CTM Festival 2026

CTM Festival will return to Radialsystem in 2026, uniting music experimentation and performances with an artistic lab and a discourse programme.

CTM Festival’s 27th edition dives into the complex dance between dissonance and resonance, where spectral textures, melodies on the edge of tonal precipices, and frequencies oscillating between harmony, shrouds of distortion, and sharp ruptures sonically evoke existence in multiple, often extremely contradictory realities simultaneously. The CTM 2026 theme “dissonate < > resonate” invites us to inhabit the spaces in-between: the charged fields where frequencies meet, clash, and sometimes unexpectedly converge in moments of shared attunement.

The concert programme at Radialsystem will feature several premieres and commissioned works: Active for more than a decade in shaping the Cypriot underground, Emiddio Vasquez will premiere the AV performance “21s”, a dense confabulation radio drama permeating the nexus of militarism and club culture in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, as part of the CTM 2026 Radio Lab.

In collaboration with Seoul festival WeSA, the Korean artist Tohal Kyna will perform together with Berlin artist Sara Persico for the first time in Berlin, in a specially developed collaboration merging Kyna’s heavy stacks of raw noise with Persico’s experimental vocal and electronic layers. 

Another collaboration, Disturbed Ground, by CTM and Kyiv’s ∄ brings together Ukrainian and international artists to create two AV performances responding to the ecological consequences of war in Ukraine. In “The Core”, Khrystyna Kirik and Mark Bain use seismic data from daily base readings in Poltava to missile strikes and explosions in Kharkiv and Kherson to translate violence into vibration and sound. Their performance will be enhanced by special lighting from Kyiv artist zeroday. “Heavy Waters” by undo despot, Zeynep Schilling, and alen hast + myk rudik of u2203 Studio combines visual language from folklore, research, and ecological documentation with sound to transport the voices of war-ravaged waters. Vartan Markarian’s “Horizons of Disappearance” navigates the tension of the forest as a space of ecological richness and respite in the face of anthropogenic factors such as climate change and war. The project was developed with support by Goethe-Institut.

Further performances throughout the week include the ten-piece Growlers Choir, composed solely of vocalists from different metal subcultures.

Returning to CTM for a second edition, the “Resynthesising the Traditional” Lab hosted by Stas Shärifullá and Yara Mekawei unites six fellows selected from open call to engage critically and in-depth with aesthetic, discursive, and technological approaches when connecting to musical and cultural heritage from a contemporary perspective. The artistic fellows will be working during the festival week at Radialsystem studios. They’ll share insights into some of the ideas, processes and conversations explored during the week at an afternoon presentation on the festival’s closing Sunday 1 February. 

All information about the extensive programme of club nights, concerts, workshops, talks and installations can be found on the festival website: www.ctm-festival.de