One of the world’s leading experimental music festivals – CTM Festival (here our article about last year’s program) – will take place from 24 January to 2 February 2025. The program will be passing through range of standout Berlin venues, including silent green, Berghain, radialsystem, Oxi, Morphine Raum, RSO, and Volksbühne.
A first wave of confirmed artists and projects has just been revealed, offering a glimpse into a range of experimental, personal, and emotional artistic practices, mirroring a world in distress and uncertainty. Festival passes are now on sale, and further program updates are forthcoming later in December.
visual identity by vojd
First CTM 2025 Acts have been announced:
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)
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)
„CORTEX“
„CORTEX“ is the latest visionary creation by the Kianí del Valle Performance Group and has been specially commissioned by Sonar and CTM. This ambitious work explores the profound role of the human brain in shaping existence beyond mortality, delving into the intertwined psychological and physical dimensions of displacement and solitude. At its core, CORTEX examines the journey of diasporic individuals as they search for belonging within a shared physical ecosystem.
Directed and choreographed by Kianí del Valle, the performance seamlessly integrates evolving movement, mesmerizing visuals, and powerful soundscapes. Collaborating with Barcelona-based visual artists Hamill Industries and Argentinian music producer Tayhana, CORTEX invites audiences into a world navigated through „sensorial thinking“—a visceral process catalyzed by music and amplified by stunning visual artistry.
DJ Love and his „budots“ music will soon hit Berghain
Growing up in the slums of Davao City in the southern Philippines, Sherwin Tuna (DJ Love) discovered an early passion for music and movement, becoming a DJ and choreographer by high school. Starting with small community sets, he later began producing his own tracks, blending the vibrant chaos of his surroundings into a new genre: budots. Rooted in thick bass and playful sounds, budots marries synthetic beats with local elements like jeepney horns, sirens, animal noises, and snippets of conversation, creating a high-energy celebration of joy and mischief. With its 140 BPM thump and unconventional structure, budots reflects Tuna’s ethos: »yes to dance, no to drugs«.
His latest album – Budots World (Reloaded) – released on Eastern Margins (following the DJ Love presents BUDOTS WORLD: Bawal Umiwas sa Sayawan! record via Manila Community Radio), pushes the genre further, incorporating bounce, techno, trap, and the harder-edged bomb-tek sound. Tuna remains dedicated to preserving budots’ authenticity, emphasizing its grassroots origins and provincial essence even as it gains global recognition. This proudly Davao-born genre will soon hit Berlin’s iconic Berghain, where DJ Love will bring its infectious energy to the club’s legendary dance floor. Mark you calendar for 30.01.2025.
Co-hosted by composer and sound artist Susie Ibarra and sound researcher and artist Stas Shärifullá, the lab, Resynthesising the Traditional, serves as an open toolbox for artists exploring heritage, helping them navigate their practice beyond (self-)exoticisation and stereotypes. Using resynthesis—a method in computer music analyzing sounds into fundamental components—as a metaphor, it challenges conservative views of tradition as static or untouchable. Instead, it treats tradition as dynamic, offering a triangular approach to “resynthesis” for aesthetic, technological, and sociopolitical transformation.
Participants experiment with sound production, performance, and composition, exploring the emancipatory potential of sonic practices while resisting appropriation, tokenism, and colonial narratives.
The six-day programme, running 27.1.–1.2.2025 at radialsystem, features interdisciplinary inputs from sociologists, technologists, and sound scholars. The lab culminates in a Public Presentation on 2.2.2025 in radialsystem Halle.
Participants bring diverse perspectives, such as blending archives with modern sounds, reimagining gamelan, live-coding traditional Kazakh storytelling, exploring Armenian and Korean musical roots, and deconstructing Indian classical music. Their work connects the past with future possibilities, challenging rigid interpretations of tradition.
As in every year, CTM’s sister festival transmediale will be running in parallel to CTM, a cornucopia of hybrid art seeking cultural transformation from a post-digital perspective.
〖 You can follow CTM and transmediale for more updates 〗
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