D The fact that changes trigger defensiveness and worse in many people is currently being presented in the nastiest way possible on the big stage. Kookoo – behind one of the most enjoyable series of events in the local club scene – is taking this as an opportunity to set the first event of the new year under the motto “Embrace Difference” – as always with a finely curated program.
Leslie García aka Microhm prefers to be inspired by other species and their opportunities for exchange rather than by humans. Works by her artist collective Interspecifics from Mexico City will also be on display at the CTM Festival in the daadgalerie. How their ideas about posthumanism translate into a contrasting yet groovy sound can be experienced on Friday, alongside a live act by the duo Forster. (OHM, January 16, 10 p.m., box office only)
At least as far as the philosophical superstructure is concerned, there are parallels to the fifth birthday of the Berlin-based music and art label Unguarded – after all, openness to differences is the prerequisite for encountering one’s environment “unguarded”. The label spectrum is wide, from club sounds to sound experiments to folk.
On stage, among others, are Ronja, who oscillates between ambient, songwriting and experimental composition, and a trio that includes Caleb Salgado, Jon Eirik Boska and Petra Hermanova to present music by the drone-loving Hermaova – who prefers to play the chord zither. (Silent Green, 16. 1. 8 pm)
On Wednesday, the “Orchestral Sessions: Winter Edition” will feature experiments on the threshold between acoustics and electronics. What connects the performances is that analog instruments are manipulated in a variety of ways. For example, the composer Grégoire Simon will perform his piece “Under the Voice” with three violas. Their sound spectrum is changed by metallic dampers and therefore sounds more electronic. Also appearing: Liam Segal, Maxim Turbo, Nazanin Noori, Rebecca Saunders and Avi Caspi. The latter will make eight double basses vibrate. (Berghain, January 21st, 8 p.m.)
From the following weekend onwards there will be weird, disturbing, cheerfully twisted sound worlds again as thick as a stick, at the 27th edition of CTM-Festival: with sounds between club and experiment, exhibitions, panels and more. The opening concert on Friday will be performed by Dylan Carlson’s band Earth, with their mix of minimalist doom, ambient country and folky avant-garde. They are performing their instrumental album “Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method”, which surprised everyone with its undistorted guitars when it was released a good 20 years ago. The Growlers Choir performs in advance: 16 voices, actually from metal, present an astonishing range of singing techniques. (January 23, House of Visionaries, 9 p.m.)