The Next Day Berlin: CTM Festival Special
Highlights of CTM Festival 2024 by the sound artist Stefanie Egedy
Hallo!
This inaugural special edition is crafted to express gratitude to our paid subscribers. Nothing like kicking off the special guides with one of my favorite festivals in Berlin, the CTM Festival.
We will be sending the first three special editions to all readers, offering them a preview of our editorial plans for 2024. The weekend guide remains free for all subscribers.
Starting in March, we will feature a monthly save-the-date section highlighting the best events in the upcoming month for those who prefer planning ahead. Expect interviews, Berlin mini guides, special festivals, and unique events and experiences.
Lalai
CTM Festival 2024
CTM Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Under the theme 'Sustain,' CTM showcases the current state of adventurous music, from pulsating dance floors to shared moments of artistic intimacy. The festival includes various Berlin venues, including Berghain, silent green, radialsystem, OXI, RSO.Berlin, and Volksbühne.
This year's collaborative programme with sister festival Transmediale will take place in three parts, with the multi-sensory installation »Oceanic Refractions« at silent green, a collaborative stage at Berghain Säule, and with the Vorspiel programme run by independent Berlin art initiatives.
The lineup at Berghain always holds fantastic surprises. If you've never experienced this club with one of the world's best sound systems, this could be a great opportunity to explore it. They will host five different dates throughout the entire festival.
What not to miss this year
I've spoken with the sound artist Stefanie Egedy, who is coordinating the project between CTM Festival, d&b audiotechnik, and the artists who will be using their sound infrastructure.
Egedy's keen focus is on the sonic experience, particularly in the realm of sound systems. Her recommendations primarily gravitate towards shows with exceptional sound infrastructure, a great speaker setup. In a broader suggestion, she highlights all performances at Völksbuhne and the comprehensive program at Berghain.
She has selected four unmissable performances at CTM:
Skrillex at CTM Opening Club Night
Friday, 26.01, 11:59 pm - 10 am. Berghain/Panorama Bar. Ticket: 25€ door only
Skrillex played a role in curating the Panorama Bar lineup, including a special b2b DJ set with Tatyana Jane and infusing it with Parisian underground energy. KENYA20HZ explores low frequencies, RHR taps into Brazil's dance scene, and Opium Hum warms up with hazy low-end love. Ghostpoet delivers a serpentine mix of Afro-diaspora sounds.
CTM Festival: Ben Frost feat. Greg Kubacki & Tarik Barri
Sat, 27.01, 7:45 pm; Sun, 28.01, 8:30 pm. silent green, Betonhalle. Ticket: 22/30€
Ben Frost unveils "Scope Neglect," his first studio album in six years, collaborating with Car Bomb's Greg Kubacki and celebrated audiovisual artist Tarik Barri. Melding metal with West Coast minimalism, Frost expands his visceral approach to sonic and cinematic experimentalism. Frost's sonic alchemy, featuring celebrated audiovisual artist Tarik Barri, explores unseen dimensions, revealing crystalline vulnerabilities.
Through the Thinking Iceberg
Saturday, 03.02, 8 - 9:30 pm. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Ticket: 22/26€
Félicia Atkinson premieres "Through the Thinking Iceberg," an experimental oratorio inspired by Rachel Carson and Oliver Remaud. Collaborating with Jules Reidy and crys cole, the performance explores connections between icebergs and human life, reflecting on environmental care and interconnectedness. Combining piano, guitar, field recordings, and voices, Atkinson creates abstract minimal grunge with intricate details and metaphors.
Petra Hermanova: In Death’s Eyes
Sunday, 04.02, 8 - 10 pm. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Ticket: 22/26€
Petra Hermanova's event presents her new release, "In Death's Eyes," blending folk and sacred musical elements on autoharp and voice. Accompanied by Jon Eirik Boska and Elizaveta Suslova, Hermanova explores themes of grief and spirituality, poignantly expressing her struggle for resolution amid death and loss.
Unfortunately, I won't be in Berlin during the festival, but I definitely wouldn't miss these performances and lectures either:
Anna Von Hausswolff
Friday, 26.01, 8 - 10:45 pm. silent green, Betonhalle. Ticket: 22/30€.
Anna von Hausswolff, with a 6-piece band, presents hypnotic, mantra-like moods, oscillating from thunderous drama to dissonance. Premiering new material, her compositions lead into epic, dark ecstasy.
Zeitgeist Ireland 2024: GASH COLLECTIVE
Thursday, 01.02, 10 pm - 6 am. Berghain/Säule. Ticket: 19/26€.
GASH Collective, a hub for Irish underground music, supports underrepresented people in music production. At Berghain Säule, CTM x transmediale features key figures like Baptist Goth, blending emo trap and Catholic saint vibes. Americhord brings deep techno, ALYXIS offers a dark bassy AV set, and co-founders ELLLL and Lolz deliver eclectic DJ sets. Eliza and Maeve O’Neill close with electro, ebm, techno, and acid.
Marshall McLuhan Lecture 2024 with Cory Doctorow
Monday, 29.01, 6:30 pm. Embassy of Canada. Free Admission with pre-registration.
In the Marshall McLuhan Lecture, Cory Doctorow delves into the internet's evolution and its current state. As a fan of McLuhan and Doctorow, I wouldn't miss hearing insights on unwinding the enshittification of the internet through a three-pronged approach: technical, social, and economic. The conversation will be with Frederike Kaltheuner and moderator Helen Starr.
Kali Malone
01-02.02, 8 - 10 pm. Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, Breitscheidplatz. Ticket: 20/28€. This concert is not included in festival passes.
Composer Kali Malone explores tuning systems in minimalist structures, highlighting emotive richness and harmonic depth in pipe organ and electroacoustic formats. Collaborating with guitarist Stephen O'Malley from SUNN O))), her performance at Berlin’s Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche offers a preview of pieces from her upcoming album, "All Life Long."
Quantum Computing & Sound
Friday, 02.02, 3-6:30 pm. Radialsystem, Saal. Free admission.
Goethe-Institut’s »Studio Quantum« explores talks and performances on quantum technologies and music. Quantum computers use qubits, basic units existing in the subatomic realm, and following quantum laws. This enables unique and powerful information processing, promising exciting possibilities for creative efforts.
»Last and First Men« by NEON DANCE, Jóhann Jóhannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman
Friday, 02.02, 7-9 pm. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Ticket: 22/26 €.
In a world premiere at the CTM Festival, Neon Dance presents a contemporary dance performance inspired by Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel, "Last and First Men" (2020). Set against Jóhann Jóhannsson's 16mm black and white film, narrated by Tilda Swinton, and scored by Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman, the production features live immersive audio.
If you appreciate the visual work of VJs, I recommend the VJ Open Lab #35 Playground Edition at the 'PANDA platforma' next Sunday.
This year, due to the controversial cultural fund clause, several artists, including Jyoty, Manuka Honey, Kampire, and Scratcha DVA, have withdrawn from Berlin's CTM Festiva in solidarity with the Strike Germany movement, expressing support for Palestine.