Sónar 2026 - SonarMix 023: JOVENDELAPERLA - The sound of light in the darkness

24/05/2023SonarMix 023: JOVENDELAPERLA - The sound of light in the darkness

“Fast music for altered cells,” is how Perla Zúñiga, aka JOVENDELAPERLA, describes their contribution to the SonarMix series, a typically genre-fluid selection from the Madrid-based DJ, poet, artist, and promoter.

An hour-long excerpt from a long three-hour session recorded in their home (“you enter into a sort of hypnotic state… a different kind of composition, more instinctive, bodily and chaotic, ensues.”), it's the first mix that they’ve recorded in a long time. It made them feel “reborn and radiant, they add, words that are especially moving as just a few weeks ago they were in hospital and about to cancel their appearance at Sónar 2023. “I think this mix is about seeking the light…”, they reflect, “...a light in the darkness, a light that represents hope and that has been my driving force these last months when I have been so unwell and I have had to live, once again, with the uncertainty of illness.”

So SonarMix 023 opens with Arca’s elegiac ‘Pu’ and AceMo’s trancey flip of Lil Wayne’s ode to death and addiction ‘I Feel Like Dying’, shifting through the gears as it reaches D.Dan’s high-energy breakbeat techno and fellow Sónar 2023 artist DALILA’s ‘breakbeat ballad’ ‘Cieguita’. But it’s not just techno and breakbeats: there’s also room for a rhythmic club tool from Lechuga Zafiro, and a remix from rising Manchester producer Rhyw, who thoroughly dismantles Tomás Urquieta’s booming ‘32 Balas’. Later, the mix dips briefly as Lorenzo Senni’s ‘Digital ∞ Tzunami’ fades into moody, gloomy ambient, before bursting into life again for a final crescendo of club-ready tracks and Argentine new-wave. Expect more of the same during their set at Sónar. “I’m going swimming and working out to keep my ass looking good, I think we need to celebrate that and the magic of music,” they add by way of invitation.

Apart from their set, Perla has one particular aim for Sónar 2023: “I really want to get to know Ada Colau [the current Mayor of Barcelona, whose annual appearances at Sónar by Day are well-documented],” they say.

Tracklist:

Arca - Pu

AceMo - I Feel Like Dying (Phenomenon Mix)

Bashkka - DeFol

Regal86 - El mundo es un barrio

D.Dan - Post Kyiv

Pakard - Ahora Bailan

DALILA - Cieguita

Lechuga Zafiro - Dedo

Metal Spark - Metal Detector (R.mix)

Rove Ranger - La Manana

Tomas Urquieta - 32 Balas (Rhyw’s Double Dribble Remix)