Sónar sends 20 further pieces of music into space. Artists include Alva Noto, Kate Tempest, Daito Manabe, Squarepusher and Niño de Elche

Sónar's second transmission to Luytens Star b takes place on 14, 15 and 16 May. The potentially life supporting exoplanet is located 12.4 light years from Earth, more than 120 billion kilometres away.

The transmission will also include 3 pieces of music created by festival contest winners, selected from among 400 submissions hoping to be part of this unique collective message to extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Sónar Barcelona 2018 will present the installation "Sónar Calling GJ273b Control Room by Absolut”, a space at Sónar by Day specially designed to enable festival-goers to discover more about the artistic and scientific facets of this experiment.
To hear the music and messages from the artists, along with all the information about the project, please visit www.sonarcalling.com

THE MESSAGE

The 35 prestigious artists contributing to Sónar Calling have performed at Sónar on one or more occasions, with some featuring in the Sónar 2018 program.

Participating artists in the second transmission scheduled for May 14, 15 and 16 include: Agoria (France), Ah! Kosmos (Turkey), Alva Noto (Germany), Choi Sai Ho (China), Cora Novoa (Spain), Daedelus (USA), Daito Manabe (Japan), Desert (Spain), Juana Molina (Argentina), Kate Tempest (UK), LCC (Spain), Lorenzo Senni (Italia), Niño de Elche (Spain), Ryoji Ikeda (Japan), Squarepusher (UK), Yuzo Koshiro (Japan)
and Zora Jones (Austria).

The first transmission took place on Octob er 16,  17 and 18,2017, and included music by Autechre (UK),Modeselektor (Germany), Laurent Garnier (France),Holly Herndon (USA), Matmos (USA), Jean Michel Jarre (France), Nina Kraviz (Russia), Francisco López (Spain), The Black Madonna (USA), Kerri Chandler (USA), Ólafur Arnalds (Islandia), Kode 9 (UK),Laurel Halo (USA), Soichi Terada (Japan), Fatima Al Qadiri (Kuwait), Cabo San Roque (Spain), BFlecha (Spain) and Nisennenmondai (Japan).

3 more pieces of music will also be included in the message, winners of the public call for submissions. The  competition, aimed at the entire Sónar community, received around 400 submissions, with three winners awarded with exclusive VIP tickets for themselves and their friends. The three winning creators are Nisa Pujol Masià (Spain), Pavel Apisov (Ukraine) y Darko Keteleš (Czech Republic).

To hear the music and messages from the artists, along with all the information available, please visit www.sonarcalling.com

SÓNAR CALLING WILL TAKE THE FORM OF AN ART INSTALLATION AT SÓNAR BY DAY

Sónar Barcelona 2018 will present the artistic installation "Sónar Calling GJ273b Control Room by Absolut”, a space at Sónar by Day specially designed for festival-goers to discover more about the artistic and scientific facets of this initiative.

An artistic installation in which the iconic lights of Sónar Calling GJ273b and the large-scale projection of the evocative landscapes of Tromsø envelop the visitor in the atmosphere of one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the festival.

At the entrance to the installation, videos will explain how the two music transmissions were made with interviews from the 38 participating artists and the scientists who made the transmission possible; the sounds and descriptions of the submitted pieces; and the scientific content of the broadcasts.

WHAT IS SÓNAR CALLING GJ273b

Sónar has launched the second transmission in collaboration with the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) - the research centre that studies all aspects of space and space science - and with astrophysicist Yvan Dutil, creator of a coding system for messages intended for communication with extra-terrestrials and a member of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

The first transmission was made in collaboration with METI International (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) - the organization of researchers advocating proactive contact with extraterrestrials.

Sónar Calling is the first ever series of radio transmissions to be sent to a nearby exoplanet that may support life.
In total, 38 ten-second pieces of music have been sent, each one created exclusively for Sónar by artists linked to the festival that encapsulate the exploratory nature of Sónar throughout its quarter-century lifespan. We could receive an answer within 25 years, which would coincide with the 50th anniversary of Sónar.

Luyten's Star b was specifically chosen as the target for the transmission, due to it being the closest star known to harbour a potentially habitable exoplanet visible from the Northern Hemisphere. All transmissions have been sent from the EISCAT (European Invasive Dispersion Scientific Association) antenna located in Tromsø (Norway).

More. www.sonarcalling.com