We are in between. Amidst ambivalence and perpetual shift, we drift without assurance nor certainty. Entitled “Liminal," CTM 2020 throws itself into limbo in hopes of stimulating a critical discussion of our present and possible futures. Music has long been a site of negotiating boundary-disturbing experiences and acts of transgression. The liminal characterises many cultural, spiritual, and social practices and rituals associated with music. It is the fundamental challenging of norms and identities. At the same time it is a contact zone with the "other," the unconscious, and altered forms of being. So can it be used as a space for experimentation?

CTM Festival is pleased to start a cultural dialogue with Athens. Welcoming both local and international artists including Sote, Xyn Cabal, Born in Flamez, and Jessica Ekomane, CHRONOTOPIA takes shape on June 20 as a twofold event that is produced in close collaboration with Goethe Institut, club venue Romantso, and Athens-based music labels Modal Analysis and Hypermedium. The next day, on June 21, the Contemporary Music Research Center in Athens (KSYME) will host CTM Festival for a discussion open to the public.

The Inuk throat singer, avant-garde composer, and bestselling author is renowned as one of Canada’s most original and celebrated artists. Through guttural groans and deeply spiritual performances that reference industrial, metal, and electronica, she weaves traditional Inuit throat singing into present-day urgencies. On 3 July 2019, Tagaq will appear at Berghain for a reading of her acclaimed debut novel, Split Tooth.

Our partner festival transmediale have announced Dr. Nora O Murchú as the new artistic director of transmediale. Starting with the 2021 edition, O Murchú will be the festival’s fifth artistic director and the first woman to take this position in its 33-year history. Read more via transmediale's website.

Set for release on 4AD on May 10, PROTO is Holly Herndon's highly-anticipated third album. It sees Herndon and longtime collaborator Mathew Dryhurst bring together their contemporary ensemble of vocalists, developers, and an inhuman intelligence in the form of Spawn (an AI housed in a DIY souped-up gaming PC, initiated in partnership with Dryhurst and ensemble developer Jules LaPlace). PROTO spans live vocal processing and timeless folk singing, placing an emphasis on alien song craft and potential new forms of communion. The accompanying live show opens the stage to attendees, experimenting with and extending the traditional concert format. It arrives at Berlin’s Volksbühne on June 14, accompanied by a programme curated by Herndon and Dryhurst themselves.

For over twenty years, Sunn O))) have been challenging the way we think about music. This spring and summer 2019 they return to Berlin twice for the first time since 2015, in support of Life Metal, their first studio album in four years. On 3 April 2019, Southern Lord Records (co-founded by Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson themselves) collaborates with Editions Mego sub-label Ideologic Organ (run by O’Malley) to present a listening session at Berghain's Säule, before O'Malley closes the evening with a DJ set as Caveman Skull. 30 and 31 July will see two special performances by Sunn O))) descend upon Festsaal Kreuzberg, supported by singular guitarist Caspar Brötzmann.

We’ve been busy preparing a collection of interviews, reviews, radio broadcasts, and images documenting our 20th anniversary edition. It’s been over a month, but we’re still glowing from the positive feedback and enthusiastic coverage CTM 2019 has received! More audio and video recordings of this year’s Discourse programme will be available on SoundCloud and YouTube in the coming month. Check them out here!

The CTM 2019 magazine, a publication investigating various topics related to the 20th edition's Persistence theme, is still available for purchase. Both this issue and past issues starting with 2014's Dis Continuity edition can be bought in-store or ordered online from Motto in Berlin.