Bass and beats in Barcelona

From June 14 to 16, 166,000 ears listened to the sounds of the Sónar Festival in Barcelona, and as many legs danced to the beats of international hiphop and electronic music artists. And thirty graduates of the Red Bull Music Academy also contributed a few hundred well-tuned decibels.

“The most important festival for electronic music,” wrote the German daily newspaper “taz,” “a celebration of the European music scene,” said the Spanish “El Pais”, “An eldorado of today’s creativity,” from the Italian “La Repubblica.” “Simply hot,” is what the 83,000 audience members thought about this year’s Sónar Festival, whose sound-mesh was interwoven with top acts such as the Beastie Boys and the drone metal ambient duo Sunn O))) and 30 participants of the first Red Bull Music Academy.

Creative center: the Red Bull Music Academy lounge

This year the Sónar Festival, a creative meeting of innovative hiphop and electronic music and modern multi-media art, took place for the third time in conjunction with the Red Bull Music Academy. Alongside events in halls and museums, in clubs and under the stars, the Red Bull Music Academy lounge was one of the most exciting meeting places of the event.

Ten Red Bull Music Academics per day

Thirty former participants of the academy, which has been taking place annually since 1998, hourly flooded the lounge with sound – ten per day. Their musical styles were as multifaceted as their biographical backgrounds. The line-up ranged from Canadian beat & bass creator Deadbeat, who appeared with London’s rising grime/hiphop M.C. Bubbz a.k.a Chief, to the Neapolitan D-Jane Lady Carola, the South African deep house artist Blackcoffee and Belgian producer Compuphonic.

Livestreams on Red Bull Music Academy radio

If you missed their live sets and the musical highlight, the Red Bull Music Academy radio showcase at the “Sónar by Night” happening on June 15, you can catch up with it at least acoustically: on www.redbullmusicacademyradio.com Steve Spacek and Benji B present all the performances of Red Bull Music Academics from Sónar 2007.

Red Bull Music Academy 2007: preparations running

The deadline for the tenth Red Bull Music Academy has already passed, by the way. All the applicants who have been selected to take part in the tenth Red Bull Music Academy that will start on September 23 in Toronto will be contacted by July 6.