One of the most important things that music and a music festival like CTM can bring about is contact – with diverse sonic worlds, communities, and experiences, but also between traditions, temporalities, geographies. As the social functions of music and festivals have been weakened, and as we grapple with a multiplicity of waves and meanings of »reopening,« CTM 2022 aims to highlight the importance of creating space for many forms of contact, and to reflect on their requirements. How can we revive, rethink, and strengthen music and its spaces of possibility for exchange and emotional resonance? Because without new and challenging forms of contact in the present, we cannot expect a more collective, just, and joyful future.

• deli girls [US]
• De Schuurman [NL]
• DJ Fuckoff [NZ/DE]
• Edna Martinez [CO/DE]
• Fronte Vacuo – »Humane Methods [ΣXHALE]« [IT/DE]
• Jennifer Walton [UK]
• Loraine James [UK]
• Machine Girl [US]
• Nakul Krishnamurthy [IN] – »Tesserae«
• NURSE3D [INT]
• Ostbam [PL/DE]
• Raed Yassin [LB/DE] – »Phantom Orchestra«

»Modular Organ System« by Phillip Sollman & Konrad Sprenger with interventions by:

• Arnold Dreyblatt [US/DE]
• Brass Abacus [INT]
• Ellen Arkbro [SE]
• Kali Malone & Stephen O’Malley [US]
• Will Guthrie [AU/FR]

CTM Radio Lab with newly commissioned works by:

• Andrius Arutiunian [LT/NL] – »Incantations«
• Fronte Violeta & Martha Kiss Perrone [BR] – »What is Not (O Que Não Está)«
• Jonathan Reus [US/NL]
   

The first CTM 2022 confirmations feature personal/artistic responses to lack of human contact; the unease of increasingly consolidated authoritarian power structures; attempts to create new musical spaces that bridge traditions, histories, artforms, and more-than-human worlds; as well as exhilarating club sounds celebrating the joy of collective dancefloor experiences.

»[ΣXHALE]« is an offshoot of the performance series Humane Methods, an ever-multiplying chain of stage productions by the Berlin-based performing arts group Fronte Vacuo (Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere, Andrea Familari) that reflect on the forms of human violence that have risen from the coalescence of polarised societies, algorithmic megastructures, and natural ecosystems. Combining dance, theatre, interactive music, body art, and biotechnological installation, »[ΣXHALE]« is a living biome that takes shape as a collective, durational experiment in four episodes. The audience is immersed into a garden-like habitat of human performers, plant and fungal life, and AI algorithms generated by an omnipresent AI named <dmb>. As human, more-than-human, and AI lifeforms influence one another in this ritualistic choreography, a gradual shared intimacy emerges, bringing attention to the need for respectful coexistence and interdependence.

In collaboration with Morphine Records and featuring over 40 improvisational artists, Raed Yassin presents »Phantom Orchestra,« an archival project of solo improvisational recordings and an unconventional performance developed in the context of pandemic lockdowns, when the in-person synergy at the core of improvised music was completely suspended. As a means of coping with the loss of their livelihoods and forms of expression, musicians around the world began to experiment with solo improvisation within the confines of an enclosed or isolated space – an act which brought forth brilliantly unique and experimental responses within this collectively endured period. »Phantom Orchestra« showcases otherwise lost output from Berlin-based improv musicians in single vinyl recordings of reproduced solo performances pressed by Morphine Records. The resulting collection of vinyls will be played in a live performance by Yassin, using a system of over a dozen turntables to create an orchestra of deconstructed and repurposed »phantom sounds.«

Loraine James returns to CTM in support of Reflection, her second album for Hyperdub. Having already crafted a sphere of her own, where intuition and emotion take precedence over conventions of genre, with Reflection James takes another striking step forward via productions that reflect her tumultuous inner world during lockdown. Navigating uncertainty, vulnerability, hope, feeling stalled, memories of shared social experiences, and complex feelings around reopening, the album »is both a call to change and a call to reflect; without the latter there can’t be the former, James says on this brave, ambitious, and challenging new album.« (The Quietus)

Dialoguing between Western classical/experimental and classical Indian music traditions, Nakul Krishnamurthy presents Tesserae, an upcoming release via Cafe Oto where numerous recorded vocal phrases and harmonies intersect, layer, and blend with generative patterns and chance-based modulations. Krishnamurthty’s unbounded sonic mosaic conjures »a musical space that reflects the intimacy of cultures in the contemporary migratory world and celebrates the possibilities afforded by cultural hybridity in enriching our traditions and modes of thought.« (Cafe Oto)

A riotous synthesis spanning hardcore punk, digital metal and grindcore to electronic sub genres like gabber, jungle and footwork – Machine Girl’s post-digital cosmos confronts the terrifying power systems of today from the vantage point of an extraterrestrial antifascist entity. The duo’s unrestrained and cathartic live performances have gathered together a diverse cult following of ravers, punks and metalheads – a testimony to the collective force of their music. Following tours all over the US, their participation in CTM Festival marks their first appearance in Europe.

The unhinged fervour of hardcore duo deli girls represents a vital part of New York’s live music scene, where ravers and punks come together in a spirit of activist rebellion. Expelling queer rage against straight patriarchal hegemonic violence, the band’s vocalist Danny Orlowski and producer/percussionist Tommi Kelly mash drum machines, sequencers, and synths with thrashing vocals to create a brew of industrial, nu-metal, noise, and electronic dance sounds.

Den Haag-based producer De Schuurman is a fixture of Holland’s Afro-diasporic club scene, known for his gritty dancehall techno tracks laced with trap and dubstep – a style that has credited him with evolving the Dutch bubbling house genre. His album Bubbling Inside, released by Nyege Nyege Tapes in early 2021, features a selection of De Schuurman’s productions made 10 years ago when he was just a teenager – melodic and syncopated hybrid tunes ahead of their time.
 
boygirl collaborator Jennifer Walton stands out for her warped and wickedly sharp digital sounds. Her 2019 album White Nurse gained attention for its attempt to propose a more constructive and critical aesthetic to the power electronics genre, which often flirts with fascist imagery. 2020’s follow-up EP Flash On is a stripped-down venture into UK bass and dance music, filled with acid bass drops, dequantized breakdowns, and swung garage beats.
 
NURS3D will appear at CTM with a live premiere of »music for weirdos, night terrors, speed freaks.« They’ll be supporting the new EP Fuck Toy that swerves through through thrash metal riffs and facemelting terrorcore, climbing to a pulse-blurring 1000 bpm apex.
 
Berlin-based DJ Fuckoff’s nonchalantly blunt track names, provocative lyrics, and playfully creative mixing constitute her unique sound. In contrast to her humorously ironic releases, her DJ mixes are unapologetic, raw, and seamlessly fast-paced with flash transitions that shapeshift across gabber, hardcore, psytrance, breakcore, juke and technoid realms. 

Selector Edna Martinez routes Carribean, African, and Arabic sounds through radio shows on Radio Alhara راديو الحارة Worldwide, and Boxout.fm, as well as regular appearances with Berlin events and collectives such as LatinArab.Berlin.

A member of feminist DJ collective ProZecco and co-founder of the new Leipzig based collective vir.go, Ostbam is known for her industrial and ravey techno selections reminiscent of 90s underground acid and trance parties. Half of Monsoon Traxx (along with Cevab Cici), a duo much loved for its nostalgic trance and hard dance influences, Ostbam brings with her an encyclopaedic collection of old school, high energy tunes ranging from gabber to italo disco.

Performative Installation by Philip Sollman & Konrad Sprenger with interventions by Arnold Dreyblatt, Brass Abacus, Ellen Arkbro, Kali Malone & Stephen O’Malley, and Will Guthrie. A project by singuhr projekte in collaboration with CTM.

Existing in the liminal space between concert, installation, environment, and performance, »Modular Organ System« is a multi-part instrument built from numerous sound generating objects that can be controlled by computer. A project by Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger, »Modular Organ System« offers a unique and continuously morphing sonic terrain.

The project interweaves contemporary electronic and computer music with organ traditions in hopes of expanding acoustic ranges and discovering new musical idioms, using established and novel construction methods as well as traditional and unconventional materials such as ceramic, wood, and plastic. A collaboration between visual artists, organ builders, technologists, and artisans, the installation’s imaginative design and site-specific performativity also evinces it as a sculptural work of art.
 
Musicians of diverse practices have been invited to experiment with the imposing instrument over the course of ten days. During this time, the presentation will alternate between various modes of sound production, ranging from sound installation to precomposed pieces to improvisational dialogues between the performing artists and the system. By creating an expandable context where continuous experimentation takes place, the project assumes the purpose of an interdisciplinary laboratory for music and sound, technology, art, and experience.

Two winning projects have been selected from the CTM 2022 Radio Lab open call, which seeks unusual explorations of the artistic possibilities of radio and live performance or installation mediums.

»What is Not (O Que Não Está)« is an audio drama created by the duo Fronte Violeta together with director, actress, and playwright Martha Kiss Perrone. Through three movements – underground (the silence of what is unseen), flood (humidity and the weeping that make matter fertile), and uprising (the slow transformation of matter and the plurality of voices in a multi-species chorus), the artists provoke the possibility of types of contact that trigger new perceptions of listening to what is absent, and to narratives, bodies, and technologies that survive disasters.

»Incantations« by Andrius Arutiunian is a new work for voices and electronics produced in collaboration with Vilnius-based Melos Collective. It is based on sung and spoken forms of spells and charms that have long been used as a means to deflect misfortunes in times of crises and help oscillate the universe back to its balanced state. Incantations in their raw, oral, and vernacular states bridge a gap between speculative futures and passing realities.

Radio Lab commissions are awarded by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Klangkunst and CTM Festival, in collaboration with ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival, ORF Kunstradio, The Wire magazine, and Goethe-Institut.

Jonathan Reus has been selected as winner of the 2022 Kontinuum call for generative sound work, commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Klangkunst and CTM Festival, in collaboration with ORF Kunstradio.

An artificial broadcaster will perform a year long radio stream that amplifies and disseminates the ideas of long term thinking and intergenerational responsibility. We live in a time where short term thinking is the cultural norm, a reality that is exacerbated by the accelerating pace of information streams on social media. There is only a fraction of a moment to speak, be heard or to listen. By amplifying the voices of long term thinking through an ongoing performance using streams of online information, the system is meant to push for both cognitive and ethical renewal. Coinciding with CTM 2022, Reus will launch a web portal populated with this stream, which will become a resource as well as a transcript, archive, and point of contact for visitors.

The yearly MusicMakers Hacklab is an open, collaborative environment where participants work together during CTM Festival week to explore and realise new musical ideas. After a fully virtual year in 2021, this upcoming Hacklab takes a first step back into in-person collaboration with an open call for participants based in Berlin. Hosted by Peter Kirn of CDM and Ariel William Orah of Soydivision and L-KW, this year’s Hacklab fellows are invited to consider intimacy and physical proximity in their Hacklab creations, but also how they might reshape their artistic identities or local communities/scenes, building unfamiliar selves while remaining in a familiar city/place. Application deadline is 28 November.

Vorspiel is an initiative by transmediale and CTM Festival that aims to showcase the richness and diversity of Berlin's independent project spaces and artist initiatives. An open call is out now to local groups wishing to participate in contributing to the Vorspiel 2022 programme, through a range of (on/offline) formats. Contributions can span fields of sound and digital/media art, as well as hybrid fields joining art/science, design and more. Deadline of 5 November 2021.

In-person access to CTM 2022 events will be offered under the 2G rule (vaccinated, recovered), while online/streamed content will once again be offered free of charge. Information on festival passes and press accreditation will be announced mid-November 2021.