The Berlin "Festival for Adventurous Music and Art"
CTN Festival celebrates experimental, contemporary and electronic music in special places of Berlin's nightlife
January 10th, 2024
CTM 2024 is titled »Sustain« – a fascinating word that touches opposite polarities of our contemporary experience as it speaks of the empathy and determination that nourish us, as well as of our anxieties, losses, and pains. In the word »sustain« we sense both what we are going through while hearing what needs to be done. What if sustain were a sound?
Check for information on artists withdrawing their CTM 2024 appearance (updated regularly).
Consult the CTM 2024 Festival Schedule to view the full 10-day programme, including the daytime Discourse programme which is now online.
Festival passes and tickets are now on sale in limited quantities.
On CTM's 25th Edition
For an independent initiative dedicated to experimental and fringe forms of music and art, sustaining over a quarter century is an achievement in itself. Such an anniversary becomes even more profound in light of the many challenges in recent years and the ongoing crises which have called into question and unsettled many, often already false, certitudes – sparing neither music nor nightlife.
Constancy can only be achieved through openness, adaptation, change, and most importantly through support and dialogue with people and communities, local and international. CTM wouldn’t be the same without the countless shared experiences, inputs, and at times also friction, that we’ve experienced with the many voices connected to the festival, be it visitors, artists, partners, or collaborators. We hope to connect with as many faces old and new, remote and in Berlin, as possible this anniversary edition.
It’s encouraging to note that over the years, the understanding of the relevance of experimental music and club cultures has grown, as has public support for it. The fact that CTM can continue to look to the future in its 25th year is also thanks to an environment in which government and funding bodies see vibrant experimental and critical art practises as a vital constituent of an open society. This must also include the many independent initiatives beyond large institutions. We are therefore delighted that the Berlin Senate for Culture has secured funding for the festival for another four years.
CTM has always been in flux and will have to continue to change in contact with ongoing cultural, technological, and social changes. This year's festival theme »sustain« therefore also points to the festival's constant struggle to negotiate its form and relevance between reliability and new perspectives, between the appreciation of what already exists and new frequencies. In many respects, CTM is different today than it was at its beginnings in 1999 – as are the music and art forms to which it gave and gives space. And yet there is a core to our self-conception that has remained constant over all these years: an openness and curiosity that consciously and resolutely locates itself between the cracks, and, even after 25 years, does not stop searching for new connections, mutations, and dialogues beyond established relationships.
The oscillating word »sustain«, which is connected to sound, gives direction to such curiosity. Sustain is not attached to the desire to shatter, but wants to affirm and nourish. It can also refer to the fears, losses, and pains we suffer – we can sense what we are going through. At the same time, sustain points to what is available to us to face such pain: it speaks of the empathy and determination that allows us to overcome difficult times, and of the nourishment that not only sustains us, but allows us to grow.
With its 25th edition, CTM Festival asks what if »sustain« were a sound? What would it be like? What music would emerge from it? Perhaps it would be music that not only offers refuge or escape, but also music that reminds us of our desire and our possibility to turn towards brighter horizons – even through dark or unsettling aurals. CTM 2024 will resonate through a mixture of sensitive and thoughtful, disturbing and arresting, wackadoo and euphoric sounds by artists who are appearing at the festival for the first time as well as by returning collaborators.
A notable spotlight on artists from Ireland shines throughout this edition, weaving collective sounds and stories from the country thanks to the Zeitgeist Irland 24 initiative by Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Germany. Zeitgeist Irland 24 aims to showcase Irish talent to German audiences throughout 2024. The presence of Irish artists also serves a thread of connection to CTM’s sister festival transmediale, who is also throwing a spotlight on projects and artists from the island.
CTM’s 25th anniversary is furthermore a time to reflect on 25 years of collaboration alongside sister festival transmediale, festival for art and digital culture. The first festival edition took place in 1999 as »club transmediale« at the now long demolished club Maria am Ostbahnhof, when CTM’s founders saw a gap adjacent to transmediale, and sought to fill it with a series of experimental club nights that intertwined sonic experiments and underground dance culture with contemporary media art. Titled 10 Tage an der Schnittstelle von Klang / bewegtem Bild (10 days at the intersection of sound / moving image), this first edition gradually expanded and took the shape of the international platform that is CTM Festival today. Over the years, the sister festivals have produced and co-commissioned works and presented collaborative concerts and events, and this year is no exception. Our collaboration will take place in three parts, with the multi-sensory installation »Oceanic Refractions,« a collaborative night at Berghain Säule with GASH collective, and with the Vorspiel programme run by independent Berlin art initiatives.
We invite you to read a short history of the festival and browse the CTM Festival edition archive from 1999 to 2023, complete with full artist listings, links to selected recordings, plus recent and archival images of performances, spaces, and club vibes then and now.
