Meet one of Sonar’s organizers: Georgia Taglietti

Meet one of Sonar’s organizers: Georgia Taglietti

18 June, 2008 | 12.03PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: sonar 2008

On the eve of Sonar 2008 festival, I met Georgia Taglietti, International PR and Media boss for the Sonar organization.

She’s been helping to build Sonar in Barcelona for 14 years (Sonar has only been going 15 years) so if anybody can offer some insight into what Sonar is all about, its history and the meaning behind the Sonar beats, its her.

Check out the interview after the jump.

How do you feel on the eve of Sonar 2008?

I feel amazing. The weather is sunny and that traditionally means good luck for Sonar as a lot of the event is the open-air.

People are happier, and that makes the whole event much smoother.

I’ve been working for Sonar for 14 years and we’re still here proposing a message that people like, which is a good feeling.

What is that message, exactly?

Sonar is about electronic music culture. That has now crossed over and become part of our culture.

But what is electronic music culture?

It’s strange, but nobody has ever asked me that before.

I guess electronic music culture is integrated into the network, the Internet and the computer.

It was born out of new technologies and through the Internet it has spread, and has become an influence over the way people think, the things they wear, and the way they view the world.

It’s a language.

How has the process of organizing Sonar changed since the early years?

We’ve lost some of that authenticity surrounding music discovery.

This isn’t symptomatic of the success of Sonar alone, rather on the way the Internet has affected things.

We now have access to anything and anyone and to be honest, I miss that artistic discovery, of finding something new and exciting that you never knew existed before.

What’s interesting is that even though it’s easier to find artists, it’s harder to find quality.

Sonar used to be about music discovery, about showcasing artists that people may not have known about. But what right do you have to be curator?

Experience allows me to be a curator, along with the experience of all the other people involved in organizing Sonar, like my boss.

Journalists and record labels influence the line-up of Sonar and we use their input.

Record labels choose which of their artists to showcase.

But Sonar is not really the curator, rather, Sonar is the stage for curators.

How long does it take to organize a Sonar event?

About six months, but we start speaking to artists and labels 12 months in advance.

How does the Sonar organization feel about all the hundreds of record label showcases, afterparties and beach parties that are organized on the fringes of the festival?

These events are not at all related to Sonar. And this should be made very clear.

It’s inevitable that people will use the brand ‘Sonar’ to promote their events, and it bothers us because Sonar has nothing to do with those events, and it’s not our production behind it.

It’s important that people recognize the difference.

Surely though, you must be a little secretly proud of the fact that so many events are organised around Sonar week? If Sonar had been a failure than no one would be here.

Well yes, I suppose that is true [laughs].

Finally which artists are you most excited about seeing this year?

Probably Antipop Consortium [check out their beats in the player below] as they’ve just regrouped.

I’m also looking forward especially to some of the Japanese artists performing this year.

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• Check out Antipop Consortium on Beatport