Image Courtesy of CTM Festival.
CTM Festival presents the current state of adventurous music, from the pulsating dance floors to shared moments of artistic intimacy, the festival passes through a range of Berlin venues such as Berghain, radialsystem, OXI, RSO.Berlin, and Volksbühne am Rosa- Luxemburg-Platz.
This year’s festival theme is »sustain«. Sustain is not attached to the desire to shatter, but wants to affirm and nourish. It can also refer to the fears, losses, and pains we suffer as we can sense what we are going through. At the same time, sustain points to the options we have to face such pain: it speaks of the empathy and determination that allows us to overcome difficult times, and of the nourishment that not only sustains us but lets us grow.
What if »sustain« was a sound? What would it be like? What music would emerge from it? Perhaps it would be music that not only offers refuge or escape, but also music that reminds us of our desire and our possibility to turn towards brighter horizons – even through dark or unsettling aurals.
The 25th edition will take place from January 26th to February 4th, 2024, with big names like Anna Von Hausswolff, Kali Malone, Ben Frost and Skrillex. But here, SLEEK has selected a list of 10 artists to keep on your radar.
LEFT Image Courtesy of the Artist. RIGHT Photography by Irma Fadhila.
Fri, 26th Jan 2024 23:59 – 07:00 Berghain Säule
Pisitakun & Ariel William Orah – »Raveoke«
The opening night at Berghain will be topped off with a participatory protest karaoke session led by Pisitakun with Ariel William Orah. With the possibility to make your own screen prints using Pisitakun’s designs – bring an extra t-shirt or any white/light-coloured fabric! You’ll find the screen printing station in front of Säule’s glass wall, running from midnight until 2 am.
Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Fri, 26th Jan 2024 23:59 – 10:00 Berghain Panorama Bar
Ghostpoet
The artist, musician, DJ and curator Ghostpoet operates in the zone between abstract hip-hop, alt-rock, and offset spoken word. Already being a skilled and experienced DJ, expect a serpentine mix of Afro-diaspora sounds from his London upbringing and his influences from his worldwide travels.
Photography by Mike Dhondt.
Sat, 27th Jan 2024 23:00 – 08:00 OXI
Oldyungmayn
The SHAPE+ supported Oldyungmayn transects an exhilarating musical lexicon of 90s era rave, sharpened sound design, and a wide spectrum of music from fellow Middle Eastern producers. Early encounters with her native Rotterdam’s jungle, dubstep and grime scene are heavily reflected in sets by Soft Break, full of unexpected twists and turns.
LEFT Photography by Frederike Wetzels. RIGHT Photography by Kasia Zacharko.
Tue, 30th Jan 2024 21:00 – 02:00 Berghain
Phillip Sollmann & Max Eilbacher – »Kalkül der Form«
With »Kalkül der Form,« Max Eilbacher (Horse Lords, supported by SHAPE+) and Phillip Sollmann (Efdemin) present their first collaboration, a multichannel digital synthesis system. The duo’s system materialises a perceptual fusing of ten sonic actors, running against and alongside each other in a constant morphology of different designs. At the core of their idiosyncratic electronic music structure and their live presentation lies the idea of the distinction or lack thereof.
Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Tue, 30th Jan 2024 19:00 – 22:00 radialsystem
Heith & Declino present: »Inverted Vertigo«
»Inverted Vertigo« by Heith and Berlin-based visual artist duo DECLINO is an exploration of the ritualistic dimensions of live music through an audiovisual show, where the audience plays the role of both viewer and active participant. Through an oracular totem that sits in the centre of the room, the show collapses the boundaries between real and imagined, summoning new psychic dimensions through dreamlike encounters.
LEFT Photography by Evgeniya Manerova RIGHT Photography by Mehdi Benkler.
Wed, 31st Jan 2024 21:00 – 02:00 Berghain
Julian Sartorius & Rabih Beaini
Already being a fixture in the international improv scene, Julian Sartorius has become known for a drumming style that plays with suspending time and testing infinity. Pairing up for the first time with the polyrhythmic trance of Rabih Beaini’s CDJ wizardry, the duo will unfurl tonal nuances and shift time signatures towards an intense kinetic peak.
Photography by Yatri Niehaus.
Wed, 31st Jan 2024 21:00 – 02:00 Berghain
Divide & Dissolve
The duo Divide & Dissolve have been bringing their Indigenous identities to the forefront of all they do, calling for dismantling hegemonic power structures and working towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation. The dense and overwhelmingly heavy doom metal of their most recent album Systemic (2023) is interwoven with beautiful orchestral passages, creating a structure with room to breathe and reset before plunging into the next landscape of sludgy guitar and pounding percussion. As they oscillate between beauty and suffering, Divide & Dissolve aims to examine the systems that intrinsically bind us and call for a new path that facilitates life for everyone.
Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Fri, 2nd Feb 2024 21:00 – 08:00 Berghain
Mandidextrous
As a UK underground fixture and leading innovator in fresh genres spanning the hardtek scene, Mandidextrous will bring a diverse combination of high energy 4×4 dnb, speedbas, and jungletek, keeping true to their 4×4 175bpm style. The program is high energy from start to finish.
Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Sat, 3rd Feb 2024 18:00 – 20:00 Morphine Raum
Luis-Manuel Garcia-Mispireta
In his new book, ‘Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor’, Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta examines how people find ways to get along and share a dancefloor, a vibe, and a sound. Drawing from his time spent in the minimal techno and house music sub-scenes in Chicago, Paris, and Berlin as the first decade of the new millennium came to a close, Garcia-Mispireta rethinks intimacy and belonging through dancing crowds and the utopian vision of throbbing dancefloors.
Photography by Cristian Andersson.
Sun, 4th Feb 2024 20:00 – 22:00 Volksbühne
Aïsha Devi – »Les Immortelles«
The festival’s closing concert at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz theatre will feature festival favourite Aïsha Devi who will return to CTM in support of the new album ‘Death is Home on Houndstooth’, her first LP since 2018 and in her words her most personal work yet. Harnessing timeless frequencies, Devi channels crystalline HD bass motifs and weightless vocals in a sonic manifesto toward healing and forging a path for an alternate, more hospitable reality beyond the human condition. Devi will close the festival in a world premiere live performance with engrossing scenography.