Text by Mila Azimonti
In a landscape where many city-format festivals devoted to sonic research are beginning to resemble one another, location becomes a decisive marker. Kraftwerk looms above them all—a structure steeped in predatory stillness, its grey concrete slabs and vertebral pillars holding an echo stretched taut as wire. Into this vast, mortared carcass, Berlin Atonal unfurls: a temporary architecture for sound in which space and programming fold into one another. Since its return in 2013, the festival has refined a curatorial language rooted in experimentation and austere atmospheres, pairing radical sonic practice with monumental, site-responsive visual works.
Beyond the signature one-offs — this year including the improvised set by Peder Mannerfelt and Yonatan Gat with visuals by Leah Singer; the world premiere of Merzbow, Iggor Cavalera and Eraldo Bernocchi’s collision of harsh noise, metal and sound sculpture; and the rare convergence of Mark Fell’s algorithmic systems with Okkyung Lee’s fiercely physical cello improvisations — the deeper curatorial challenge lies in making the music inseparable from the space. The most significant spatial shift this year is the reconfiguration of the NULL stage. While each day still opens on the ground floor with performances such as Ghosted — Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin — whose interplay moves between jazz improvisation, minimalist repetition and Krautrock propulsion, or Nina Garcia, whose guitar-only set distils feedback into sharply defined, physical gestures, the stage is otherwise replaced by the newly conceived Third Surface.
![Lamb [K305]. Photo credit: FEYD](https://clotmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Lamb-K305.-Photo-FEYD-@feydangels.jpg)
Modelled on the informal venues and counter-institutions of nightlife before dance music’s dominance, Third Surface folds art and live music into a single, self-contained environment. It convenes artists who reclaim erased histories, reframe archives and confront systems of control: Noor Abed, Basma Al-Sharif and Kamal Aljafari work with looted or neglected film and sonic materials; Tanja Al Kayyali and Mouneer Al Shaarani expand traditional craft into monumental forms; Tot Onyx and Joanna Rajkowska create performative and sculptural warnings. The musical line-up inhabiting this space spans from Moin’s taut post-rock reconstructions to YHWH Nailgun’s abrasive precision, John T. Gast’s Petrols project, Lechuga Zafiro & Verraco’s Hyperverbena, Mala’s bass architectures and DJ Marcelle’s unpredictable —if not mischievous—cartographies.
Upstairs, in Kraftwerk’s former control room, PAN curates a listening space drawn from its ENTOPIA series, which reframes the soundtrack as a primary creative form rather than a secondary accompaniment. Across five nights, works by Anne Imhof, Jeremy Shaw, Jenna Sutela, Cyprien Gaillard and Mohamed Bourouissa transform the room into an enclave for concentrated listening.
Meanwhile, the club programme once again animates Tresor, Globus and OHM, with sets from Significant Other, DJ Pete b2b Calibre, Marylou, Azu Tiwaline b2b Moritz von Oswald, Tikiman (aka Paul St. Hilaire) and Arthur, Pinch, Emily Jeanne, and many more. For one week each year, it becomes possible to slip through Kraftwerk’s corridors and chambers, moving fluidly between installations, live experiments and club floors.
Berlin Atonal tests the permeability between forms: how a space can hold art, music, bodies and histories without sealing them off from one another. Kraftwerk, naturally, swallows them all.
Berlin Atonal takes place from 27 to 31 August. Find tickets here.
