Sound art will be the focus of three significant fall exhibitions at the Reina Sofía. In “Disonata,” Paris-based art historian Maike Aden foregrounds works that challenge traditional conceptions of art and music, from Futurist instrumentation to midcentury technologies such as magnetic tape to materials from the late-1970s eruption of punk. In “Audiosphere,” musician and sound artist Francisco López brings together more than one thousand pieces around themes including “genealogies, networks, mega accessibility, cyborgization, aesthetogenesis, recombination, and rights,” polemically eliminating images and objects to create an atmosphere of primarily acoustical immersion. Complementing both shows is Niño de Elche’s interpretive restaging of Spanish filmmaker and polymath José Val del Omar’s spatialized loudspeaker arrangement Auto Sacramental Invisible, 1952. As López and de Elche are active in Spain’s experimental music scene, the trio of presentations promises to combine international scope and local flavor—just what a good museum program should do.

“Disonata” (curated by Maike Aden) is on view through March 1, 2021; “Invisible Auto Sacramental”  is on view October 7, 2020–April 26, 2021; “Audiosphere” (curated by Francisco López) is on view October 14, 2020–January 11, 2021

— Branden W. Joseph