LEM XXVI INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC MEETING

LEM 2021: 25 YEARS

Although this year we celebrate the XXVI LEM Device, Gràcia Territori Sonor turned twenty-five last April. OFF LEM 2020 was done under very complicated circumstances, and we can’t stress enough how thankful we are to our audience, especially those who came last October but also those who did it for the past quarter century. Despite all this, we must say that this year’s LEM still won’t be able to be as it used to. Restrictions, that nowadays still affect attendances, have hit part of our activities, and the difficulties to bring international artists are, sadly, both logistic and budgetary.

But this has made is look inside, at the talent we have at hand and that, especially in experimental music, doesn’t get enough chances. Those of you who have followed the Encounters in Spacetime series on winter and spring have seen new artists, a good deal of which were young and female. During LEM 2021 you have some more of this, combined with artists and projects with more than established careers.

Once again, electronic music, free jazz, analogic sonic experimentation, psychedelia and even metal will reach the venues where the Device will be hold. We recover places such as the Col·legi Major Ramon Llull’s chapel and will also go to new ones such as Vallcarca’s Can Carol. In addition to this, cinema will have a special place in this 26th edition. It will be a part of two actions, one of which will be in partnership with Cryptshow Festival, which focuses in the fantastic and horror genres. Given the current situations, we answer the only way grassroots culture can: communicating with each other, helping each other, creating a net that allows all of us to reach a bit further.

All of this, of course, doesn’t hide the fact that this year’s Device will be hold, of course, but that the road leading us here has been everything but easy. Despite the good will of many people, to which we extend our thanks, the delays in approving and delivering resources pushes not only us to a big part of our sector to a situation of everlasting uncertainty and prevents us for doing our job the way we’d like to. Not for us but for our audience. From those who were a part of Gràcia Territori Sonor’s family twenty-five years ago, before any of us had any relationship with the association, to those who will discover LEM this year. For all of this, of course, we won’t surrender. Welcome to XXVI LEM Device. We’re waiting for you.