CTM Festival is a highlight of the city’s cultural calendar, challenging our preconceived expectations of what we understand music, performance and art to be, while chucking in a few riotous parties to boot. Taking place throughout ten days, across Berlin’s best venues — including HAU, Berghain, Radialsystem, Volksbühne and Haus der Visionäre, amongst others — expect the weird, the wonderful and the wild, as CTM offers a dazzling and diverse line-up. The theme of the 27th edition of the festival is “dissonate<>resonate”, exploring a landscape of electrifying frequencies and shared experience. With so much on offer, we scoured the lineup to pick out our top selections for you not to miss.
January 24
∈Y∋ & C.O.L.O – Spatial Radiants (Club night)
Bringing together two masters of their craft, ∈Y∋ (or EYE), founder of legendary Japanese experimental noise outfit Boredoms, and C.O.L.O, founder of COSMIC LAB, this collab will be sonically and visually explosive.
Sarah Davachi – Expanding from the Inside (Concert)
Further expanding her ongoing research into resonance and overtones, Davachi’s solo organ performance accompanies a film by LA-based filmmaker Dicky Bahto.
- Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin details
January 25
Growlers Choir – Voices of the Void (Concert)
With a choir assembled by vocalists of various metal bands, this ten-piece ensemble will grunt, scream and shriek through a layered composition of droning, overlapping supersonic textures.
- Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin details
January 27
Feeo – Trembling Together (Concert)
Traversing the space between drone and dance, Feeo explores intimacy, closeness and distance, anchoring her work within narrative-driven songs.
- Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin details
January 28
Milkweed – Dissonance Drift (Concert)
For fans of low-fi, analogue gear and detuned guitars, the duo Milkweed create spellbinding melodies where nostalgia and modernity converge.
- Berghain, Am Wriezener bhf, 10243 Berlin details
January 29
Kat Válastur & Aho Ssan – MoonJar (Performance)
Inspired by ancient myths and ceremonial performance, MoonJar explores the materiality of clay, inviting a dialogue between vessels, choreography and sound.
- HAU2, Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin details
An ITCZ of Many Tongues – ft Miss Tacacá (Club night)
Heading an hypnotic line-up, producer and cultural icon Miss Tacacá whips her way through brega funk, accelerated tempos and heavy bass with full force.
- Berghain Säule, Am Wriezener bhf, 10243 Berlin details
Guedra Guedra – Gateway Potential (Club night)
Rooted within philosophies of afrofuturism and decolonisation, Moroccan producer Abdellah M. Hassak looks at the power of human connection through tone and not territory.
- Panorama Bar, Am Wriezener bhf, 10243 Berlin details
January 30
Rozzma Live – No_Stone Collective (Club night)
Taking a journey through Egyptian rap, experimental electronica and rave bass, this’ll be an intimate yet expansive trip leaving you wide-eyed come dawn.
- RSO Berlin (Summe), Schnellerstraße 137, 12439 Berlin details
Cortisa Star – Ecstatic Fractures (Club night)
Defying the cookie cutter rap troupes, trans artist Cortisa Star weaves together rap, drill and hyperpop with queer-centered vibrancy.
- RSO Berlin (Robus), Schnellerstraße 137, 12439 Berlin details
January 31
Zeynep Schilling – Disturbed Ground (Concert)
A collaboration by Kyiv’s ∄ and CTM Festival that unites Ukrainian and international artists to respond to the ecological consequences of the war in Ukraine using audiovisual performances.
- Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin details
Noémi Büchi – Echoes of Disquiet (Concert)
Gliding through classicism, jazz, folk and experimentalist forms of electronics, these meditative compositions expand Büchi’s fascination with substance and transformation.
- Volksbühne, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin details
