After a brief escape to fantasy land AKA Bavaria to say goodbye to Blitz and record the Radio 80000 breakfast show with my bestie and roving rave reporter Cristalyne (who you should absolutely be following via her Substack), I’ve returned for another sweaty round of Berlin summer survival.

Luckily, there is plenty on the horizon to keep us distracted: This weekend Magma Festival expands across two days with multiple stages dedicated to experimental pop, leftfield electronics and the wider UK club continuum after last summer’s split between MAGMA and its faster, techno-focused twin LAVA.

If you’re looking for a more aquatic escape, the Volksbühne’s temporary swimming pool opens this weekend. Free tickets are offered three days in advance, so set your alarms for 2pm to avoid missing out.

And finally: the political posters have started multiplying around my neighbourhood, which means we’re now six weeks out from Berlin’s local elections. With Die Linke currently polling in first place (hell yeah!), it’s time to pay attention, get informed and show up. Let’s see if the city can surprise us. Summer isn’t over yet. Let’s make the most of it.

🍸 On view now | Friedrich Kunath, “Bar Va Bene” | Pace Gallery Berlin

Kunath’s built a working replica of his own studio bar right in the middle of the gallery! Thursday to Sunday, 5–10pm, actually pouring drinks, with a companion text from Timon Karl Kaleyta. Go for the show, stay for the fact that this is possibly the only Pace exhibition where you can get properly drunk on-site.

🎧 07.08 - 25.11. 18:00–20:00 | I LOVE MUSIC | Hansabibliothek

GROTTO’s new listening series invites neighbours, musicians and friends to play their favorite pop songs and confess a secret track ID or two. Nine sessions running through November, plus one special concert at Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche during Berlin Art Week.

🗼08.08, 15:00–22:00 | Menace Systems x THF Radio | Tempelhofer Feld

THF Radio closes out their rooftop open airs with the final terrace date atop the old airport tower. Expect finest bass sounds curated by Menace Systems, with secret guests pulled from Spe:c and Ilian Tape and stunning wraparound Tempelhofer Feld views. Doors from 3pm, €5.

🌆 08.–09.08 | MAGMA Festival @ RSO Berlin

Run by the team behind MELT, MAGMA Festival returns to RSO for a two-day weekender mixing underground pop and left-field electronic music all stars. Personal highlights: Lauren Duffus, electronica duo New York, Erika de Casier, DJ Python doing his deep-fried dembow-house thing. As a treat, the lovely team at Magma is offering a reduced ticket link for the Place to Be community: Day 1 and Day 2.

📖 12.08 | Reading Room | Hansabibliothek

Silent reading returns for another summer edition, this time in the garden courtyard of Werner Düttmann’s 1957 Hansabibliothek – glass fronts, quiet greenery, that rare Berlin feeling of being tucked away and still central. Chairs, blankets, and non-alcoholic drinks on a donation basis; bring your own book and someone else’s peace and quiet.

🌳 12.–16.08 | Sound in the Garden | Neue Nationalgalerie Sculpture Garden

This concert series held at Neue Nationalgalerie was launched as “Jazz in the Garden” in the ‘70s and ran through the mid-80s. Running again since 2022, this year’s lineup spans generations: ambient pioneer Gigi Masin and Krautrock icon Michael Rother (NEU!, Harmonia) alongside younger experimental voices like upsammy, Valentina Magaletti and Slauson Malone 1. Sunday closes it out with sound installations honoring Fujiko Nakaya’s fog sculpture. Book your tickets via RA.

🌿 15. Aug | nayá náya: workshops on memory, food and belonging | Cheeky Berlin

nayá náya is a new trans-disciplinary collective in Berlin. For their first event, join Alexis Convento for Tracing through Food, an atchara pickling workshop and Anna Bernice for Eulogies for the Living, a writing session exploring stories and remembrance. Workshops are in English, open to all, with limited capacity. RSVP via Instagram to reserve a spot. Suggested donation: 5 EUR for materials.

🌊 22.08 | Sidequest | Lake, 40 min from Berlin

21+ hours by the water starting at 1pm and a set by the fabulous DJ Fart in the Club sounds just right. Bring a towel and stay till dark. Additional highlights: ND Baumecker, Jana Falcon and Lara Fein.

🌙 29.08, 18:00–00:00 | Lange Nacht der Museen @ HKW | “Crime in Berlin”

This year’s theme chases the city’s night creatures across a program that swings from a kids’ scavenger hunt about wildlife protection to a queer, non-binary furry performance blurring virtual and physical worlds. In between: a spoken-word reading by Zack Darsee, an immersive tour for blind and sighted visitors alike, and a closing picnic with a communal howl at the moon, DJ set by Discoteca Volpería Grandiosa included.

🎤 24.–30. Aug | Pop-Kultur | Main venue: silent green Kulturquartier

Pop-Kultur holds a particularly soft spot in my heart: back in 2015, I was an intern at its inaugural edition, which took place in the hallowed halls of Berghain – the festival’s only time at the club – before it found its current home(s) across Berlin. Now spanning a full week, this year’s edition kicks off in Wedding before moving through silent green, Kino Arsenal, Festsaal Kreuzberg, Kulturbrauerei and Pierre Boulez Saal.

Highlights include Avalon Emerson & The Charm, Bar Italia, Dis Fig, Göksu Künak, Horse Vision, Margaux Gazur, Sassy 009 and The Notwist, alongside talks and workshops.

What we’re been listening to

Martin Brugger, “The Shell” (released June 26 via Squama)

Five years after his debut Music for Video Stores, the Squama co-founder is back with a stunning record sprinkled with field recordings and contemplative melodies – melancholic without tipping into maudlin. “Wounded Dove” samples kids’ play and laughter from somewhere off in the distance under a melody that keeps drifting in and out of focus. Ambient, technically, but weirdly summery: put this on to soundtrack lazy afternoons and snoozing with the windows wide open.

emer feat. Ugnė Uma, “You and Me” (released July 7 via Stroom)

Stroom keeps going from strength to strength. The Belgian label run by Nosedrip continues its streak of unearthing artists that sit somewhere between the strange, the beautiful and the impossible to categorize. I’ve been obsessed with Ugnė Uma since discovering her at Meakusma in 2024, and she’s steadily emerged as one of the most exciting voices in the experimental pop / crossover R&B space (highly recommend checking her out live if you get the chance). Her latest release You And Me – a collaboration with emer – is a dreamy, genre-blurring gem.

Shameless self-promotion

Recently, I interviewed Nadia Murad and curator Mateusz Kozieradzki, who manages the Natalia LL foundation dedicated to the pioneering Polish artist for Fräulein Magazine’s issue themed “At Peace”.

Crime of the season

Usually, this space is reserved for jokey, unserious observations from around the city. But the terrorist attack at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day on Saturday, 25 July, is no laughing matter. In the days since, new reporting has raised difficult questions around prevention, policing, public safety and the treatment of queer demonstrations – leaving many Berliners angry, exhausted and with more questions than answers.

In moments like these, it’s easy to feel disillusioned. With anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Germany rising sharply in the last few years, the attack is a devastating reminder that queer joy and visibility are still met with violence.

While political parties and brands may happily cash in on the visibility of the main parade, Pride has never been just a party. It’s a protest, a memorial, and a declaration that queer people deserve to exist safely and publicly. With local elections coming up next month, it’s also worth paying attention to who is actually standing with the community beyond the rainbow branding. Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other. ❤️ ❤️

how’s everyone doing?! While half of my Instagram feed is either recovering from Waking Life, Solstice or Fusion, I’ve been grinding away, getting you the hottest recommendations against the backdrop of an intense heat wave, Big Life Changes and Mercury in Retrograde: summer madness is in full swing, and it’s a doozy.

Earlier this month I went from playing the Radio 80000 beach stage at Lighthouse Festival to a stint in Brussels at Kiosk Radio, topping my strange Euro summer off with a boat party in Cologne courtesy of local FLINTA* DJ collective E.P.I.Q. In New York, my place of birth, the Knicks have just won their first NBA title in 53 years. Meanwhile, Germany was knocked out of the FIFA World Cup by Paraguay, so we can now comfortably shift our attention to supporting whatever team has the hottest players. The internet has decided it’s a generational summer, and with 48 Stunden Neukölln, Fashion Week and Pride ahead, Berlin seems ready to keep up.

xoxo

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🔊 2. Jul | Emeka Ogboh: Lagos to Berlin | Neue Nationalgalerie
For the next Art4All Thursday, Emeka Ogboh brings one of Lagos’ iconic yellow Danfo buses to the Neue Nationalgalerie, reworked into a mobile sound system with Danfotronics. Its Berlin debut comes with live sets and performances by KMRU, Obaro Ejimiwe/Ghostpoet, Jessica Ekomane, Carmen Villain, MARK, and Emeka Ogboh himself.

🎪 3.–5. July | 48h Neukölln | Galerie im Körnerpark
Berlin’s favorite neighborhood-wide art sprawl returns, with Galerie im Körnerpark showing Weirder, Louder, Taller, Uglier – For Weeds to Rewild. Perfect if you like your weekend walks with a lot of side quests.

👗 4. July | KONTEXT & GS Fashion Week Special | Haus der Visionäre
Rooster (Yung Gud) live, Kamixlo, Valeria Litvakov, iced lattina, semi lux, Grady Steele and a screening with Mark Leckey. Fashion Week, but make it sweaty, sharp and a little bit strange.

🌳 5. July | Sommerfest | Haus am Waldsee
Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz around Haus am Waldsee... Now in its 80th year, the Dahlem institution has managed to stay on the map, increasingly popping up in stylish Berliners’ IG stories. Its Sommerfest looks like an ideal Sunday drift: garden, paper flowers, performances by Hannah Rettl and Sophie Becker, a reading by Marius Goldhorn and a closing music performance by Séan Being.

🎧 8. July | Abdullah Miniawy: The evens, Rahma + Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko | KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Part of A Bird That Cannot Land, this year’s chapter of the Kyiv Biennial, this double bill pairs Abdullah Miniawy’s breath-and-wind piece The evens, Rahma with Heinali and Saienko’s Гільдеґарда (Hildegard), where Hildegard von Bingen’s compositions are stretched into drones, modular synth and deep listening. Get the combo ticket.

🌀 8. July | Brown Madonna: Apparition as Embodied Practice | SAVVY Contemporary
Following her Berlin premiere at Sophiensæle, Filipino choreographer, performer and Daloy Dance Company founder Ea Torrado leads a movement workshop rooted in Brown Madonna, her solo work on Filipina identity, Catholic iconography, colonial histories and pop spectacle. No previous dance experience required, just comfortable clothes and some willingness to move. 6:30–8:30 pm, in English, limited capacity. Register via workshop@savvy-contemporary.com with “Brown Madonna” in the subject line.

🥪 8. - 11. July, from 5pm | Angelica Golten pop-up at Sway
After leaving a strong impression with her guest residency at Sway back in October 2023, the London-based chef was invited back for four days of culinary delights at the Neukölln natural wine hotspot.

🎧 11. July | Sonic Pluriverse: Global Echoes of Gnawa | HKW
Part of HKW’s ongoing Sonic Pluriverse festival running through August, this rooftop Gnawa series continues with a concert from Moonlight Benjamin and Bab L’ Bluz.

Also at HKW, on the 16th of July, studio in:so introduces the concept behind HKW’s new summer pavilion and shares insights into their practice.

🎧 15. July | Significant Others presents: Eve Matin, Pachakuti & Henry Weekes | Genezarethkirche
Ambient and jazz-adjacent sounds in the soft acoustics of Genezarethkirche in Schillerkiez.

🥪 19. July | Romeo’s invites Stoke | Romeo’s Sandwiches
A Sunday special with the Stoke team in the Romeo’s kitchen: good food, good friends, summer wines and cocktails from 2pm until sold out.

🎧 23. July | subglow LIVE | 90mil
Trickpony live, Crespi Drum Syndicate live, Kiernan Laveaux, NAP (MX), CCL and more TBA. Excited to catch Trickpony live as they were namechecked as one of the highlights by my Solstice-attending pals. x

🏳️‍🌈 24. Jul | SMUDGE Berlin Pride Opening Party | AQUA-Höfe (Ritter Butzke)
A new FLINTA*-led opening party for Berlin Pride Weekend, bringing together Love Cruise, SLIC Unit, GOODIES, Layers Collective and BreakUp Club for sapphic visibility, community, collective joy and several floors of dancing.

🎛️ 24. July - 2. Aug | Gaswerk Music Days | Gaswerksiedlung
Gaswerk Music Days returns for its fourth edition with experimental live music across gART.n, BLOCK1 and the surrounding studios. Experimental electronics, African sounds, jazz, noise, avant-pop, kraut, improvisation and dance music spread across two weekends in a unique location in Lichtenberg. See you there!

Hot Links

🧴Hot new bathing spot unlocked: the Volksbühne is installing a temporary swimming pool! For Matthias Lilienthal’s opening as new artistic director, a 25-metre pool and Pommesbude are planned for Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz from August to October. Part theatrical event, part infrastructure critique, part extremely Berlin fever dream. Best thing about it? The Volksbad will be free to attend, with no personal identification needed for entry.

💋Madonna is back on the cover of Interview magazine for the 11th time (!), promoting her album Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II. In conversation with Mel Ottenberg, she drops a heavy-hitting endorsement of the club as a liberatory space: “being on the dance floor makes you feel like you’re part of a community, without saying anything. It saves you every time, whenever you’re feeling down, whenever you feel like you can’t get it right, whenever you feel like a failure, whatever. Go out dancing because it will save you.” Amen!

👔As Merz continues to position himself as Germany’s chief “productivity” cheerleader, announcing ever-harsher measures for workers (including stricter sick leave rules requiring a doctor’s certificate from the first day of absence), Jette Büchsenschütz’s essay The Promise of Work: Berlin’s Production of Precarity lands with horrible timing. Published by PW Magazine, it looks at the way Berlin keeps selling work as freedom, self-realization and creative promise while producing exhaustion, insecurity and a city full of people mistaking survival for vocation. Fun summer reading for anyone who has ever worked at an organization or institution where passion was supposedly part of the compensation package.

What We’re Listening To

Kelela – new avatar (releases July 10th)

Kelela has wiped the grid and entered New Avatar mode. Out 10 July, the album reaches back to her early days writing in D.C.’s indie scene, fittingly merging guitar sounds like grunge and shoegaze into her uniquely forward-looking RnB sound. On lead single “linknb” the line that got me, fittingly for our little anti-work summer, goes: “All I know is that I paved the way, underpaid.”

Crime of the season 🚓

Zabriskie is under threat. The beloved Kreuzberg bookshop with a focus on nature and ecology says austerity politics are starting to hit hard and is asking its community for support. The easiest ways to help: order books through them, buy gift vouchers, recommend them to institutions or projects that need books on invoice, spread the word or support them financially if you can.

Culturally, I’ve spent the past few weeks tumbling down a Peter Hujar rabbit hole. If you haven’t yet seen Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Gropius Bau, I wholeheartedly recommend it — I found it far more moving than the Marina Abramović blockbuster in the main hall below. Over in Lichtenberg, Klick Kino is screening Peter Hujar’s Day, Ira Sachs’ portrait of the photographer built around a single conversation with writer Linda Rosenkrantz, while a newly published joint biography by Frieze editor Andrew Durbin tracing Hujar’s lifelong entanglement with artist Paul Thek will be my holiday reading of choice. It’s safe to say Hujar is having a moment.

Right then, let’s get into the month ahead.

🎨 30 May – 28 Jun | Project Space Festival Berlin | Various locations | Free

One of the city’s best annual reminders that Berlin’s cultural life extends well beyond its institutions. For 30 consecutive days, 30 self-organised project spaces host exhibitions, performances, walks, communal meals and other gatherings exploring this year’s theme of “public luxury”.

🎧 2 Jun | If I Was Your Girlfriend: Prince and the politics of hearing women | Club der Visionäre

The final session of Tuesday listening evenings honoring Prince’s legacy on the 10th anniversary of his death in 2016. This edition sees cultural critic Lynnee Denise join Afrodisiac for a conversation on Prince, women and musical legacy at Club der Visionäre.

Plus, on June 7th, Moodymann takes over the decks at Haus der Visionäre for a Prince-inspired set that promises plenty of deep cuts and purple magic. Plus, Flo Real, A Guy Called Gerald LIVE (an Unsound 2025 highlight for me!) and Stella Zekri. Don’t miss!

🎧 11–13 Jun | Paradise Must Be Nice | Various venues

Returning for another edition, Paradise Must Be Nice transforms churches, cultural spaces and unexpected corners of the city into temporary gathering points for adventurous music and performance. Expect three days of intimate concerts, ambient excursions and beautifully curated encounters.

🎧 14 Jun | The Singing Project

Part concert, part collective experiment, The Singing Project invites audiences to experience the voice as a tool for connection rather than performance. Expect an afternoon that blurs the line between participant and listener.

🎧 15 Jun | Bex Burch – As Yet Untitled | Silent Green

Fresh from years of collaborations across London’s experimental music underground, Bex Burch arrives at Silent Green with her ever-evolving project As Yet Untitled. Combining percussion, repetition and communal groove, her performances unfold somewhere between ritual, improvisation and hypnosis.

🎧 25 Jun | Avant Art Festival: Antonina Nowacka + Drew McDowall & Pedro Maia | Silent Green

The Berlin edition of Poland’s Avant Art Festival lands at Silent Green with an evening of experimental sound and immersive audiovisual performance. Highlights include Antonina Nowacka’s transportive vocal compositions and a new collaboration between Coil alumnus Drew McDowall and filmmaker Pedro Maia that drifts beautifully between dream state and ritual.

🎧 26–28 Jun | J.A.W. Family Reunion – 20 Years

One of Berlin’s most beloved extended musical families celebrates two decades with an absolutely stacked anniversary gathering. Floating Points, Theo Parrish, Marcellus Pittman, MUSCLECARS, Afrodisiac and countless J.A.W. regulars join a weekend that feels less like a festival and more like a family barbecue with world-class selectors.

🍸 26 Jun | DJ Set | Ciao Ciao Bar

A shameless self-promotion alert: I’ll be behind the decks at Ciao Ciao serving an assortment of oddball favourites and records that probably made it into this very sletter. x

🎧 27 Jun | Sons of Simeon, Sun Runners, Kamelion & Onya Dev | Laden 2

I’ve been wanting to check out Laden 2 for the longest time, and on this occasion, the new Wedding listening space brings together artists working at the fringes of London-based dub/reggae scene. Come for the music, stay for the exchange of ideas.

What We’re Listening To

Boards of Canada – Inferno (released May 29)

The Scottish electronic duo’s first album in nearly 13 years! Very in keeping with the current zeitgeist, Inferno finds BoC ruminating on religion and spirituality. Plug in.

Sekko

I discovered “flock” on the NTS breakfast show with Lupini the other day and was immediately hooked… for a moment I genuinely thought I was listening to some kind of mangled ML Buch remix. The Berlin-based Dutch artist Sekko combines soft, wistful guitar melodies with jerk and hip-hop rhythms, landing somewhere between SoundCloud rap, indie pop and internet-age collage in the best possible way.

Tara Clerkin Trio – Somewhere Good (releases June 5th)

Somewhere Good sees Bristol’s Tara Clerkin continue her exploration of dub, dream-pop and softly blurred electronics, creating songs that feel less written than gently drifted into existence. The perfect soundtrack for train journeys, holiday reading and staring out of windows wondering whether you should move to the countryside.

Crime of the season 🚓

Schmetterling Bar, we need to have a word. The 2-euro Kölsch? Iconic. The colorful glass mosaic counter? Love it. The stylish crowd that lets me cosplay being part of Gen Z for a night? Deeply appreciated. But every time I leave, I smell like a chimney and my hangover hits with the force of a full night raving, despite the fact that I had three beers and was home by midnight. Wanting a smoking ban in bars may be my most conservative take to date, but I’m sticking to it.

OK thanks, ad break over! Last week, I attended a wonderful little free exhibition at Schering Stiftung’s project space on Unter den Linden: Rehearsal Room by Berlin-based Chilean artist Nicole L’Huillier (on view until July 5th). Using sound, AI, and voice notes, L’Huillier’s show invites visitors to collectively tune into the realm of dreams. In an era of sleep-optimization and lucid dream-maxxing it’s fun to see the triple Z’s get the full artistic dedication they deserve! The show was developed in close collaboration with Bogotá-born, London-based sound artist Nyksan aka Colombian Drone Mafia. Nyksan spent some time in Berlin courtesy of the DAAD artist residency and held his Sueño en Flor album listening event over at DAAD Galerie, one of the city’s essential free art spaces with reliably inspiring programming (and a government-funded open bar, which is always a plus).

Over the past couple of years, Gallery Weekend has landed on the same weekend as Mayday, bringing with it brand activations and immersive cultural experiences galore!! For those who prefer their art at a slight remove from the mainstream art world: the fourth edition of Sellerie Weekend runs parallel, with over 75 independent off-spaces opening across the city – a timely reminder that the Berlin art scene extends considerably beyond the gallery circuit.

If old-school day drinking and mainlining Vit D is more your thing, I have good news: Görlitzer Park will not be closing at night on Mayday after all, so do feel free to let it fully rip in the beloved grassy hollow as the law of the land intended.

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Mayday round-up

🌸 Refuge Worldwide May Day Free Open Air | Beach Neukölln, Treptower Str. 39 | 12 - 10 pm | Suggested €2 donation

Ten hours, two stages, thirteen DJs, food stalls and a brand new soundsystem installation at Beach Neukölln. The beach stage brings Richard Akingbehin, Edna Martinez, Lakuti and a b2b from MLE and Stephen Howe, before Kikelomo and Meg10 close things out into the evening. Over in the Berliner Berg Biergarten: Helena Fontaine’s Discos da Jajá project spinning carefully sourced records from Brazil, Guadeloupe, Martinique and beyond, Robert Machiri & Shiru on Afrobeat and jazz, and Tina & Key Clef. Half of all donations go to charity.

🌸 Sound Metaphors Free Party | OST, Alt-Stralau 1-2 | 1 pm – “late”

Sound Metaphors continue their annual Mayday tradition at Club OST: free entry with a donations-at-the-door model. The lineup is genuinely absurd in the best possible way: Akua, Alex Kassian, Telephones, Tornado Wallace, Bell Towers, PLO Man, our dear friends Dominik André, Nive, and approximately 80 others across open air and indoor stages from noon until late. Early arrival strongly encouraged… If last year is anything to go by, the queue will be insane by 2 pm!!

🌸 Ari’s Mayday | Ari’s, Glogauer Str. 2, Kreuzberg

Last year’s Ari’s Mayday was one of the most fashionable happenings on the day and this year they’re back: Isla Radio DJs in the sun, Arianna is serving Peruvian snacks, and the debut of their Diablo Mami hot sauce collab (priorities). The all-FLINTA* lineup is CHARRISLA b2b Barbie Kenny, Chadee, Yentzyz, MaríaJosé, Isa GT, Miss Papi and Senu.

🌸 Maikäfer | Monarch, Skalitzer Str. 134, Kreuzberg

A low-key Mayday afterparty at Kreuzberg dance bar, Monarch, from the Insekt crew.

Does Berlin run out of steam after Mayday?, I hear you ask. Hell no, it sure doesn’t!!

🎨1 May – 7 Jun, Tue–Sun, 2–7pm | Berlin Carousel | Akademie der Künste | Free (evening events €7.50)
40+ international artists creating simultaneous, non-linear events in a composition by Arnold Dreyblatt based on John Cage, running for six weeks across the AdK.

🎧 2 May | Nazar presents RODA with Y-3 | from 7:30 pm | Silent Green
Nazar, Slikback and Mimi Green soundtrack three Angolan dancers recreating the kuduro roda circle – a ritual of challenge, exchange and collective energy transported from Luanda to Berlin.

🎨 3 May | Realtime Affairs: Grammars of Listening | Dock 11, Kastanienallee 79 | 16:00 | donation
An afternoon of shared listening with sound artist Pablo Torres Gómez and Purépecha Mestiza scholar-performer Tiara Roxanne, exploring sonic reconnection as an anti-colonial, embodied practice. Sunday well spent.

🎧 8 May | Subject To Restrictions Discs | Sameheads
Subject To Restrictions host their annual label night with a live set from dark wave/trip-hop artist Blanche Biau plus DJ sets from founders Nive and Dominik André and esteemed guests, Trancesetters of Westphalia. Good tunes guaranteed!!

💭 8 –29 May (Fridays) | Mark Fisher and the New Desire | Boppstr. 2 | 6:30 pm | RSVP Four-part workshop moving through hauntology, capitalist realism and the unfinished project of Acid Communism.

🎧 15 May | Focal Point x Moonstompers | Club der Visionäre | from 3pm
London party crew Focal Point make their first overseas trip, linking with Moonstompers for a Friday “knees-up” under the willow. Old-school CDV energy.

🎧 17 May | Squama at Aktionshaus | 3 pm
Munich label Squama takes over Aktionshaus for an afternoon of gentle guitar music from Jonathan Bockelmann, followed by the live debut of MUG – a new collaboration between Ludwig Wandinger and Yves B. Golden that sits between no-wave, shoegaze and ambient. Plus, panoramic views onto the outskirts of Berlin from the venue’s terrace balcony.

🎧 22–23 May | Kiezsalon at Schloss Britz | Doors 6:30 pm | Tickets via Eventbrite
Last year, Kiezsalon, the venue-hopping concert series for adventurous music debuted a new venue with Schloss Britz and it was pure bliss! I’m still dreaming about watching Brìghde Chaimbeul, Cassie Kinoshi and Paul Wallfisch & Dana Schechter in an amphitheatre outside the 18th century Neukölln manor house. Friday brings Berlin-based duo Andrea Belfi & Jules Reidy, Glasgow folk ensemble Susannah Stark & Band, and New York cellist-producer alice does computer music; Saturday continues with Scottish improv legend Maggie Nicols, Natasha Pirard, Heli Hartikainen and KOOB. Tickets for the Kiezsalon concerts are cheap and sell out fast, so don’t sleep on it!

🧊 24 May | The Mudd Show | Sonnenraum | from 8pm
Nearly seven years on from the first Mudd Show, the media platform and event series celebrates across two rooms running into the Feiertag Monday with Atrice, DJ Fart in the Club, Emma Caers, Kyle Toole, livwutang and more.

🧊 28-31 May| Blechsonne 2026 | Findlingsgarten, Galenbeck
Two hours from Berlin, this DIY four-day festival brings 90+ artists across five stages: guitar music, experimental pop and club sounds, with Mark William Lewis, Jazz Lambaux, Snuggle, Meagre Martin and more. Pack a tent <3

📢 Shameless self-promotion 📢

I recently interviewed legendary German artist Annegret Soltau for 10 Magazine, tracing her decades-long exploration of the body, memory and female lineage. The piece accompanies her exhibition Vatersuche at TU Darmstadt and looks at how her once-censored work is finally being recognized by a new generation.

🎧 What’s On Repeat 🎧

Eliana Glass – E at Home (Shelter Press, April 24)

I sadly missed Eliana’s set at Rewire but became acquainted with her music at the Mark William Lewis concert here in Berlin, where he played an impromptu cover of her gorgeous ballad “On the Way Down”. On Friday, she released E at Home: gentle, playful demo versions of six songs from her debut, recorded through a single microphone onto a reel-to-reel. A perfect musical companion for sunny melancholic strolls as you watch the cherry blossom trees shed their pink petals.

Jump Source – Fold (NAFF, April 30)

I’ve long been singing the high praises of Montreal-based producer Priori: Infinity got me through lockdown, the NAFF label he runs with Adam Feingold has a no-miss discography, and I play sets like the 6 hour recording from Sustain Release with Cousin and a b2b with Kia at un:send on repeat. The other half of Jump Source is Patrick Holland, another MTL mainstay with an equally impeccable back catalogue of deep house and indie pop gems. Last year’s “On”, featuring our pal Martyn Bootyspoon was a hard-hitting summer anthem and a perfect preview for what was coming on Fold – HUGE pop star energy and immaculate production. Writing for RA, reviewer Henry Ivy describes the record as having been “sprinkled with a little magic dust... bespoke bangers: steeped in dance music’s past, but also gleefully toying with every revival cycle of the last few years”.

Other noteworthy releases:

Indie Stock by From 2 (South of North, April 17) – Amsterdam’s cutest new anti-folk band, reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian and Kimya Dawson.

Rise (Music From Memory, April 23) – rerelease of an early 90’s shoegaze project by Rudy Tambala of A.R. Kane and Alison Shaw of Cranes.

White Series #4 by Marc Feldmann & Dominik André (Subject To Restrictions Discs, April 24) – hypnotic, percussive techno floor fillers with trance influences.

Friend Remixes by James K (AD 93, April 24) – all killer, no filler remix album featuring friends like Objekt, Arushi Jain, Drew McDowall, and Special Guest DJ, to name a few!

Hot links 🔥

📼 “What made the 00s New York music scene such a brave new world?” – For Ralph Magazine, Cameron Cook gives us a first-hand account into the NYC scene that gave rise to the Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs et al, and what conditions made it possible. The kicker lands hard: “if we did it back in the day, started bands and magazines and record labels, surely kids these days with the embarrassment of options at their fingertips, could figure out how to make some cool shit.”

🤳“It’s okay to like Geese” – Jacobin defends Brooklyn’s most hyped band against psyop accusations after marketing agency Chaotic Good was caught purchasing bots for virality. Posting on his label’s Instagram page, Anton Teichmann of Mansions and Millions makes the more interesting point: hiring an agency like this costs serious money, and in an industry that promised social media would remove gatekeepers and level the playing field, virality turns out to be just another thing only the well-funded can afford. I haven’t deleted Geese from my music library, but it’s worth scrutinizing algorithm-based music recommendations and instead sniffing out new music through local independent scenes and experimental festivals.

Crime of the season 🚓

Ryanair is pulling its base from BER, citing air traffic tax and rising costs (BER will raise its fees by 10% this year) at what has been scathingly described as “the worst-performing airport in Europe”. According to The Guardian, the German trade union Verdi criticized Ryanair’s plans as a “purely profit-oriented corporate strategy”. Better get those cheap flights locked in while we still can, babes – the era of €19 to anywhere is flickering out.

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Lately, I managed to see a frankly ridiculous number of films courtesy of Berlinale, but the cinema moment that’s stayed with me most came outside the festival entirely, at the delightful Pillion premiere at Kino International. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Friedrichshain since moving here, and there’s something about Kino International being back and buzzing that’s helping me make my peace with my new neighborhood.

I’m also still recovering from the pure stress of watching Marty Supreme, lol. Much to be annoyed about, and yet, as a full-time corporate cog with a creative side hustle, I keep coming back to one quote where the irredeemably unlikeable Marty complains to his quasi-girlfriend: “I have a purpose, and if you think that’s some sort of blessing, it’s not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through, and with that obligation comes sacrifice.” Despite Timmy delivering the line with jaw-clenching intensity, it made me laugh, because anyone who has lost sleep over a passion project will relate to what he’s talking about. A new poster boy for suffering for your art just dropped!

On that note, thank you to everyone who showed up to our first listening bar event at ikii. It was such a fun vibe to host the live debut of my pal Bella’s band Soft Pulse! We’ll be back in late May, so keep your eyes peeled.

🎧 2 April | 6 pm | Heith & Alexander Lezzi, Stina Fors, Olga Hohmann, Haubrok Foundation [Lichtenberg]

I’ve been meaning to check out Haubrok Foundation, tucked away in Lichtenberg, for ages, and this evening looks particularly promising. Heith is the alias of Milan-based artist and musician Daniele Guerrini, whose music exists where organic and digital elements clash, merge and transform — a ritualistic collage of celestial percussion, mechanical oscillations, haunting vocals, and murky dubbed-out beats. He performs alongside Alexander Lezzi, with Stina Fors and Olga Hohmann also on the bill, plus a video art programme featuring works by Tida Jonsson, Ssi Saarinen, Tobias Zielony and others. Doors at 6pm.

🎧 4 April | 4 pm | Yuri Umemoto: “Concerts” (premiere), Chapel / Kapelle of Memorial Church [Charlottenburg]

This month, CCA hosts the premiere of Concerts, a new chamber work by Yuri Umemoto — a Tokyo-born, Stuttgart-based composer currently in residence at Akademie Schloss Solitude. Performed live with piano, cello and violin alongside fixed media in the basement, Concerts takes its material from the textures of daily life: a neighbor covering his ears, pigeons gathering at their feeding spot, an ex-girlfriend with a bored expression. Mundane moments that accumulate into something quietly affecting. €10 at the door, limited capacity.

🎧 4-5 April | 12 pm-late | Pastiche One Year Anniversary Weekender, Pastiche [Neukölln]

Pastiche is a hi-fi listening venue, record shop and café on Weserstraße that transforms by night into an intimate space for performances, talks and screenings — drawing inspiration from the likes of Public Records in New York, but with a distinctly local, community-rooted sensibility.

The anniversary weekender runs across two days, with free entry all afternoon both days (record sales, street food, drinks) before ticketed evening programmes. Saturday brings Ghostpoet, afrodisiac and Billy Caso through the day, with Eve Matin on live harp, CCL and Maryisonacid on the decks come evening. Sunday’s day lineup features Calamidades Lola, BLACK SUMO and Jac Høja, before legendary Senegalese percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Dudù Kouate closes the weekend with a special talk and listening reflection

🎧 6 April | Deathcrash, Schokoladen [Mitte]

London slowcore four-piece Deathcrash emerged alongside the South London scene that gave us Black Country New Road, Black Midi and Jerskin Fendrix, but they always felt like the shy kids in the corner, doing something stranger and more their own. Their debut Return was a 65-minute statement; six months later they decamped to the Outer Hebrides to record Less, a leaner, more focused follow-up that landed everywhere from Pitchfork to BBC Radio 1. Live, they’re visceral and precise in equal measure — Far Out Magazine named them best live band of 2023, and their London shows sell out without fail. Support from Stay in Nothing, a London three-piece navigating the space between moody dream and full noise.

👗 11 April | Find Yours vintage fashion shop opening, 3-8 pm, Pannierstraße 28 [Neukölln]

Reuterkiez gets another promising addition to its vintage fashion ecosystem: Find Yours, a new curated secondhand store on Pannierstraße, opens its doors this month. Handpicked stock, considered curation — worth a wander next time you’re in the neighborhood.

💭 15 April | Stadt der Freund:innen, exhibition opening, Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, HU Berlin [Mitte]

Friend of the newsletter Marieke Fischer taught a course at Humboldt-Universität exploring how urban spaces might be imagined beyond heteronormative structures, with friendship as the central lens. The resulting exhibition brings together interview excerpts, collages, photographs and story maps into a collective archive of utopian visions for a possible city of friends. Opening 6-8pm, runs until April 29.

📖 15 April | 7 pm | On Becoming a Writer: An Evening with Colson Whitehead, American Academy [Wannsee]

A conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Colson Whitehead at the American Academy. The event is no longer accepting in-person registrations, but you can watch the livestream at the time of the event via the American Academy website.

💭 17 April | 1-9 pm | Songs of Serpents: Art, Landscapes, Ecofeminism(s), Akademie der Künste [Tiergarten]

A full-day symposium at Akademie der Künste exploring ecofeminism through art, ecology and transdisciplinary research. Taking as its starting point the exchange project Songs of Serpents – Ecopoetic Zones, which connects artist residencies across Germany, Italy, Albania, Ukraine and Lithuania, the day brings together panels, keynotes and lecture performances with a strong international lineup including Antonia Alampi, Marina Naprushkina and Sophie Seita among many others.

🎧 18-19 April | Jokkoo x Setten, secret location [near Jannowitzbrücke]

Two nights, two cities, one reunion. Berlin’s Setten — the forward-thinking booking agency run by Yuko Asanuma, home to artists like Pinch and Kahn + Neek — links back up with Barcelona’s Jokkoo Collective for what promises to be one of the more interesting club weekends of the month. Jokkoo are a Barcelona-based artistic collective dedicated to exploring and platforming the most contemporary and forward-looking work coming out of the African continent, its diaspora and connected communities worldwide. Lineup and pre-sale tickets dropping soon, keep an eye on both their Instagrams.

🎧 19 April | 8 pm | Mark William Lewis, Bi Nuu [Kreuzberg]

South London singer-songwriter Mark William Lewis’ self-titled album — released last September as the first non-soundtrack signing to A24 Music, the film studio’s label previously reserved for scores by the likes of Alex G and Grizzly Bear — is a quietly poetic record about intimacy and alienation in the city, his deep baritone and unhurried guitar sitting somewhere between Dean Blunt and Arthur Russell. Word of mouth has already taken him from DIY rooms in Deptford to sold-out shows at the ICA and Public Records NYC.

🎧 19 April | 2 pm | mp3 at Sonnenraum [Friedrichshain]

A good one for a Sunday afternoon. Kyoto-born Alex Kassian and US house legend Octo Octa headline, joined by Blitz resident Yamour and the always reliable Spray — whose frenzied, ecstatic proggy house remains one of my favourite sets at last year’s Nachti. From 2 pm til late.

🎧 24 April | Girella x Assemble Agency, Coco Boule

Girella’s approach to nights out translates well to Coco Boule’s modular layout, with one room for seated performances and another for gathering and unwinding. Kasei P plays live, joined by Saliva Sollidha, Maaraluisa, Sans1bar, and Softiii. Reduced entry before midnight.

🎧 28 April | 8pm | SANAM + gleo, silent green [Wedding]

SANAM is a six-piece ensemble from Beirut weaving experimental rock with traditional Egyptian music and contemporary Arabic poetry — psych, krautrock, jazz and improvisation all in the mix. Support from gleo, a Berlin-based Irish ambient duo whose manipulated samples and raw tape loops have been making an impression on the city’s DIY scene.

🎧 29 April | Roomer, Arkaoda [Neukölln]

Roomer is one of the best bands in Berlin right now. Their silent green show last year was one of my concert highlights of 2025, and their on-stage chemistry was genuinely something else. Catch them at Arkaoda this month, where they’ll likely present their new single Written By, their first release since the debut album Leaving It All to Chance.

Hot links

🔥 People really had a lot of feelings about “the one who’s in love always wins”, the viral quote courtesy of Ethan Hawke doing his philosopher-king bit on the Oscars red carpet with interviewer Amelia Dimoldenberg: “When you’re feeling, you’re alive. The sun doesn’t care whether the grass appreciates its rays. It just keeps on shining.” The quote went viral just as the culture seemed to reach peak heteropessimism, Then similarly, a few days ago, DJ Python told Kontext91 that “being a mysterious man in 2026 feels very corny and forced”, referencing an earlier Instagram post where he declared: “coolness is a disease that drives us apart.” I’ve been sitting with this alongside reading Eva Illouz’s The End of Love, in which the French sociologist dissects how, in the digital age, intimate relationships are shaped by the permanent freedom to withdraw — no agreed signals of intent, just compulsory nonchalance and vibes. Which is maybe why it felt oddly wholesome to see two straight guys independently talk about how true sincerity is good, actually.

🎧 Robyn — Sexistential

Swedish popstar Robyn’s ninth album arrives eight years after Honey, delivering her signature formula of sorrow as catharsis and ecstasy as an artistic form, now filtered through single motherhood, IVF, and what Jia Tolentino’s New Yorker profile describes as a “sexual renaissance of middle age.” Robyn raps about donor sperm, breastfeeding, and being horny in her sweatpants, and it is genuinely joyful and sincere. Robyn is coming to Berlin on the 8th of July.

🎧 Fcukers – Ö

NY-based dance pop outfit Fcukers released their highly anticipated debut record! I discovered them via Avalon Emerson’s 2024 New Year’s Day set at Pbar, and their music still hits like that moment when the night tips over into something slightly unhinged.

Crime of the season 🚓

🍷 JAJA is closing — Neukölln’s beloved natural wine bar and restaurant announced it will shut its doors for good by the end of the year. Devastating news, really, since JAJA is one of the reliably best places for a great meal in Berlin. The team has been careful to say it’s not down to any single factor, and that it won’t be the end entirely. Their countryside project PARG continues, and they’re promising news about what comes next. Shout out to Junis, and go eat there while you still can.

Earlier this month, I was holed up in my apartment, binging Heated Rivalry and frantically searching Google flights for anywhere in Europe where the temperatures might hit remotely above 5°C.

But now, I can hear birds chirping outside my window (a sound I’d completely forgotten about), the sun sets comfortably after 5pm, and I’ve traded my tired old puffer coat in for a more stylish cut. Nature is healing!!!

On the Radio 80000 breakfast show this Friday, my friend Leo put it perfectly: “Man hat ja jetzt schon ein paar Frühlingsanfänge im Leben mitgemacht aber es schiebt immer wie beim ersten Mal.” At this point in life, you’ve already lived through a couple of spring beginnings – but the first warm day of the year still hits like the very first time.

March also brings International Women’s Day (a public holiday in Berlin since 2018), though this year it has the audacity to fall on a Sunday, depriving us of a Monday free from labor. As if we haven’t already been through enough… But, while we wait for local politics to finally give us the next day off when a public holiday falls on a weekend (the UK does it, the Netherlands does it – get it together, Germany!), there’s plenty to do to fill our time.

🌸 Office Hours with Lekker Collective, Refuge Worldwide [Neukölln]

Berlin music label and event series Lekker Collective has been running since 2015, and founder Donna Arendse is now offering creative mentorship sessions at the Refuge Worldwide space. March sessions are already fully booked but get in touch with lekker collective via Instagram to reserve your spot for next month.

🌸 3 March | 5-6pm | Guest show as Chatbot Caro on Shella Radio
Shameless plug: Catch me this month on Shella Radio, an independent community radio streaming live from Prague’s Ankali and Planeta Za, playing indie pop and slow jamz. Huge thank you to Patricccio / Sentimental Club for the invitation.🤍

🌸 3 March + 4 March | Platte Education Series” Boost Talk with Cora Hamilton & Rafael Sergi, [RSVP required]

We love a knowledge exchange series. Cora Hamilton, co-founder and director of uns* (the first and only exclusively LGBTQIA+ modelling agency in Germany) joins Platte for a conversation on diversity and inclusivity in the fashion industry, representation, and what progress actually looks like. Aimed at people from marginalised communities as well as designers and creatives who want to engage more thoughtfully. The following day, comms specialist Rafael Sergi explores how PR shapes a brand’s identity and long-term cultural relevance. Spots are limited, RSVP via their link in bio.

🌸 6 March | 11pm | Renate Klubnacht w/ Dana Ruh, Radio80K & Ghosttown, Renate [Friedrichshain]

Radio 80000 (where I’ve had my radio residency since 2020) arrives from Munich, taking over Renate’s RED floor from 11pm with a full night of B2Bs by 11:68, Cristalyne, DJ City, luxus, Selin, Sofiia Zoloto, Sophie Pschorr, and Vanaenae.

🌸 6 March | 6pm | Invisible Labor / Visible Futures, International Women’s Day Gathering, Atelier Gardens [Tempelhof]

Ahead of IWD, Atelier Gardens is hosting an evening of gathering and exchange around care economies: what forms of labor sustain our communities yet often remain unseen or undervalued. Women*-owned and led businesses and organisations are especially encouraged to attend. RSVP via their Instagram.

🌸 7 March | 7-10pm | Please Pale Hot, affair [Kreuzberg]

Large-scale paintings meet micro-opera in three acts at affair, exploring the dramaturgy of the diva, Greek tragedy and tales of defiance, navigating, as they put it, “the vertigo of living in end-of-times.” Sounds wild!

🌸 8 March | 4pm | Moyo Women’s Day Launch, Orangerie, [Neukölln]

Moyo is a new culinary project launching on Women’s Day from 4pm, with finger food from 6pm, live performances from Ana M’Vangi, Anzeloo and Toshin, and DJ sets by Jana Falcon, Acidfinky and Nat Wendell. No formal structure, just grazing, moving, talking. Expect warmth, expect rhythm, expect a sehr schicke crowd. And at €15 a ticket, it’s frankly a steal. Reserve your spot to the dinner via Paypal.

🌸 8 March | 6pm | Crush Hour IWD Edition, Tennis Bar [Neukölln]

The IG event info says it all: “Welcoming lezzies of all genders and their enby and trans comrades. Tipping encouraged – be slutty not stingy w those coins”.

🌸 11 March | Mansions and Millions presents: Kissen, innerinnerlife, valeria litvakov (dj), 8MM Bar [Mitte]

Mansions and Millions, the Berlin label championing the city’s indie music scene since 2015, lands at 8MM Bar with a quietly special lineup. innerinnerlife’s recent EP IfOnly evokes early 2000s indie pop and Kissen, whose work I covered for Bandcamp Daily, rounds out the intimate gathering.

🌸 12-14 March | Unseen Histories, Unsettled Memories, Sinema Transtopia [Berlin]

A three-day program revisiting a largely censored chapter of China’s New Documentary Movement – works made in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many suppressed after 1989, returning to the screen in their first unified presentation.

🌸 13 March | 10pm | ddwy live, Arkaoda [Neukölln]

I first came across London-based husband-and-wife duo ddwy via their contribution to the infamous Public Possession Chill Pill compilation back in 2024 and I cannot wait to see their blissed out dub pop live at Arkaoda. Let’s fucking go.

🌸 14 March | C115 w/ Ciel, Regularfantasy, DJ Durbin, Lena Willikens

I still haven’t made it out to C115, the new West End venue located above the AVUS highway, a personal failure I hope to correct soon. Canadian left-field queens Ciel and Regularfantasy play alongside DJ Durbin and Lena Willikens.

🌸 19 March | 7-11pm | Place to Be Launch Party w/ Soft Pulse (live), Vanaenae, Chatbotcaro, ikii, [Neukölln]

OK, allow me to be biased about this one. Come celebrate the launch of this very project with the debut concert (!) of Soft Pulse, Berlin’s freshest new dream pop duo, plus Vanaenae and myself on the decks at Ikii. It’s going to be a good one – be there or else…!!! 🌸

🌸 21 March | Early afternoon | Jelly Cake Workshop with Lila Steinkampf, Trust [Schöneberg]

A hands-on session learning to make plant-based jelly cakes from scratch from the food art queen Lila Steinkampf. Participants can explore color, texture, flavor and form in a small group setting. No experience needed, all materials provided, and you leave with your own handmade cake.

🌸 21 March | 8pm | colectivo salo | 90mil [Mitte]

colectivo salo is quietly becoming one of my favorite promoters in the city. The crew was behind a standout showcase last year featuring Milan W, Devon Rexi and Forma Norte at 90mil, still one of my concert highlights of 2025. This time they host Felicity J Lord, an experimental project from London releasing on Belgian cool-kid label STROOM. If previous programming is anything to go by this night will be intimate and slightly off-center – just the way I like it.

🌸 22 March | 12-18pm | A Taste of Solidarity, Markthalle Neun [Kreuzberg]

The Berlin Gastro Solidarity Network takes over Markthalle Neun for a fundraiser and community event rooted in collective action – a curated market of food, drink and craft alongside panels and workshops addressing the ongoing situations in Gaza and Sudan.

🌸 28 March | 7pm | Kontext x Closer, Haus der Visionäre [Kreuzberg]

A 16-hour collaborative event between Kontext and Kyiv club Closer, reinterpreting Haus der Visionäre across two acts. The evening program from 7pm brings five live performances and audiovisual works – Space Afrika, DJ Python, Torus and more – before the dance kicks off at midnight across Sonnenraum and an intimate third floor built specially for the night.

Hot links 🔥

🎬 Germany continues to embarrass itself – After another politically tense Berlinale, director Tricia Tuttle remains her post, but the writing may be on the wall: culture minister Wolfram Weimer (a Merz appointee with essentially no arts background) called an extraordinary meeting this week to discuss the festival’s “future direction” after Tuttle posed for a photo with the Chronicles From the Siege team, who wore keffiyehs and held a Palestinian flag at their own premiere. As the German film academy put it in their open letter, “being photographed with international guests is part of the practice of such a festival.” Philip Oltermann examines in the Guardian the impossible position the Berlinale finds itself in, sitting awkwardly at Germany’s political center, and “perhaps hosting a major festival that tolerates the world’s contradictions is too much to ask of Germany’s government at this stage.” Ouch.

🎟️ Koka36 files for insolvency – Concert ticketing service Koka36, a fixture in Kreuzberg for over 30 years, filed for insolvency in February following the unexpected death of its founder in November. The ripple effects are already being felt: CTM festival, one of independent venues and promoters affected, estimates a €12,000 loss from their festival and upcoming concerts alone, and as a non-profit with no financial reserves, that’s no small thing. Tip Berlin reports that the Senat has signalled willingness to help, though no concrete commitments were made. The industry is now discussing a solidarity-based ticketing model with proper contractual protections, which would be a genuinely good thing to come out of all this. In the meantime, CTM have put it simply: come to their upcoming shows, bring a friend, buy a supporter ticket if you can.

💀 Death to “catch up culture” – Clara Dünkler pens an open letter in taz about a phenomenon that has become pervasive in adult friend groups – catch-up culture, the habit of condensing entire chapters of your life into a one-hour coffee update and friendships reduced to a to-do list item. I get where she’s coming from, but I’d push back on the framing slightly. The catch-up coffee exists because it has become increasingly difficult to naturally take part in each other’s daily lives, and that’s not an individual failing, it’s a consequence of how cities and work are organised. In an ideal world, we’d be able to afford living closer to each other, to work less, and to have more time to focus on the relationships that really matter.

What we’re listening to 🎧

Pen Pal – Crowd Rock (releases March 13)

Pen Pal is a new band comprised of four friends spread across Berlin and Amsterdam with a sound rooted in early-2000s Morr Music-style indietronica and charmingly German-inflected vocals. Nostalgic but somehow zeitgeist-y, the band drew a notably chic crowd to their live debut at 8MM last month. Onstage, a new member of the electronic music producer to indie rocker pipeline appeared – frontman David spent the mid-2010s releasing experimental records as Jaures on labels like shtum, Die Orakel and Whities (RIP), and Pen Pal’s opening track “The DJ Years” feels like a cheeky nod to that chapter.

Kim Gordon — NOT TODAY

I love everything about this song: the propulsive melody, the undertones of feminine rage, the frustrated raw lyrics (“where’s my gum, postmate”, a wry comment on consumerism, which I initially misheard as “where’s my gun”, lol). I’ve never seen Kim Gordon live, and next month I’ll finally get to correct that – she plays Huxleys Neue Welt on 19 April, presented by CTM. Given everything going on with the Koka36 insolvency it’s, a great chance to show some support while seeing a legend. Tickets via this link.

Crime of the season 🚓

I cannot help but notice the La Maison canal crowd is giving very much West Village girls. You know these people are not spilling out from an afterhours, they’re coming from pilates. And someone should really alert the Ordnungsamt about the size of drinks lately…

So, allow me to run through my qualifications: I’ve been writing about music and culture professionally for over a decade – covering everything from fantasy-inspired raves to spiritually curious artists finding their way back to the pew – and I’ve been a Berlin resident even longer.

I’m also deeply FOMO-driven – a trait that has stubbornly refused to subside even now that I’m solidly in my 30s. Thankfully, Berlin continues to provide a constant and steady supply of things worth leaving the house for. For the past two years, I parlayed my obsession with tracking the happenings in town into a monthly cultural recommendations newsletter called On Culture for Fotografiska Berlin (where I previously served as Head of Editorial). That project ended last month, but of course, my appetite for culture hasn’t.

I’ve long been a reader of recommendation newsletters like NY-based Perfectly Imperfect or God Save The Scene in London, where you get a glimpse into the tastes of plugged-in people across different scenes and cities. Consider this my version, with a Berlin POV.

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Each issue will include a curated round-up of events and cultural happenings (because I want to see all my friends at once), hot links from across the internet, and the occasional essay or longer piece of criticism. I’ll also flag my own published work, radio shows, and other projects when they’re live (hey, it wouldn’t be a Substack without a little shameless self-promotion).

True to my music journalist roots, my picks skew towards experimental music and club culture, but thanks to my time at Fotografiska, I’ve had the chance to become equally immersed in the contemporary art world. And I’m a foodie, so expect occasional dispatches from the culinary scene as well. While I don’t claim to be an expert on the latter, I have always appreciated how fluidly these worlds intersect here in Berlin.

I’ll admit that over the years, my relationship with the city has been complicated. I’ve left and come back, and I struggle to feel firmly rooted. Occasionally, when I mention I’ve been here since 2013, I’m met with a look that suggests sticking it out this long deserves a kind of medal for sheer persistence. It doesn’t exactly help that certain out-of-towners regard Berlin with a mix of arrogance, pity and abject horror. “I could never live there,” they say. Or: “I wouldn’t survive it.” And look, I get it. Our winters are dark and cold, the streets are lined with trash, everything is always under construction and we don’t even have Zohran as our mayor. Making matters worse, the things we cherish about the city often feel like they’re hanging on by a thread.

Last week, Dazed ran a provocatively titled piece asking whether the party is finally over, pointing to the closure of the much-loved queer club SchwuZ and the broader pressure on venues. While it’s true that gentrification is grinding and funding cuts are brutal, this doom and gloom narrative feels more like a ploy to generate clicks than an accurate reflection of what’s actually happening on the ground. The reality is: new spaces are opening all the time, collectives are doing genuinely exciting work despite political headwinds, and the scene is very much still alive. If the concern is that people are going out less, then part of what I want to do is make the case that showing up still matters.

For as long as I can remember, Instagram has had this feature where you can tag your location as “Berlin – the place to be.” It’s kind of a joke, but I love it because in many ways it still rings true. In the spirit of Emma Warren’s cultural manual Document Your Culture, I want to create an (admittedly imperfect) archive. To one day look back and remember exactly what was happening here, at this moment in time.

Thanks for reading. The first issue of place to be lands in March.

— Caro

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