CTM joins forces with Red Bull Music Academy to close its 18th edition on sonically divergent notes. For a third year in a row, the two partners have collaboratively assembled two back-to-back events:

20:00 AT HEIMATHAFEN NEUKÖLLN
The Bug vs Dylan Carlson of Earth
Stara Rzeka

22:00 AT SCHWUZ
MikeQ
Berlin Voguing Out
Nils Bech
Toxe
Negroma
Jan-Paul Anders
Marie Davidson
Ziúr
Jackie

The latest project by Kevin Martin aka The Bug, whose appearance at CTM 2015 left a speechless, shell-shocked Berghain audience in its wake, is a collaborative face-off with Dylan Carlson of the legendary Seattle drone metal band Earth. These two sonic maximalists will engage in an aptly-matched, epic musical battle between subterranean guitar drones and structure-rattling electronics. While Martin’s work in dub, industrial hip hop and dancehall engages with the politics of contemporary urban landscapes, Carlson’s artistic trajectory flows through dark Americana.

Opening for The Bug vs. Dylan Carlson of Earth will be Polish guitarist and composer Jakub Ziołek (of T’ien Lai), whose one-man project Stara Rzeka (“Old River”) is similarly imaginative in its references to the dark underbelly of cultural heritage. Named after a small village in the heart of Poland's beautiful Tuchola Forest region, the project infuses black metal with krautrock and psychedelic folk to reflect on the historical and contemporary relationship between human civilisation and nature — a relationship defined by both joy and profound loss.

A spirited afterparty at the multi-room club and community center SchwuZ, which since its establishment in 1977 has been an indispensable resource in Berlin’s gay and queer scenes, will spotlight a range of voices to celebrate the diversity and unity that has shaped the very foundations of club culture. MikeQ, a hero in the long-standing east coast USA ballroom/vogue-house scene, is an active DJ and head of the collective Qween Beat. He will be joined by dancers from Berlin Voguing Out, an initiative founded in 2011 by Georgina Leo Melody and Mic Oala that organizes vogue balls, classes, lectures, and an annual festival.

Gothenberg’s Toxe, a 2015 RBMA participant and one of the most celebrated members of the forward-looking Staycore label, will dish out a serving of colourful, plastic nihilism and techy, reference-loaded severity.

Skilfully toying with the codes of current bass music and layering sonic emotion with ultra-percussive breaks, Berlin-based Jackie will present her unique vision with a genre-defying DJ set of twisted HD groove.

DFA-signee and ex- opera singer Nils Bech, who is equal parts avant-garde performance artist and dancefloor songwriter, will present his romantic, sweet-toothed pop songs.

Presenting a new piece developed for the occasion, Berlin-based Brazilian artist Negroma proposes music as an extension of their performative body.

2016 RBMA Montreal participant Marie Davidson will present the heavy-lidded coldwave, synthpop and EBM that have made her one of the year’s buzzed-about emerging talents.

DJ, producer, and Peaches collaborator Ziúr combines challenging sonic textures and brainy beats for a foggy, noisy, entrancing do-si-do.

Berlin fixture Jan Paul Anders will provide a soft landing at the end of 10 long festival days with a vigorous house set.