Go to CTM 2025 Sub-site Festival Passes Accreditation
The myriad of experimental, personal, and emotional practices regrouped here mirror a world in distress and uncertainty, and (artistic) attempts to process this. CTM 2025 will run without an overarching theme, instead exploring a series of new and ongoing thematic strands.
One of several points of focus will be on how traditional art forms and aesthetics can be reinterpreted within modern sound and performance, outside of (self-)exoticisation and the uneven power dynamics created by mass-cultural and other stereotypes. Centred around the »Resynthesising the Traditional« artistic lab, this theme will also be reflected in concerts and discourse sessions throughout the festival. Continuing our examination of spatial audio and artificial intelligence in sound, the 2025 edition will also explore themes of immersive audio and the disruption and creative anarchy within AI’s evolving role in music and art, notably through the »Wilding AI« artistic lab, plus concerts and discursive inputs. Evoked first within our CTM Radio Lab, the theme of »Affection« will be examined through commissioned performances and talks.
Spanning venues silent green, radialsystem, Volksbühne, MONOM, Berghain, Oxi, RSO.Berlin, Morphine Raum, and more, CTM 2025 will run from 24 January to 2 February 2025. Festival passes are on sale now, and we invite you to read about first confirmed acts below.
During our 25 years of existence, we have aimed to bring together perspectives from different artists and communities in Berlin, Europe, and around the world. As a music festival we believe that art and culture provide valuable spaces for encounters and reflection, and we remain dedicated to keeping such spaces open to negotiate our differences with mutual respect. This mission remains especially important to us as the political climate in Germany and worldwide becomes ever more difficult. We have published a note on this here.
A next round of programme information will be released in December.
First Acts
We launch our 2025 programming with artists:
- 33 (INT)
- Abdullah Miniawy Trio (INT)
- Agustín Genoud (AR) – »Liederbuch der Apokalypsen«
- ANTCONSTANTINO (BR)
- Ash Fure (US) »ANIMAL«
- Dis Fig & Spooky-J (INT)
- DJ Love (PH)
- Eek, Female Wizard, Harrison Hall, Sam Mcgilp pres. »STACK« AV (AU)
- Emma Ruth Rundle (US) – »Electric Guitar 3«
- Ganavya (US)
- Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko (UA) – »Гільдеґарда«
- Jordan Deal (US) – »Seas of Triple Consciousness«
- Kianí del Valle (KDV) Performance Group with Tayhana and Hamill Industries (INT) – »CORTEX«
- Kilbourne (US)
- Marie Davidson (NL/CA) presents »City Of Clowns« with Nick Verstand
- Morgan Garrett (US)
- Murderpact (US)
- Nídia & Valentina (PT/UK) – »Estradas«
- ---__--____Seth Graham & More Eaze (US) – »Night Of Fire«
- PΞB (DE)
- Runhild Gammelsaeter & Lasse Marhaug (NO)
- These New Puritans (UK)
The CTM 2025 Radio Lab Winners:
- Lynn Nandar Htoo, rEmPiT g0dDe$$, Gabriel Htoo, Sarah Hanan (INT) – »Resonant Resilience«
- Yara Mekawei (EG/DE) – »Sonic Forces«
Participants of the Resynthesising the Traditional artistic lab hosted by Susie Ibarra (US) and Stas Shärifullá (INT):
- Anna Jurkiewicz (PL/AT)
- bela (KR/DE)
- Bilawa Respati (ID/DE)
- Marie Yevkiné Tirard (FR)
- Medina Bazarğali (KZ)
- Nakul Krishnamurthy (IN/UK)
- Shoty Ndjoly (CD)
- trē seguritan abalos (US)
The Wilding AI Lab held at MONOM is seeking participants via open call tol engage the hybrid possibilities of spatial audio and generative AI with hosts:
- Alexandre Saunier (FR)
- Beth Coleman (US/CA)
- Maurice Jones (DE/CA)
- Portrait XO (US/DE)
Returning with their first LP since 2019, the only thing one can expect from the genre-defying These New Puritans is the unexpected. Equal parts high-concept artisans and ambitious pop architects, twin brothers Jack and George Barnett are defined by a restless drive to dismantle boundaries between genres. Their music has an intentional ambiguity, weaving a persistent undercurrent of questioning and a sonic warmth that resists clear interpretation.
Emma Ruth Rundle will present a one-time-only solo live set of improvised and experimental material, put together as a CTM-exclusive performance. Created in a similar manner as her albums EG1 and EG2: Dowsing Voice, the performance extends Rundle’s vulnerable majesty into new directions, once more breaking down and recontextualizing what came before.
Specially commissioned by Sónar and CTM, »CORTEX« by the Kianí del Valle Performance Group probes the profound implications of the human brain in the context of existence beyond mortality, exploring the intertwined psychological and physical dimensions of displacement and solitude in the diasporic journey of individuals seeking a place within a singular physical ecosystem. Featuring dynamically evolving choreography and direction by Kianí del Valle in collaboration with the Barcelona-based visual artists Hamill Industries and Argentinian music producer Tayhana, the characters navigate their surroundings through »sensorial thinking,« catalysed by music and enhanced by visuals, allowing them to process their experiences through the senses. With sound as the driving force, visuals and light intertwine with both music and dance, creating a journey organised into four acts.
In this German premiere together with Ukrainian singer Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, the composer Heinali reimagines Hildegard von Bingen's compositions with authentic Ukrainian folk singing techniques and generative monophony and polyphony techniques on modular synthesiser, highlighting the visceral quality of von Bingen's writing, which is often missing in traditional Early Music interpretations. This requires the singer to put in a raw, almost inhumane transcendent effort. Through »Гільдеґарда,« (»Hildegarda«) Heinali and Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko place Ukrainian traditional culture in a broader European context, actualising Hildegard's material to express their war-related experiences and a different, and challenging understanding of spirituality that arises from these. Supported by GMEA–Centre National de Création Musicale d'Albi-Tarn, Unsound, Athens & Epidaurus Festival, and CTM.
Montréal-based Marie Davidson moves between the hypnotic pulse of techno and the ethereal drift of ambient music—often dark and heavy, yet with winks of humour and a sense of mischievous fun beneath the surface. She will premiere a new live show for CTM around her upcoming record City Of Clowns, released on Soulwax's DEEWEE imprint, together with Dutch artist Nick Verstand. Renowned for creating interactive installations that blend light, sound, and spatial design—allowing environments to dynamically respond to visitors' movements and emotions in real time—Verstand crafts immersive spaces that provoke deep introspection and a heightened sensory awareness.
American composer Ash Fure’s work is defined by the unfiltered power of sound, acoustic interferences, and the intensity of live performance, focused on condensing and deconstructing complex sound dynamics that often verge on breakdown. Her project »ANIMAL« creates an immersive sensory experience where sub-bass floods, sonar clicks, and white noise wash over the space like shifting weather. Using a custom-built rig that synchronises sound and light, »ANIMAL« blends visceral, athletic energy with interactive sound art, transforming the aural, visual, and physical into a boundary-pushing spectacle akin to techno acupuncture.
New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised, Ganavya wields a voice that's equal parts lullaby and lightning bolt, drawing from a deep well of spiritual blueprints passed down through generations and letting the lines between past, present, and future blur into something beautifully unrecognisable.
Multidisciplinary practitioner, performance artist, and alchemist Jordan Deal will present the German live premiere of his album Seas of Triple Consciousness. Echoing elements of gospel, blues, folk traditions, and avant-garde techniques, the work takes us on a journey through a landscape collapsing from oppressive forces, yet with a hopeful horizon. Anchored in piano and voice, Deal’s deeply personal music is as haunting and fragile as it is defiant.
Nídia and Valentina continuously meet »on the road,« sharing a sonic adaptation to the urgency and context of different environments. Their exchange of vibes and beats resonates with all these diverse places, masterfully blending syncopated drum patterns, pulsating marimba lines, and melodic interludes. »Estradas« (»roads« in Portuguese), born from the Sicilian heat and refined under English rain, transcends cultural and environmental barriers, showcasing the duo’s rhythmic expertise and connection through intricate beats and infectious melodies.
A live film experiment curated in partnership with Sydney-based festival and production powerhouse SOFT CENTRE, Harrison Hall, Henry Lai-Pyne (Eek), Sam Mcgilp (PSEUDO), and Alexander Powers (Female Wizard), »STACK« explores power dynamics and cultural peculiarities arising from posthumanism, bio-capitalism, and ecological horror. Blending live cinema, screenplay, choreography, and experimental sound, incorporating raw cuts, POV cams, and eclectic references like Tetsuo the Iron Man and Haraway's Cyborg, the work redefines sci-fi horror and smut through dematerialisation of human matter, oscillating between maximalist media and theatrical purity while highlighting bio-capitalism and ecological horror.
Composer and Orange Milk Records co-owner Seth Graham merges his philosophical background with a deep exploration of sound, blending the intellectual rigour of classical avant-garde traditions with the fluidity of modern pop. Mari Maurice aka More Eaze spans a wide array of genres and nuanced themes as well, crafting introspective sound palettes that reflect on topics such as gender, identity, intimacy, and the quiet intricacies of everyday life. The duo will present their album »Night Of Fire,« composed under their shared moniker ---__--____ and inspired by gas stations, race tracks, county fairs, improper music production, a feeling of total disregard, and that everything matters except the value placed on it.
The live performances of ensemble 33 (Alexander Iezzi, Billy Bultheel, and Ivan Cheng) are immersive, installation-like spectacles, enveloping audiences in multisensory experiences that smear the lines between concert and performance art.
The SHAPE+-supported Abdullah Miniawy trio create deeply resonating works that blend dark sonic palettes with evocative singing. A multi-talented poet and performer, Miniawy’s performances are haunting and cathartic, mixing sediments of Egyption heritage with ideas of artistic freedom and civil diversity of the modern individual.
Using her acrobatic voice and physical presence to transmit emotional complexity from a pit deeper than language, Dis Fig dredges forth a cathartic distillate that oozes between vulnerable beauty and retching chaos. With Nihiloxica’s Spooky-J on drums, she will present a live show developed during her 2024 CTM x Goethe-Institut x Somerset House Studios Residency, with the material forming the basis of an upcoming full-length release. Separately, Spooky-J will appear with a solo performance of amplified drums with effects processing.
»Liederbuch der Apokalypsen« is an A/V premiere by Agustín Genoud blending choral performance, live electronics, and video art into apocalyptic themes from a post-human perspective. Envisioning a cosmic revelation where an otherworldly entity delivers a vision of the world's end, the performers embody a range of voices through extended vocal techniques and experimental vocal processing—from human to animal to machine. Regrouping an exceptional cast of experimental vocalists Audrey Chen, Anna Clementi, Alessandra Eramo, Nina Guo, Christian Kesten, Elisabetta Lanfredini, Ligia Liberatori, and Ute Wassermann, the work is structured as a songbook (»Liederbuch«) that invites reflection on the doomed cosmos of hyper-technical knowledge even as it calls for new ways of coexisting as we witness the end of the »white dazzle night« of Enlightenment. The piece was developed during a DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency in 2024.
DJ Love, pioneer and innovator of the Filipino dance sensation budots, crafts high-octane rave celebrations wedded with the ambient sounds of the Philippines—from jeepney horns to native fauna—with harder mutations like bomb-tek.
A raw annihilation to the lunar plexus, PΞB is a relentless fusion of industrial, punk, noise rock and metal, crafted with the precision of a sonic weapon. Elements of Grand Guignol horror, spoken word poetry, and howling vocal performances create a viciously throbbing experience both musical and theatrical.
Back after a crowd-crunching set at CTM 2018, NYC Hardcore Evangelist Kilbourne offers the best in brvtal beats and bass laced with the dirtiest kicks outside a bar fight, with filthed-up 909s guaranteed to make your brain go 404. [UPDATE: Unfortunately Kilbourne has had to cancel.]
With roots in 90s underground metal, Runhild Gammelsæter brings an almost scientific rigour to her experimental approach to music, pushing the boundaries of vocal expression. A pioneering force on the outermost edges of sound and art for over three decades, fellow Norwegian Lasse Marhaug is a true legend in noise music. The two will bring their sonic collision together with a gravity-collapsing performance.
Morgan Garrett’s aurals are an intimate confrontation with personal and regional anguish, traditional hymns disfigured by layers of abrasive feedback, jagged guitars, trembling vocals, and electronic elements: visceral expressions of alienation that squat squamous upon the soul.
Brooklyn’s Murderpact pushes digital hardcore and experimental rave music into chaotic realms, using frenetic tempos and fractured soundscapes to build a glitchy, high-speed sonic rollercoaster of perpetual, dizzying drops.
Rapidly becoming a key figure in Brazil’s underground dance scene, ANTCONSTANTINO seamlessly blends Brazilian grime, drill, and pulse-jacking »pula pula« beats into his bombastic sets.
CTM Radio Lab
Two CTM 2025 Radio Lab projects have been selected from over 300 entries from artists in 53 different countries, which responded to this year’s open call. The two winning projects will premiere at CTM 2025, with subsequent radio broadcasts via Deutschlandfunk Kultur and ORF in spring and autumn 2025 respectively.
Lynn Nandar Htoo, a sound artist from Myanmar, will present her project together with fellow Southeast Asian artist Victoria Yam aka rEmPiT g0dDe$$. The performance will focus on the experiences of individuals displaced by the ongoing political turmoil in Myanmar and the harsh regulations faced by queer communities in Malaysia, giving voice to these struggles as a means of empowerment and healing. In »Resonant Resilience,« Htoo and Yam explore resilience as a response to socio-political inequities disproportionately affecting Southeast Asian female and queer communities. Integrating Htoo’s field recordings made in her home of Yangon, Myanmar, this fusion of natural soundscapes, classical analogue sounds, and digital elements will be enhanced by dynamic visual art created by the filmmaker Gabriel Htoo, highlighting the devastating impact of Myanmar’s political turmoil and the struggles of those caught in its path, and Sarah Hanan, who captures layers of repression, isolation, internalised shame, and enduring hope that mark the lives of queer identities in Southeast Asia.
Yara Mekawei will present a new project exploring the intersection of personal and political struggles through sound. As a woman living in a society dominated by religious conservatism and patriarchal structures, Mekawei explores how affection can serve both as a sanctuary and a battleground. Set against the politically charged landscape of Egypt, where borders with Palestine, Libya, and Sudan represent sites of war and refuge, her project delves into the paradox of seeking safety amid deeper personal struggles. By capturing field recordings from Egypt’s border regions, Mekawei’s proposed work, »Sonic Forces« will create a soundscape that reflects this journey: the sounds of crossing points, refugee camps, and border towns transformed into a layered auditory landscape.
The jury was composed of Talía Vega León (curator Radical Sounds Latin America), Elisabeth Zimmerman (ORF), Marcus Gammel (Deutschlandfunk Kultur), and Jan Rohlf (co-founder and artistic director CTM Festival).
The Radio Lab is a project by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Hörspiel / Klangkunst and CTM Festival in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, ORF Ö1 Kunstradio, the Radio Lab sought proposals relating to the festival theme »Sustain« that also engaged with the artistic possibilities of radio and live performance mediums. This year it is also presented within the framework of the sound art initiative tekhnė, which is co-funded by the Creative Union programme of the European Union.
Resynthesising the Traditional
Resynthesising the Traditional is an artistic lab which will host eight artists selected via open call for a weeklong exploration of the intersection of heritage, technology, and political imagination. Co-hosted by composer and sound artist Susie Ibarra and sound researcher and artist Stas Shärifullá, the lab will culminate in a public event on Sunday 2 February in radialsystem Halle, mixing presentations, performative inputs, and talks.
Inspired by »resynthesis«—a technique in computer music that deconstructs and reimagines sound—the lab invites participants to analyse and redefine cultural narratives while resisting the often reductive lenses of exoticism and mass-cultural stereotypes. By embracing tradition as a fluid and evolving process, the lab provides tools for technological, aesthetic, and sociopolitical transformation, pushing artists to challenge static perceptions of cultural heritage.
Participants of the lab’s inaugural edition bring diverse cultural and creative perspectives.
Through a practice of »de-composition,« Anna Jurkiewicz engages with vocal music archives, reviving rural songs from Polish and Ukrainian traditions to blend old and new meanings. Her practice, which she describes as a »cyberfeminist re-embodying of sonic archives,« explores the emancipatory power of traditional singing which can facilitate the un-forgetting of peasant herstory.«
The vocalist, performer, and producer bela recontextualizes Korean folk music, pungmul, through beat-driven electronic production, combining influences from metal, industrial, and DIY genres. They question the assimilation of traditional rhythms into Western club music, rather exploring how diverse sonic influences can reshape Korean musical codes.
Bilawa Respati’s work seeks new expressions for gamelan music beyond its traditional and academic contexts, navigating between exotic expectations and strict traditions. He reimagines gamelan's path in the technological era, tracing its mythical origins to propose a future-oriented approach.
Marie Yevkiné Tirard seeks connection with her distant Armenian heritage as she digs into ancient Armenian modal music through explorations using voice and instruments like the Saz. Tirard questions what it means for traditions to »belong« and uses her art to connect past roots with future possibilities.
Medina Bazarğali merges themes of decolonization with live coding, creating modern algorithmic soundscapes inspired by aytis, a traditional Kazakh form of freestyle storytelling. Her practice transforms ancient cultural expressions using contemporary technology to explore identity and politics.
Nakul Krishnamurthy reconfigures Indian Classical music using electronic and experimental techniques, challenging Western aesthetic interpretations and Indian nationalist hegemonies. His work seeks to carve out new listening modes that resist caste-based and colonial frameworks while maintaining his cultural identity.
The voice and the face are pivotal aspects in the work of Shoty Ndjoli. Examining the relationship between technology, masks, sound, and identity, the Democratic Republic of the Congo artist tries to take a step back from traditions in order to better understand them, and even »respectfully destroy them.«
A sound artist rooted in improvisation, trē seguritan abalos uses improv to explore the lost intricacies of her Filipino heritage, engaging with themes of cultural memory and reconceptualization. She navigates between absence and abundance of ancestral knowledge, using sound to bridge the gaps left by migration.
Wilding AI Lab
Created in collaboration with the initiative »Wilding AI,« this four-day lab hosted within the 4DSOUND environment at MONOM will assemble a group of participants to learn about the application of generative AI in spatial audio, and collectively explore the wilder territories of AI. Shaped as a mix of theoretical and hands-on components, the lab culminates with a public presentation session Sunday 26 January.
The Wilding AI Lab will also offer morning workshops open to the public around questions of storytelling and world-building in times of generative AI with Beth Coleman and Maurice Jones, on the latest developments in generative sound with Portrait XO, and on translating word and sound into the spatial audio environment with Alexandre Saunier. These same hosts will be leading closed lab sessions for selected participants in the afternoon.
Deadline: 29 November 2024
Further information and to apply
Festival Passes and Accreditation
Festival passes are on sale now in limited quantities. You can choose from CTM Festival passes which grant access to most CTM events, Weekend Passes for each respective CTM Festival weekend, or Connect Passes for CTM+transmediale. Tickets to individual events will be released as of end of November.
The press accreditationapplication period is now open until 10 January 2025. Journalists can apply to cover CTM or transmediale respectively, or for a combined accreditation to both festivals.