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One of Europe’s most highly anticipated music festivals kicks off this week, with a typically sterling line-up boasting some of the best European and North American acts around. However, the bill goes deeper than that; particularly the more global approach of the Primavera Pro programme. Here are five artists we highly recommend checking out in Barcelona over the next few days…

Nuven (Brazil) Friday, Nightpro, 21:00; and Saturday, Daypro, 11:50

Check out this new track by Nuven for a taste of what the São Paulo producer has to offer lucky Primavera punters this week. The fresh, weightless sounds of ‘Surreal’ are made for sunshine-streaked days – luckily the weather forecast is looking as promising as the line-up…

Moonchild Sanelly (South Africa) Thursday, Nightpro, 03:00; and Friday, Daypro, 14:20.

Port Elizabeth’s Moonchild Sanelly produces irresistibly skewed electro-pop written in what she calls “Xhonglish”, a mixture of Xhosa and English, although music like hers is catchy in any language. Check out a clip of frisky recent single ‘Fox With That’ below.

Boredoms (Japan) Saturday, Primavera Stage, 17.40.

This experimental Japanese collective are like nothing you’ve ever seen – or heard – before. Their live shows often revolve around boundary-pushing collaboration – see the below clip of them performing with 88 cymbalists in London last year for an idea (you can just about spot a certain Monitors member stage front…)

Noga Erez (Israel) Tuesday, La [2] de Apolo, 21:00; Thursday, Daypro, 11:00; and Nightpro, 17:00

Multi-talented Tel Aviv artist Noga Erez is playing three times over the festival, including two Pro showcase events. Her cover of Son Lux’s ‘Weapons’ won approval from the man himself, and it’s not hard to hear why…

Mbongwana Star (Democratic Republic of the Congo) Thursday, Ray-Ban Stage, 00:55.

Mbongwana Star produced one of the best albums of the last year in From Kinshasa, an exhilarating, electric record that fused traditional Congolese music with a resolutely forward-looking attitude…

Kier Wiater Carnihan