The Sonar festival is the fastest growing and the biggest electronic music and media festival. Sonar’s astronomical attendance— more than eighty thousand visitors, 549 artists from 28 countries, 730 media people and journalists, and 1,290 professionals— proved that it is the the most essential festival for every fan and creator of electronic music.

The museum for contemporary art in downtown Barcelona was completely transformed into the home of Sonar by Day. The architecturally impressive complex became a huge concert and presentation area. Two open air arenas, one hall, and a church housed the Sonar daily lineup. Additionally, a photo exhibition, cinema, and technical fair focusing on music technologies rounded out the activities.

After each daily program, the party continued at Sonar by Night. Located a quick drive from the city center, the three night arenas felt more like traditional rave events than the daily programs.

Even though Sonar by Night was reminiscent of the atmosphere of legendary events such as Tribal Gathering and Mayday, the organizers took care to create an interesting and balanced program that distinguished the exceptional quality of the music offered at Sonar. The Native Lab showcase began on Sonar's second day, late on Friday afternoon. The three laptop alchemists, Mike Dredd, Richard Devine, and set themselves up as the audible interface between machines and music. Realtime videos were handled by a team from Fork Unstable Media.

The lights were shut off at promptly five pm as techno old-timer and legendary Rephlex recording artist Mike Dred began his assault. Mike didn't bother with a slow intro and came right to the point with his trademark industrial beats and hard FM sounds that captured the essense of the glory days of rave. The atmosphere in the completely packed hall got looser and looser with each track as the beats got harder and more manic. Performing on a variety of different REAKTOR ensembles, Mike mainly abused the Cube X ensemble from the NI Premium library.

After a short break, Richard Devine was ready to go. The NI team already knew Richard from the last Native Lab in Berlin and his records on Warp and Schematic, and he proved again in Barcelona that he knew how to rock the stage with broken, insanely arranged breaks and noises. The strongest feedback of his set came with an improvised version of his new Herbert remix. Richard performed on two laptops, one Mac and one PC. Richard explored the deepest levels of ABSYNTH by performing realtime improvisations with his ABSYNTH presets, which are included in the official retail version.

At eight o'clock sharp, kicked off in front of an already excited and ecstatic crowd. Jake Mandell immediately demonstrated what is most important for him during his live acts: Movement. Never repeating any bar more than two times, Jake whirled with his custom REAKTOR 3 patch and several MIDI controlers so intensely that one got the impression that he was taking part in a hardcore hip-hop DJ battle.

All three sets were visually supported by Fork Unstable Media, who also participated at the previous Native Lab in Berlin and who designed the new REAKTOR 3 interface. Their visuals interacted in realtime with the current audiostream and presented an impressive flow of animated and real video footage.

The Native Showcase was one of the highlights of Sonar 2001 for many dazed visitors. The eclectic mix of fans, professionals, and artists were an ideal platform to test the live possibilities of REAKTOR and ABSYNTH in front of a large crowd in a concert environment.

Thanks to all artists for the great show!