At BCN Més we go hard every month and no month illustrates this better than November. Against the hardships of empty pockets, precipitation and temperatures that can divebomb below 10ºC, we still happily flesh out the front rows of cultural happenings up and down town.
I hope you get this message before the first Saturday of the month, when the dark electronic imprint Cønjuntø Vacíø hold their fifth annual eponymous event. The line up is nearing peak bleak, with international synthwave artists John Maus, Drew McDowall and Puce Mary drawing the festival faithful out to La Capsa in El Prat. Exquisite vinyl and cassette releases will be on offer, and t-shirts for the casual daytripper.
The showpiece dates for progressive and avant-garde sights and sounds are the 7th – 12th under the banner of Mira. Opening with a seated show at L’Auditori featuring Cologne techno veteran Wolfgang Voigt or GAS, the bulk of the shows fill up the gorgeous Fabra i Coats in Sant Andreu. It is genuinely difficult to pick out highlights in the programme but let me drop the names James Holden, Suso Saiz, The Bug, Shackleton and Khidja to end this paragraph.
Who doesn’t like Omar Souleyman? I’ve yet to come across such a person. The prolific Syrian returns to Barcelona for a throwdown at Razzmatazz II. He has fans in Bjork, Four Tet and Caribou, and will win over plenty more come November 18th with his energetic Middle-Eastern jams. Catalan psychesmiths Ocellot provide dreamy support in the vein of a 1960s Animal Collective.
Wary of stepping on the toes of the December edition, forgive me for throwing in a quick shout to the Fractal Fantasy event at Trill on December 2nd. Barcelona-based power couple Sinjin Hawke and Zora Jones produce massive, shiny sounds that have seduced Kanye West among many others. Don’t sleep!
