The Infinite Now - Berlin Atonal x Unsound
The Infinite Now is a large-scale collective experiment that operates outside the conventions of traditional musical programming. Conceived as a continuous thirty hour project, it unfolds as a sustained environment in which sound, presence, rest, conversation and attention can coexist without segmentation. Rather than a sequence of events, The Infinite Now forms a coherent durational structure in which audiences and artists inhabit the same evolving space.
The project brings together two of the most influential curatorial forces in experimental music for their first formal collaboration. Over more than two decades, Unsound has built an international network situating experimental music within major institutional contexts from Kraków to New York and Adelaide. Berlin Atonal, founded in 1982 and re-established in 2013, has maintained a consistent focus on the intersection of sound art, performance, and contemporary composition at the margins of genre.
The Infinite Now continues a lineage of extended works that challenge the atomised temporality of conventional festival programming. It draws on historical precedents including La Monte Young's Dream House installations and the overnight concerts organised by the Fluxus movement. The project also revives and extends the logic of the much loved The Long Now, which from 2015 to 2019 functioned as a singular proposition within the international music calendar, curated by Berlin Atonal as the conclusion of Berliner Festspiele’s Maerzmusik festival.
Across night, day and night again from the 16 – 17 May more than 20 artists will present live interventions and durational presences calibrated for the special context of the event. The project takes place at Kraftwerk Berlin, the former power station that has served as the home of Berlin Atonal since 2013. The venue’s interior will function as both performance space and social environment, allowing participants to move between states of focused listening, peripheral awareness, and rest according to their own rhythms.
Audiences are encouraged to sleep, rest, eat, listen, withdraw and pay attention. There will be shared zones for listening and repose, minimal stage separation, and lighting and sound designed to avoid dramatic cues or punctuation. Tickets permitting re-entry throughout the thirty-hour duration, enabling partial, repeated or sustained engagement are now available via Resident Advisor. The space will include dedicated areas for sleeping and rest. Further details, including the detailed schedule, will be announced in the coming weeks.
The next full edition of Berlin Atonal will take place in August 2027. The flagship Unsound festival takes place in Poland at the start of October 2026, alongside events in Adelaide, New York and London.
The Infinite Now is partly supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Polish National Foundation.