Art and electro music fuse in Spain's Sonar festival

Video installations and electronica are entrancing the heaving dance floors this weekend in a top Spanish festival fusing music, technology and the visual arts.

Barcelona's Sonar festival, which started on Thursday and runs until Saturday, features a premiere of a new album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers.

Veterans of the 1980s British New Romantic scene Duran Duran will also take to the stage on Saturday night.

But the music is largely upstaged by the accompanying video installations and light shows.

In their show "The Well", British producer Koreless laid on a soundtrack to the projections and jets of light conjured by French artist Emmanuel Biard on Thursday.

"Sonar goes far beyond music," said one of its founders, Enric Palau. "The visual arts and technology have always played a leading role."

US artist Jesse Kanda designed a sexy and disturbing videoscape for the enigmatic Latin- and hip hop-tinged vibes of Venezuelan musician Arca.

"Beyond mainstream dance music, there is much more electro music that ventures into experimentation and art," said Lluis Nacenta, a specialist in sound design.

The Chemical Brothers launch their new album "Born in the Echoes" at Sonar on Saturday in a "hallucinogenic" show with videos by the British filmmaker Adam Smith.

Uwe Schmidt, a German music and video artist better known as Atom TM, played along with a laser show by Australian artist Robin Fox on Thursday.

"The visual is just another dimension of music," she said. "It's just one thing for me."