LEM has needed time as well: it was presented to society on October 5th 1996, during the Odyssée for Ears programme in Copenhagen. On October 9th, musicians and organisations from 12 different countries approved and signed the European Declaration of Experimental Music. Among other things, it stated that this kind of music questions formal certainties, offers an outlet for new aesthetic forms, and looks forward to more humanised worlds.
It also recommended using its innovative and trans-national nature to deepen and strengthen the democratic consciousness of future generations through artistic production, the development of new social contexts for cultural experiences and the creation of new conditions for music, its reception and its creation.

In December that same year, following the spirit of the Declaration, the first 6 LEM concerts took place in Gràcia. By the end of the 2006 festival, we will have reached concert number 663.

A corollary would be that, given that music cannot explain anything or rather that it only explains itself, a festival can and, in our opinion, should explain things.

We use this introduction every year to communicate our ideas, rather than to outline what the following pages already explain for themselves. This year Gràcia Territori Sonor has co-produced an album with the French collective Studio Forum. The album is called Tu placer será el mío (“Your pleasure will be mine”), and it contains the following reflection:

It appears to be inevitable that some must pay with their suffering for some others’ happiness. But that's not true: the suffering of the other is the suffering of all humanity. One cannot be happy by treasuring well-being whilst plundering and destroying other people’s world in order to profit from its reconstruction. In any case it is a hypocritical happiness which forebodes great disaster for everyone.
On the other hand, if the other is happy, I will genuinely be so too. This is not a point of view, but a truth engraved in our collective subconscious though rejected by our political and social "consciousness". And so, their pleasure will be ours, but their disgrace can never be our pleasure.

Apart from that: we celebrate a decade of LEM. The MATRIU programme aims to reflect on the role of women in sound experimentation and to reach a level of 50% female participation in the festival. ÁGAPE finally brings cooks together with musicians and poets. The mission of the off section and the Experimental Music from Gràcia project is to discover and promote young creators. LEM expands to include “family” scheduling so that children can attend some of the concerts. We join forces on various fronts with other festivals (Festival de Torroella, Mercat de Música Viva de Vic) and organisations to present newly created shows. We are still at the MACBA, the Pedrera, Caixafòrum… and also at the lovely theatre of the Lluïsos de Gràcia. And, in a birthday mood, we indulge ourselves by re-inviting artists that featured in key moments during previous years of the festival, although there is a long list of those whom you’ll discover for the first time. Thanks for joining us on this journey.

The Gràcia Territori Sonor team.