We hardly noticed and November is already here. And, with it, a new edition of MIRA SON Estrella Galicia, the digital arts festival that traditionally marks the beginning of the season for the avant-garde music scene in Barcelona. MIRA celebrates 9 years of life this year. 9 years of diffusion of art, of meeting restless minds and attentive audiences looking for a new comfort zone in the most groundbreaking and advanced trends.
Pre-festival dates
MIRA has extended the duration of the event more than ever this year. Last Friday, October 25th, the festival hosted a party at The Loft and Lolita (Razzmatazz‘s upstairs rooms) with Lee Gamble, Nkisi, Zuli, Object Blue and Shelly as guest artists.
The second event takes place this Wednesday, October 30th at the Simon 100 space. There, the artists Antoni Arola, Anna Irina and Guillermo Santomà will debate with Gennis Sénnes about the power of light in artistic contexts and about the duality between light and darkness. The round table will precede the performances of Refectori and Mary Lattimore, representing darkness and light, respectively.
From there we go on to the official MIRA week, the first full week of November. On the evening of Tuesday, 5th, L’Auditori de Barcelona will host the presentation of “Surface Image” by Vicky Chow and Tristan Perich. This is a show in which Perich’s “1-Bit Symphony”, released in 2004, crosses with his past as a classical composer. The result will be a polyphonic synthesis of piano notes and 1-bit tones.
On Wednesday, 6th, we’ll move to the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia. There, we’ll witness the premiere in our country of the show “Siblings” by Colin Self, as well as the show “Sacred Horror in Design” by Sote in collaboration with Tarik Barri, Arash Bolouri and Behrouz Pashaei.
The 5 shows not to be missed at Fabra i Coats
As always, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays will be the days when MIRA gathers us in its traditional location, the old textile factory Fabra i Coats. There, for 3 days, we’ll enjoy audiovisual live acts, DJ sets, 360º screenings, debates and installations. We’ll enjoy Huma, Rally, Skee Mask, Nihiloxica, Giant Swan, Kali Malone + Rainer Kohlberger, 700 Bliss, Beatrice Dillon or DJ Marcelle, among many others. But, above all, we will enjoy these 5 names that you should not miss.
Floating Points ft. Hamill Industries (live av) [Thursday // 9:10 pm // Main Room]
Little can be said today about Floating Points that is not already known. What we can do is watch, listen and enjoy unreleased stuff recently baked by one of the most eclectic and influential artists of the last decade on the electronic circuit. London’s Sam Shepherd had previously worked with Barcelona’s visual production duo Hamill Industries, with whom he went to record in the Mojave Desert in 2016. In MIRA 2019, both forces unite again, this time on stage, to offer an audiovisual show never seen before.
Alessandro Cortini pres. Volume Massimo (live av) [Friday // 7:00 pm // Main Room]
Perhaps some of you still remember that stellar apparition of Alessandro Cortini at MIRA 2016. At that time, the ambient musician and synthesizers master presented “Avanti”. In this occasion, the Italian artist lands again at the Fàbrica Fabra i Coats of Barcelona to present “Volume Massimo”, his last LP released this past September. In it, Cortini continues to insist on the transmission of the deepest part of human feeling through electronic instrumentation. Impossible to say no.
Roly Porter + MFO pres. Kistvaen (live av) [Friday // 9:10 pm // Main Room]
MIRA is a festival born out of love for the fusion of audio and visual. The same happens with the duo formed by Roly Porter (former member of the famous dubstep duo Vex’d) and MFO (also a collaborator of people like Tim Hecker or Ben Frost). They also performed at MIRA 2016. In this edition, they’ll present “Kistvaen”, a show co-commissioned by the Catalan festival along with Berlin Atonal and Unsound. In it, fundamental elements of our life, such as the sun and the moon or the seasons of the year, are contrasted with elements of the 21st century such as designed environments or a virtual existence in evolution. This will happen through field recording fused with folkloric harmonies and digital processing. Roly Porter will also count with the voice of Mary-Anne Roberts, who will perform ritual burial songs while MFO mixes stage effects with film cuts.
Schwefelgelb (live) [Saturday // 10:20 pm // Espai Zero]
This Berlin duo has been delighting the European rave scene since the mid-2000s. Their sound is composed of vocals, percussions and violent synthesizers. The combination of EBM, techno and electro that they apply in their live shows has been self-baptized as Techno Body Music, a concept that will make us sweat so much on Saturday in the Espai Zero de la Fabra i Coats. Without a doubt, one of the most demanding shows for sneakers throughout the weekend.
Vessel ft. Pedro Maia (live av) [Saturday // 10:50 pm // Main Room]
After two LPs and several EPs, Bristol producer Seb Gainsborough, aka Vessel, arrives at MIRA to present “Queen of Golden Dogs”. This, his latest album, is inspired by classical chamber music to express the power of artistic, spiritual, physical and, above all, personal liberation that the artist has always pursued throughout his career. Vessel will be accompanied by the Portuguese Pedro Maia, a guy who has established himself as a benchmark in his own field thanks to his mastery of manipulating analogue film cuts.
Afterparty at Razzmatazz
One more year, The Loft and Lolita will be where MIRA extends its program until 6 am (Fabra i Coats closes its doors at 3 am). Lolita will receive the great Lena Willikens, one of the most shaped DJs of the moment. The German will play b2b with the local selector Alicia Carrera, an important piece of the label Hivern Discs, during the whole night. Meanwhile, at The Loft, the acclaimed futuristic techno and new trance duo Neon Chambers, formed by Kangding Ray and Sigha, commands a party in which Parallax and Or:la will also perform.
(Cover Image: © Oriol Reverter)
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