Walking into the press area it was immediately clear to me why Sonar is held in such high esteem throughout the electronica world. The specially designed area had been created with the theme of a house in mind. There was a bedroom with two beds and matching side tables, walls emblazoned with framed pictures of Sonar events – both past and present - while the living room area provided journalists with sofas and couches to relax on - or alternatively work - using the Wi-Fi connection available. Other decoration included bookshelves adorned with books, magazines and trendy, retro brands of Adidas sneakers. To top it all off there was even a small patio area with deck chairs and umbrellas where reporters braved the sizzling temperatures by sipping drinks from the private bar contently. In short, the place oozed class. It’s a hard job being a journalist, but fortunately someone’s got to do it.

But enough with the luxuries; it was time for ‘work’. Sonar’s main area – Sonar Village – was already in full swing as The Wizard – better known to most as techno guru Jeff Mills – mixed a combination of both funk and soul classics including James Brown’s legendary Sex Machine. The two hour extravaganza was one of the highlights of Sonar’s first day as party-goers of all kinds –from girls in bikinis and large glasses to boys in Mohawks and mullets and young women in hot pants - danced and boogied in the sweltering heat.

Over in the Sonar Dome, Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics were combining flutes, saxophones, trumpets, bongos, and keyboards among others to combine music from Mulatu’s Etiopian heritage with jazz and funk. The result was a performance which enthralled audiences with a variety of different sounds from the electronica world. Just as a lot of other big names at the three-day festival, Mulatu’s set could be heard live by tuning in to Sonar Radio.

Inside the CCCB, live performances were on display throughout the day at the Sonar Hall stage. Furthermore there's Sonar Matica. The exhibition features the latest in music technology and upon entering one couldn’t be blamed for thinking that they’d walked straight into a mad scientist’s lab of technology. Computer monitors and speakers are scattered all over the room and sounds screech out from different angles as fascinated clubbers experiment with the latest quirky gadgets the industry has to offer. These include a machine made of recyclable materials that plays music as well as Yuri Suzuki’s “The Physical Value of Sound” which consists of a turntable with five tone arms that the user can move at will (see link). Each tone arm can have its volume controlled by its own fader thus allowing a DJ to experiment further with their music. It also raises questions about the ephemeral nature of digital technology, which Suzuki describes as "just data" and purely virtual. Although extremely interesting, some of the gadgets are more than likely to leave people perplexed rather than musically-enhanced by their capabilities.

In all the first day of Sonar 2009 proved a great success. And with arguably the bigger name artists still to come over the next two days, expect a lot more music, dancing and plain weirdness over the rest of the weekend; both by day and night