Sound In The Garden: Michael Rother plays NEU!, Harmonia & Solo Works (Live)
Michael Rother
00:00
Neue Nationalgalerie30,50 €
From 12 – 16 August 2026, Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie once again teams up with CTM Festival to present the open-air concert series Sound In The Garden. After four nights of live concerts, Sunday will be dedicated to special sound installations created in honor of Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, who is presenting a site-specific fog sculpture in the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie.
Sound in the Garden follows in the tradition of innovative concert formats that have repeatedly taken place in the museum's sculpture garden since the Neue Nationalgalerie opened—from the Jazz in the Garden events of the 1970s and 1980s, where artists such as Alice Coltrane and Keith Jarrett performed, to the Sound in the Garden series, which has been established since the building reopened in 2022. The clarity and precision of Mies van der Rohe’s architecture, together with the ephemeral poetry of Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture, serve as parallel inspirations for understanding to conceive of music as a spatial art form. This is enabled by an immersive d&b Soundscape audio system that allows participants to experience the music intensively as they wander wandering among the garden’s plants and sculptures.
On this night we spotlight legendary krautrock and Kosmische Musik architect Michael Rother. Celebrating over fifty years of musical innovation, he’ll be performing tracks from his seminal work with NEU! and Harmonia alongside his highly influential solo catalog. Rother’s performance centers on the motorik beat, a relentless and forward-surging pulse mimicking the sensation of tearing down an empty highway at midnight. Looped shimmering guitar melodies and warm analog synthesizer notes layer over this steady foundation, building into a wave of euphoria.
By replacing standard verses and choruses with infinite, hypnotic repetition, Rother laid down the structural foundation for everything from the post-punk of Joy Division to the soaring arrangements of Radiohead. Hearing these tracks is a direct encounter with the source material that forever redefined how musicians use rhythm and space.
Sound in the Garden is curated by Gregor Quack, Volkswagen Group curator, in collaboration with Tessa Nijdam and CTM – Festival for Adventurous Music & Art, Berlin. The project is made possible by FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie and has received crucial support by audibene GmbH and d&b audiotechnik.
Neue Nationalgalerie
Potsdamer Str. 50
10785 Berlin
The Neue Nationalgalerie is fully wheelchair accessible.
Persons taking public transit may check the current status of elevators at the subway stops nearest each venue, via the BVG (both in German and English).
If you have further questions about event and venue accessibility, or to help plan your visit, please write to us at accessibility(at)ctm-festival.de.