Huan will represent today's Catalan music scene.

The musical programme during the night will take place at two clubs in Chicago with an extensive electronic tradition. On 10 September, the Sónar Club Night at the Smart Bar, organised in collaboration with the Red Bull Music Academy, will present live shows by Black Devil Disco Club and Space Dimension Controller and the djs Appleblim, Cosmin TRG and Todd Osborn. At Empty Bottle, Sónar Chicago is collaborating with the Adventures in Modern Music (AIMM) season of concerts, organised by the magazine The Wire.

As well as the new series of confirmed shows in collaboration with Red Bull Music Academy, there are conferences featuring the major talents in today's club sounds: Applebim and Ron Trent, who will talking about and sharing their music and experiences at the Randolph Café in the Chicago Cultural Centre.

Sónar Chicago will also have its own SonarCinema in the Garland Room of the Chicago Cultural Center, where many documentaries and films about advanced music will be shown.

Sónar Chicago is the result of an initiative of the Institut Ramon Llull - the consortium made up of the Government of Catalonia and the Government of the Balearic Islands - the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Advanced Music – the creators of the festival in Barcelona - and AC Entertainment, the promoter of the Bonaroo festival.

All the shows and activities at the festival are free of charge and open to all, except for the Sónar Club Night and Adventures in Modern Music (AIMM) events, which are subject to a separate entry fee.

Sónar Chicago, which will be held for the first time between the 9 and the 11th of September, has now completed its final program with the additions of a special Sonar Club Night at Smart Bar and the Red Bull Music Academy lecturers at the Chicago Cultural Centre.

Space Dimension Controller, Black Devil Disco Club and Appleblim are among the artists that will join the line-up.

On Friday 10th of September, the Red Bull Music Academy will host a special Sónar Club Night: musical pioneers past, present and future from the extended Academy universe will bring the ruckus at Chicago’s legendary basement club, Smart Bar

Starting with the undisputed man of the moment, Space Dimension Controller, Ann Arbor’s native Todd Osborn straight after warms up the night with an eclectic mix from oldskool jungle to deep house. The program will then introduce live astral traveller Bernard Fevre, aka Black Devil Disco Club, hitek house of Bucharest’s Cosmin TRG, followed by the new dubstep sound of Appleblim.

Also, the Red Bull Music Academy lectures will bring the great talents of today’s club sonics Appleblim and Ron Trent to speak and share in the Randolph Café at the Chicago Cultural Centre.

Red Bull Music Academy is one of the cultural institutions that comes closest to the Sónar philosophy. For over 10 years, the Red Bull Music Academy has been selecting young producers and artists from all over the world in order to stimulate their creativity and facilitate their learning by means of a travelling musical academy. Sónar's collaboration with the Red Bull Music Academy is also embodied in the line-up of the Academy-curated SonarDôme stage, at Sónar by Day in Barcelona.

Highlights will be broadcast along with festival features, interviews, and DJ mixes on Red Bull Music Academy Radio. Tune in at www.rbmaradio.com.

Smart Bar
3730 N. Clark St.(Two blocks North of Wrigley Field )
Chicago, IL 60613
From 10pm until 4pm

Ticket info:
$5 all night
www.smartbarchicago.com

Sónar Chicago expands its line-up thanks to the collaboration with Adventures In Modern Music (AIMM), the five-day festival organised by the prestigious British magazine The Wire and the promoters of the Empty Bottle, one of the city's most important venues. 

This year sees the eighth AIMM, featuring a line-up of shows which as always presents several of the most interesting representatives of the sonic cutting edge, in an approach that is in keeping with the Sónar philosophy. 

Among the artists present at this year's AIMM are the guitarist Rhys Chatham, a key figure in New York's No Wave scene, who will play in a trio with Tim Barnes and David Daniell; a rare reunion performance from Sleep, one of the pioneers of stoner rock, including members of OM and High On Fire in its ranks; Denmark's Efterklang, presenting Magic Chairs, their third release of multi-faceted pop; the Brooklyn duo High Places, who have received a great deal of deserved acclaim for their lo-fi electronic songs; and Wooden Shjips, representatives of San Francisco's new psychedelia rock.  

Other artists featured in the AIMM programme are Julian Lynch, Pocahaunted, Lichens, John Wiese, Bill Orcutt, Ga’an, Rangda (Chris Corsano, Richard Bishop and Ben Chasney), Buke & Gass and Ahleuchatistas. 

This is the complete line-up so far by day, time and venue:

The Rhys Chatham Trio featuring Tim Barnes & David Daniell

John Wiese

Bill Orcutt

Museum of Contemporary Art - 220 E Chicago Avenue

7:30pm; $10 (students), $18 (members), $20

Sleep

Lichens

Ga’an

Logan Square Auditorium - 2539 N Kedzie

7:30pm; $25 advance, $30

Rangda

Efterklang

Michael Zerang / Jim Baker Duo

Buke & Gass

The Empty Bottle – 1035 N Western

9pm; $15

High Places

Wooden Shjips

Julian Lynch

Ahleuchatistas

The Empty Bottle – 1035 N Western

9pm; $12

CAVE

Cloudland Canyon

Mick Barr

Helen Money

The Empty Bottle – 1035 N Western

9pm; $12

Installations by artist, designer & photographer Seldon Hunt will be exhibited from 09.10 until 09.12 at The Empty Bottle.

more info at http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/aimm_chicago/

After the excellent experience in 2009, when two events were held in New York and Washington, Sónar returns to the United States, this time to present a three-day festival, created especially for the occasion.

The objective is to take the philosophy of the Barcelona festival to the North American city, with all the features that have made Sónar an international touchstone: with an ambitious and high quality line-up featuring plenty of electronic experimentation and its derivations and unusual venues of the highest calibre, in this case the Jay Pritzker Pavilion – designed by Frank Ghery – in the popular Millennium Park (the 9th of September) and the famous Chicago Cultural Center (the 10th and 11th of September).

Some of the artists confirmed to date are The Slew (the scratch-rock project led by the wizard on the decks Kid Koala), Oval (a key project in 1990s electronica, featuring Germany's Markus Popp, back with a new album), the Australian – resident in Iceland - Ben Frost (one of the most acclaimed sonic experimentalists working today), Nosaj Thing (the Los Angeles beatmaker featuring a show with serious visual impact), the Dutchman Martyn (a key name at the techno-dubstep crossroads), Nicolas Bernier + Martin Messier: La Chambre des Machines (a Canadian duo that base their show on rudimentary noise machines from the early twentieth century) or Lesley Flanigan (a New York artist who constructs her music with hand-made instruments and the sounds created by her own voice) among others.

Catalan performers are headed by two artists from the renowned Barcelona label spa.RK: Bradien (an experimental and tropical pop trio) and bRUNA (the creator of electronica with a heavy emotional charge). Two new projects seeking new musical languages will also be present, in the shape of Huan (folk, noise and experimentation) and Faraón (psychedelia, Krautrock and jazz).

As well as all that, Sónar Chicago expands its line-up with its collaboration with Adventures In Modern Music  (AIMM), the five-day festival organised by the renowned British magazine The Wire and the promoters at the Empty Bottle, one of the city's most important venues. In its eighth outing this year, it presents shows byThe Rhys Chatham Trio, Sleep and Efterklang, among others.

Meanwhile, SonarCinema presents five films: “Synth Britannia” (the BBC documentary telling the story of the birth of synth pop in Great Britain), “Amplified Gesture” (a film produced by David Sylvian on the art of improvisation), “Sensuous Cornelius” (the excellent filming of the live show by the Japanese musician), “Finisterrae” (the full-length film providing the image for Sónar 2010) and “Sónar Around The World” (which documents an entire year of Sónar, produced and made by Televisió de Catalunya).

Sónar Chicago is the result of an initiative by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs -the public office planning and promoting musical, performance, and visual arts events in Chicago-, the Institut Ramon Llull, -the consortium made up of the Government of Catalonia and the Government of the Balearic Islands-, Advanced Music -the creators of Sónar festival - and AC Entertainment -the promoter of the Bonnaroo festival-.

Details of the complete line-up and the performance times and days of each of the artistic projects in Sónar Chicago will be announced soon. 

All the shows and activities at the festival are free of charge and open to all, except for the AIMM events which are subject to a separate payment.