A lot has changed over the last 30 years, with technology spiralling upwards at an oft unfathomable rate. But then a lot remains the same. As in Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence, time is a ‘flat circle.’ Those who can remember the woes of dial up internet surely sometimes still marvel at the world of carrying around 5G-connect mini-super computers in their pockets. Yet, whilst waiting for a still JPEG of a naked woman to load line-by-line has been replaced by 5K virtual reality porn, little has changed in relation to the wantonness of the world wide web’s most longstanding ‘use.’ Folk are gonna do what folk are gonna do.
Thirty years ago, Europe’s counterculture was gripped by the continuing ascendency of acid house, the sound and sensation that had a few years earlier crossed over from underground warehouse parties to the top of the hit parade. Shamen had taken the sound to number one in the British charts, and subsequently told the nation that ‘Es are good,’ and now The Prodigy were sending it mainstream; a duo going by the name Dust Brothers, meanwhile, were taking those big beats and acid squelches to new heights with a sequence of high profile remixes and a DJ residency at the influential Heavenly Sunday Social Club.
Poster for Sónar’s first ever edition in 1994.
Over in Barcelona, 1994 would mark the humble debut of a music and art festival that would become one of Europe’s most famous. A natural home to the more experimental side of electronic music and the visual arts that accompany it, Sónar festival has managed to keep itself in tune with the more outré reaches of its scene, whilst simultaneously growing at an impressive rate; over 100 editions clocked around the world, with its Barcelona home welcoming some 120,000 visitors from over 100 different countries across its three days and two nights last June.
The duo who would ‘Exit Planet Dust’ and rechristen themselves The Chemical Brothers followed a similar trajectory over the next three decades, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons redefining contemporary electronic music, scooping up multiple Grammy and Brit Awards, and marking over 13 million album sales worldwide, including five UK number ones. Naturally their paths have crossed multiple times with the Barcelona festival, most recently in 2022, when they performed with gargantuan visuals from artists Smith & Lyall in front of a jam-packed SonarClub.
The Chemical Brothers commanding the “biggest dancefloor in the world” in 2022.
Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall have been visual directors of The Chemical Brothers’ famous live show since 2009, the former having been a mainstay collaborator since their very first live shows in the same year that Sónar debuted in the Catalan capital. Similar paths of extreme upward trajectory coupled with the notion of eternal recurrence. Collaborating with everyone from performers and costume designers to editors and animators in creating everything from lighting to props and physical effects for The Chems’ blistering live shows, Smith & Lyall are no strangers to conceiving immersive audiovisual environments. Their latest, however, is on a much smaller scale.
Now on show until 31 July, Music:Response is a groundbreaking music and visual art experience in collaboration with Sónar festival, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site constructed between 1904 and 1906.
The Chemical Brothers and Smith & Lyall, Music:Response at Casa Batlló.
An Antoni Gaudí masterpiece, Casa Batlló is as synonymous with Barcelona as Sónar and The Chemical Brothers are to progressive electronic music, its skeletal organic façade an entry point for some million visitors a year into its overwhelmingly intricate interiors. Descending into its basement is currently an overwhelming experience of a very different kind; THE CUBE a fascinating, technologically advanced canvas for audiovisual artists to break the mould of what performances can be.
“We have the perfect setting to make any artist’s universe shine,” explains Gary Gautier, CEO of Casa Batlló. “A world-leading audiovisual space where artists can intervene with total creative freedom. It’s the perfect canvas for any creator and, in it, The Chemical Brothers and Smith & Lyall have designed an audiovisual experience that will enchant more than just their fans.”
Featuring re-worked music from the ‘Brothers Gonna Work it Out’ and spectacular visuals by Smith & Lyall, Music:Response is a 13 minute extravaganza that put wide smiles across the faces of all who attended the same showing as We Heart this week, the pulsating surround sound encouraging many to dance encircled by the all-encompassing visuals that are familiar to those who’ve seen recent Chemical Brothers live shows.
The Chemical Brothers and Smith & Lyall, Music:Response at Casa Batlló.
“We are delighted to premiere Music:Response at Casa Batlló,” add Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall, “because Gaudí illustrates the freedom of expression to which we aspire. Gaudí created fantasy worlds with his buildings, with their own rules and logic. They are immersive environments in which you have the feeling of being outside the normal world, an escape from reality into the sublime. The Chemical Brothers’ universe shares this same spirit and has also become a self-contained world.”
Times may change and technology many allow for audiovisual experiences that were confined to the imagination in 1994, but the desire to escape the reality remains the same; as it did when Gaudí conjured this magical masterpiece at the turn of the 20th century. Demonstrating the freeing essence of music that acid house exemplified, the essence that has driven both Sónar and The Chemical Brothers through decade after decade of snowballing success, Music:Response is a reminder that whilst the canvas may be in a constant state of flux, much will remain the same.
Music:Response by The Chemical Brothers and Smith & Lyall, in collaboration with Sónar and Casa Batlló, shows every day from 9pm with tickets on sale from casabatllo.cat. Smith & Lyall will be discussing the installation and their ongoing work with The Chemical Brothers in conversation at Sónar+D on Friday 14 June, tickets are available now.
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