CTM’s 20th birthday edition continues to crescendo. The Nusasonic initiative brings a slew of sonic pioneers, experimenters, and voyagers over from Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and others. Gabber Modus Operandi, Kok Siew-Wai, Setabuhan, Pisitakun, Sarana, Zoo, and many more will venture through improvised noise, rock fusion, and gabber-tinged digital sarcasm. Död Mark, Yung Lean’s punk band with GUD, make their live debut, and Fatima al Qadiri gives a live rendition of her latest album, Shaneera. Croatian Amor performs on the eve of his Isa album release. LSDXOXO presents Floorgasm, a night including contemporary club mainstays Juliana Huxtable and Wallis. Berlin femme-forward, sex-positive queer collective Lecken presents a takeover at SchwuZ. Russian political provocateurs IC3PEAK provide a voice for a generation of frustrated youth. Singular voices such as innovative producer and vocalist Deena Abdelwahed, enigmatic noise duo Prison Religion, and club spiritualist TSVI round out an already extensive programme. Groundbreaking writers, theorists, and researchers including Robin James, Liz Pelly, and Brandon Labelle offer Discourse programme highlights.

The artist selection for the platform’s fifth year traditionally places a number of audiovisual projects and sound artists alongside musical acts that range from post-grime and techno to free improvisation and acousmatic music.

With Linn da Quebrada’s 10-person live performance pushing firmly against political violences; headlining shows by breakcore pioneer Venetian Snares and ferocious noise rock duo Lightning Bolt; a night in collaboration with Tbilisi’s famed Bassiani featuring residents HVL, Zitto, NDRX and Kancheli plus guests Anastasia Kristensen, Temp-Illusion, and Machine Woman; and a survey of some of Africa’s latest rap and club sounds from the likes of Slikback, Sho Madjozi, Phatstoki, and MCO & Duke together with Sarah Farina’s Through My Speakers collective; CTM 2019’s music programme swells to enviable proportions. What’s more, Raster-Media will present a collaborative installation at nGbK, and Nik Nowak’s massive new “The Mantis” loudspeaker sculpture will rumble through the gargantuan Halle am Berghain, replete with several live performances by Nowak with Hyperdub boss Kode9 & MC Infinite Livez. These latest confirmations provide ever more ways of engaging with the 20th edition’s Persistence theme, which is not only a fitting allegory for the festival’s 20th birthday, but also attempts to consider what is worth being persistent about, and how. 

The Research Networking Day is an exchange platform for students and researchers from different European graduate and postgraduate programmes traversing the fields of audio, arts, media, design, and related theoretical disciplines. This open call seeks innovative and critical submissions from all areas of study addressing the scope of CTM 2019’s Persistence theme. We invite students and junior scholars to present their research at an international platform that provides a good opportunity to meet various colleagues and researchers working on related ideas.

As polarising stances and simplistic rhetoric continue to proliferate at alarming rates, we are faced with the difficulties of resisting them and the rifts they create. How can we cultivate persistence without tumbling into rigidity or dogma? With Persistence, CTM 2019 focuses on artists that examine the aesthetic and societal potentials and pains of perseverance. Gazelle Twin dispenses with her corrosive critique of England today, while 700 Bliss present their pairing of lo-fi productions with doom-poetry. Lotic explores power in the premier of an A/V piece, "Endless Power". A Tribe Called Red testify to the during importance of indigenous culture. Meanwhile, Erwan Keravec, Lucy Railton, Stefan Fraunberger, and Khyam Allami present their respective methods and approaches to merging sonic cultures. Thomas Ankersmit presents a tribute to the pioneering research of Maryanne Amacher. SET x CTM continue their fruitful partnership with the Berlin premieres of pieces by Rabih Beaini & Pouja Pour-Amin Ensemble, and 9T Antiope & Rainer Kohlberger.

The MusicMakers Hacklab is a performance laboratory that aims to invent tools and strategies for improvised play. If persistence is an insistence on survival, then adaptation is the mechanism by which we can deal with adversity, become resourceful, and make something new by responding to the conditions around us. With the theme of "Adaptation", the Hacklab seeks artists to work together to make new and unplanned collaborative performances. The deadline for the open call is 2 December.

Encompassing nearly two weeks of artistic experimentation, exchange, and performances, Nusasonic Yogyakarta closed on a high note this past October 13th. We would like to thank everyone who took part in this incredible event, which was a feast for the ears and soul. A photo gallery is now up, with more A/V documentation to follow. We're also excited to announce a range of future Nusasonic initiatives in Southeast Asia and Berlin.

Vorspiel is a yearly initiative by transmediale and CTM Festivals, which aims to connect different artistic genres, practices, venues and initiatives across Berlin. Vorspiel offers opportunities for exchange and reflection, as well as for sharing critical discourse on art, technology, politics, and identity. The jointly created programme presents the diverse approaches of multiple cultural agents in a concentrated format, while also creating a space for dialogue with the two festivals. An open call to all interested Berlin-based artists and initiatives is now out, with an application deadline of 23 November.