CTM Festival

We’re thrilled that Disturbed Ground, our collaboration with Kyiv’s ∄, is among the nominees for »Best Experiment« at this year’s VIA Awards! We’re looking forward to the winners being announced on 17 September at an awards ceremony within Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg ✨

In just 10 days—🤯Yousuke Yukimatsu 🎛 Errorsmith⚡️& yungfya take over the decks at Haus der Visionäre. Don’t miss this one!

Mirroring the ancient corrguíneacht tradition of standing on one leg with one eye closed to curse corrupt power, the Ireland of One Leg One Eye is built upon the bog of primal Celtic lore and twilight shadowland, upon pagan mysticism and buried leylines writhing beneath the abandoned industrial decay of modern Dublin. Uilleann pipes are warped, traditional sean-nós vocals rent into the echo-drenched keenings of sovereignty goddesses and death-prophesying war crows clawing their way out of the Ulster Cycle and into the modern era.  Don’t miss them September 7 as they spit these blackened truths, a ceremony opened by the debased sounds of Bridget Ferrill 𓅞

Presented in collaboration with Deutsche Oper, Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir will perform a rare presentation of her work »Silva« on 25 November. Drawing equally from contemporary classical rigor and the physical thrust of experimental music, »Silva« imagines a forest rooting itself into darkness rather than light. Co-headlining the night, Polish composer and electro-acoustic instrumentalist Robert Piotrowicz punctures complex modular frameworks with synthetic weirdings to drag the acoustic behavior of organs, bells, and microtonal chimes into uncanny aural regions.

Joining One Leg One Eye on Sep 7, Bridget Ferrill operates upon acoustic instruments, subjecting them to severe digital violence and spatial distortion until naught is left but skeleton. Debasing harp, church organ, and microtonal tuba with what she terms »false additive synthesis«, her instrument builder and audio engineering background allows her to weaponize her feedback, extracting hidden agonizing frequencies from voltage and physical space to dissolve the presence of the venue 🔺

As part of Transgressive Memory Festival 2026, our curated Sep 12 night Unstable Hallucinations threads elements of our long-term project Resynthesising the Traditional.  Marcin Pietruszewski and Lukas de Clerck explore the ancient Greco-Roman aulos; Dania’s speculations sonically reanimate Mesopotamian museum artifacts; and Stefan Fraunberger transfigures Transylvania’s decaying pipe organs. Here, idealized versions of the past are distorted into unstable hallucinations.

In collaboration with Neue Nationalgalerie, the music series Sound In The Garden returns to the sculpture gardens of the museum for five days in August. The final day features the return of the celebrated fog sculpture by iconic Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, with a day-long program of expansive sonic dialogues in tribute to these ethereal works of art. Day I: Gigi Masin & Marco Baldini, Valentina Magaletti & Upsammy Day II: Dopplereffekt & Space Afrika Day III: Hildur Guðnadóttir & Sam Slater, Slauson Malone Day IV: Michael Rother plays NEU!, Harmonia & Solo Works (Live) Day V: In Dialogue with Fujiko Nakaya

In just five days—Violent Magic Orchestra and PΞB open up a pit of Death Rave at Urban Spree 💀 › Remaining tickets

Open Call: Research Networking Day Apply by 25 October 2026. We’re seeking proposals for short presentations at our 2027 Research Networking Day that respond to the CTM 2027 theme, Process…ing. The call is aimed at graduate or postgraduate students – as well as independent artists conducting self-guided research – traversing the fields of audio, arts, media, design, and related theoretical disciplines.

Open Call: In Listening Apply by 6 September 2026. After more than a decade, we’ve shifted the CTM Radio Lab into a new format titled »In Listening«. This call is for works grounded in experimental sound and audio art, and driven by conceptual approaches or sonic narratives. It supports exploration at the blurred edges between sound, music, storytelling, poetry, documenting and more, while reflecting on ideas, stories, and current events.

Announcing CTM 2027’s theme - Proccess...ing. We live in a present saturated by predefined scripts, hungry algorithms, and extractivist protocols, increasingly turning us into providers within systems we did not build. As the speed and complexity of these routines accelerate, they incapacitate our fundamental need to actually process what is happening around and within us, sacrificing agency, spontaneity, and our capacity for genuine thought. Within CTM 2027, Process…ing means resisting closure and valuing the collective acts of making and sharing above the polished artifact. In a world that demands finished results, we choose to remain unfinished, in relation, and present.

Three new Open Calls for Residencies from transmediale are now online 🔔 This year’s open calls seek proposals offering alternatives to how we understand, respond to, and shape the technological conditions we inhabit. Each resident will receive a monthly stipend plus additional support for self-organized housing in Berlin, plus travel and accommodation for the festival in January 2027.

Less than 60 tickets remain for our powerful August 6th double bill with Ragana and Dis Fig + Spixe—better act fast while those tickets are still available 🩸

Job Opening: Our sister festival transmediale is looking for a full-time Project Manager to take responsibility for the detailed planning and smooth implementation of the festival program in close cooperation with the program, production, and administration team. If you love art, music, organization, and working with some of the nicest people in Berlin, apply now by July 26th 🧬

September 24 & 25, we return to London’s ICA across two nights, bringing together artists working in experimental composition and electronics across punk and performance art. Featuring performances by Tyondai Braxton, Cyst, Alpha Maid, Europa, and Rian Treanor with Rotherham Sight & Sound, the program traces a range of approaches to contemporary sound, where compositions are treated as a process of constant metamorphosis and parallel routes traced towards intricate and unsettled forms.

The 10th anniversary of Forecast Festival kicks off next week from July 16 to 19. Their transdisciplinary mentorship program pairs emerging artists with established practitioners, and this year’s mentor Heinali has nominated three participants for Forecast. The selected performer will join Heinali at our continued CTM x Forecast collaboration during CTM 2027.