With “Altered State Solution,” Berlin-based artists Dani Gal and Ghazi Barakat consider noise as “an ambiguous space between the disruptive and the creative, and between the oppressive and the subversive.” Radio jamming blocks unwanted transmissions from neighbouring countries or oppositional sources; during the Cold War, citizens behind the Iron Curtain tried to overcome jamming noise by listening through it, while the Soviet authorities further developed their jamming methods to create an iron curtain in the “Aether” space. Gal and Barakat transmit sound messages to each other. What unfolds is a liminal feedback space in which intentions are distorted.

The duo NUM, consisting of Maryam Sirvan and Milad Bagheri, present "Nothingness, Life, Nothingness," a three-part suite corresponding to past, present, and future. Drawing on questions about constant change and the incessant motion of life, the duo reflect on their own history as a couple without formal music training who, because of their shared passion for music, left their native Iran to try out a new life in Tbilisi. NUM will visualise the three stages of time with a graphic score, incorporating elements such as duration, dynamics, pitch, and sonic textures. Sampling past experiences, they process acquired knowledge and memories with their new environment, encounters, emotions, uncertainties, and hopes into a unique and personal sonic voyage.

Afrorack, aka Brian Bamanya, is one of the first people in Africa to build modular synth setups. His live sets dazzle audiences with a blend of techno, abstraction, and acid.

NUM and Dani Gal with Ghazi Barakat are commissioned by the CTM 2020 Radio Lab, an initiative by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Radio Art/Klangkunst and CTM Festival, in collaboration with ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival, Ö1 Kunstradio, and The Wire magazine. NUM are supported by Goethe-Institut.