From 26 January – 4 February 2024, CTM Festival will celebrate a silver 25-year anniversary at Berghain, silent green, radialsystem, and other Berlin venues.

CTM 2024 is titled »Sustain« – a weird and fascinating word that touches opposite polarities of the contemporary experience as it speaks of the empathy and determination through which we survive, as well as of our anxieties, losses, and pains. In the word »sustain« we sense both what we are going through while hearing what needs to be done. It is as much a description as it is an imperative as it is a vocation towards more interdependent ways of life. With its 2024 edition CTM Festival asks what if »sustain« were a sound? What would it be like? Music is not only a refuge, but also a constant reminder of our desire to get closer to the brighter end of the spectrum. Looking at musical life and music ecosystems under the perspective of »sustain«, what ideals, ethics, and practices can we identify and discuss to make music a means to work towards something more sane, just, and sustainable?

Three open calls are now announced below.

Read the full theme text

Together with Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Hörspiel / Klangkunst and in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, Ö1 Kunstradio, and tekhnē, the CTM Radio Lab seeks proposals from artists worldwide that engage with the emancipatory potential of technology in music and sound art.

The call is open to artists worldwide and relevant to fields of experimental music, sound art, radio art, new radio drama, and performance. The commissioned works will premiere at CTM 2024 Festival in Berlin (26 January – 4 February  2024), and will be subsequently broadcast in Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s Klangkunst programme in spring in the form of a 40–55 minute radio piece. The Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Service) will also present the works via one or more of its platforms: the Ö1 Zeit-Ton or Ö1 Radiokunst – Kunstradio radio shows, and/or the ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival in Graz (Autumn 2024).

Application deadline: 10 September 2023.

Read more and apply

The Research Networking Day invites graduate and post-graduate students as well as independent artists conducting self-guided research to submit proposals for short presentations traversing the fields of audio, arts, media, design, and related theoretical disciplines that also address the scope of CTM 2024’s Sustain theme. RND offers an international platform to exchange with various colleagues and researchers working on related ideas. This edition will take place in collaboration with the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), the Institute Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design Basel, Paderborn University, and the Berlin-based network and project space Trust.

Application deadline: 1 October 2023

Read more and apply

This open call is addressed to writers, thinkers, wordsmiths, and artists wishing to propose a written piece to be published in the context of CTM 2024. Proposals should relate to topics evoked by the festival theme of Sustain, as well as ongoing topics within the independent music ecosystem such as equity, access, cross-cultural exchange, sustainability, technology and tools for production, music aesthetics and practices.

Application deadline: 24 September 2023.

Read more and apply

The final article within the CTM 2023 Portals collection is now published, and builds from the 1961 poem »Rybachka« by Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko, which depicts a vivid expression of the state of having to endure persistent uncertainty, between fear and hope. For Mariana Berezovska, the poem took on new meaning since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and came to stand as the title for a long-term artistic project on healing and empowerment. Following the premiere of Rybachka at CTM 2023, Berezovska reflects on how artistic collaboration can create a space to deconstruct pain and raise awareness of the less obvious consequences of war and violent conflicts in her essay »The History of Our Bodies.«

Browse the CTM Magazine

SHAPE+ is a European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. It's aim is to foster exceptional emerging talent through a yearly roster of artists that will be supported through touring opportunities, as well as a number of residencies that connect international artists to local actors at each SHAPE+ member organization.

Each year, the curatorial teams of all SHAPE+ festivals select a group of artists from a combination of nominations and applications received via an open call. The 2023-24 artist roster has recently been announced. A select number of these artists will appear at CTM 2024. SHAPE+ is a project by 15 European partners in 15 countries, with Tbilisi’s Mutant and Barreiro’s Out.Ra / Outfest Radio. The platform is co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. 

View the new SHAPE+ roster

We are excited to announce our participation in tekhnē – a collaborative project in which six European organisations aim to explore the emancipatory potential of technology in music and sound art. By engaging critically and creatively with technology, and by putting the focus on the user rather than the developer, technologies and methodologies can be demystified and lead to more autonomous mindsets towards the tools around us. tekhnē is initiated by Q-O2 (BE), CTM Festival (DE), Skaņu Mežs (LV), OUT.RA (PT), GMEA (FR), TRAFO (PL), and is co-funded by the European Union.

On top of the CTM Radio Lab open call which runs in collaboration with tekhnē until 10 September 2023, an open call for applications to research residencies offered by GMEA, TRAFO, and Q-02 is currently out until 15 September 2023.

tekhnē website