SOUND METAPHORS FESTIVAL PART 1
Berghain | Panorama Bar | Säule, Berlin
Thu 29 Oct 2026 · 6pm → 2am Fri · 8 hours
Press play
Who’s playing4 artists
In the order the promoter lists them.
- Alessandro Cortinifirst Berlin night here
- Grand River
- Jonathan Fitoussi
- ASIA (DE)
Set times not published. · Timetable on berghain.berlin ↗
October 28-30, 2026
Berghain, Panorama Bar, Saule & Kantine am Berghain
Sound Metaphors continues its momentum established over the last years as a select promotional entity and takes a leap into a new plateau of celebrating music with a 3 day affair, October 28, 29 and 30. With a focus on live acts, Sound Metaphors brings you another carefully selected lineup of emerging players and legendary pioneers, all within the confines of one of the world’s most iconic cultural institutions.
With over a decade of finely curated music events, Sound Metaphors Festival represents a natural progression of our commitment to musical appreciation, independent culture, and intentional programming — a highly selected journey throughout a wide range of aural flavours: techno, ambient, dub, live electronics, experimental, leftfield and everything beyond and inbetween.
We invite you to come together once again in our version of a safe space for music to exist with as little constraints as possible. Here’s to human expression and love of music, dance and sound.
from the promoter’s listing on Resident Advisor
Who they are
- Their RA profile lists The Point Of Departure Recording Company, The New Black and Unravel.
often with Rachika Nayar, Faten Kanaan, none of them here on Thursday
“For the last decade, Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and musician Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, has been circling the perimeter of electronic music and sound art, crafting heady electroacoustic soundscapes for acclaimed labels like Spazio Disponibile, Editions Mego, Caterina Barbieri's light-years, Ghostly International, Tresor and Umor Rex while simultaneously devising ambitious multichannel installations and rupturing the boundary between the gallery and the performance space.”
their own biography
the whole biography
For the last decade, Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and musician Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, has been circling the perimeter of electronic music and sound art, crafting heady electroacoustic soundscapes for acclaimed labels like Spazio Disponibile, Editions Mego, Caterina Barbieri's light-years, Ghostly International, Tresor and Umor Rex while simultaneously devising ambitious multichannel installations and rupturing the boundary between the gallery and the performance space. Most recently, she debuted Symphony for Endangered Birds, a 7-channel sonic examination of vulnerable bird species, at Essen's Museum Folkwang. Inspired by vintage kosmische music, film scores, experimental rock, ambient music and avant classical sounds, Portioli has devised her own unique signature, a vivid and painterly sonic landscape that's viscerally driven by the unconstrained emotional language she developed when she studied as a linguist. Using her advanced knowledge of analog and digital synthesis alongside subtle acoustic instrumentation, Portioli highlights shrouded emotions and complex themes; she crafted an achingly melancholy tribute to Editions Mego founder Peter Rehberg on 2023's All Above and in 2024 meditated on the idea of emptiness with Abul Mogard on In uno spazio immenso, an album that Resident Advisor described as "theatrical and emotional ambient with a post-punk edge." Portioli is set to return to Editions Mego in fall this year with Temporary, her most expansive and focused album yet. Painting over the musical outlines she displayed on its predecessor she meticulously seeks out more nuanced shades, balancing her billowing electronic textures and buzzing arpeggios with vivid melodies and thunderous rhythms. It's surprisingly direct, highlighting the interplay between Portioli's guitar work and advanced synthesizer processes. In 2025 meanwhile, her ambitious 2022 piece Tuning the Wind was finally packaged as an album for Mexico City's Umor Rex imprint after being performed live across the world and adapted into multichannel, 4DSOUND and stereo installations. Taking environmental recordings and tuning them to 440hz, her organic sounds blended seamlessly with her selection of synthesized elements, raising questions about the nature of sound itself - and the friction between humanity and the natural world. Her approach is bolstered by the connections she fosters and feedback she receives at her dynamic live shows. Performance is as important to Portioli as the compositional process itself and she's been able to present her work at some of the world's most prestigious festivals, such as Berlin's Atonal and CTM, MUTEK in Montréal and Spain's WOS, appearing at iconic venues such as Paris's Centre Pompidou, London's Barbican Centre and Berlin's Berghain. Portioli also runs One Instrument, a distinctive label with a singular focus: to prioritize music made using just one instrument. Since its inception in 2016, the imprint has released records from a wide variety of artists, including Felicity Mangan, Donato Dozzy and Morning Seance.Their RA profile lists Ghostly International, Editions Mego, Tresor, Spazio Disponibile and 2 more.Recently at MONOM · often with Alexei Cerrone, Above My Door, 3Ω – TERRAHYMN, none of them here on Thursday
Recently at Boat - MS Rhein / Boat Terminal: Mühlenstr. 70-71 / 10243 Berlin, Hoppetosse, ZENNER · often with Jorge Escribano, Mosh Project, Temple Rat, none of them here on Thursday
names these artists often play with — not on Thursday
- Jorge Escribano3 with ASIA (DE)
- Cecilio2 with ASIA (DE)
- Indi Zone2 with ASIA (DE)
- Laurine2 with ASIA (DE)
- Melina Serser2 with ASIA (DE)
- Mosh Project2 with ASIA (DE)
- S.Moreira2 with ASIA (DE)
- Temple Rat2 with ASIA (DE)
how this compares
- Median final count, Thursdays at Berghain93
- Middle half finished between71 and 114
- Past Thursdays at this venue counted46
- Counted so far53 on Thu 8 Oct, 74 on Mon 19 Oct
Counts keep rising until the night; this is where it stands today.
The room
Berghain | Panorama Bar | Säule — 210 events and 1,019 distinct artists since Aug 2025.
Who’s putting it on
OstGut GmbH — 202 events and 979 artists since Aug 2025.