This Berlin trip was a fucking blast! It was a very special trip for me as the research paper that was being presented was deeply tied to dance music and club culture, and presenting this work in the clubbing capital just adds more to the excitement. It is also the last trip of 2025, the first year that I travel for work. Since accepting Sonic Officer's offer to travel in December 2024, I have been travelling every 3-6 months to somewhere new and meeting a lot of people. I also went to Berghain (duh, of course you're gonna say that dude), ://about blank, and Tresor and had loads of fun.
Before I start about Berlin, I want to briefly reflect on career growth. Shortly after I declined my admission to the TIMARA BM program (dean's scholarship) in April 2024, TIMARA Professor of Computer Music Tom Lopez gave me a blessing, telling me that he is "certain you [Me, the writer] will have opportunities to travel and study around the world", and it just so happens that I found myself performing in Hong Kong just 8 months after that. I am eternally grateful for all the blessings I have received from friends, family, teachers, mentors acquaintances, and other people I've met along the way. It really does mean a lot.
I ran super late to the Suvannabhumi Airport on the evening of November 10th, with only 2 hours to spare for checking in and eating a light meal before boarding the plane. For this trip, I chose to fly with Qatar Airways to Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER), with a layover at Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha, Qatar. While the service was great, I had a hard time sleeping on both legs of the flight, and it only worsen when coupled with the fact that the day starts right after I land. As soon as I land with about 3 hours of sleep clocked, I cleared immigration and was immediately met with the early winter wind of Berlin. That was when I knew that I am on the other side of the world, 6 hours time difference between where I was at and Bangkok. I made it. It's now the morning of 11 November 2025.
After claiming my baggage, I bought a 7-day Deutsche Bahn ABC ticket and took the FEX train from BER Flughafen to Ostkreuz Bahnhof to have breakfast. While I've heard some Berliners complain about the airport, I find the ease of access of public transport at the airport to be very convenient. There, I met up with my mentor, BASc degree advisor, research advisor, MW:M25 research coordinator, and Hybrid Music Lab curator Matthias Jung for breakfast at Milja und Schäfa just next to the train tracks of Ostkreuz Bahnhof. For breakfast, I had a plate of omelett with smoked salmon and truffle oil with a glass of "hot lemon" (transliterated from heiße zitrone). Shortly after that, Matthias went to work while I put my stuff away at the Holiday Inn hotel in Prenzlauer Berg, booked by Most Wanted: Music for speakers. To get there, I took the S Bahn from Ostkreuz Bahnhof to Prenzlauer Allee. Now with the heavy luggage gone, I am only left with a 10 kilogram backpack with all the tech gear inside, which means its time to sit down and write some code. But before doing that, I had to meetup with another Thai person, my degree advisor, Risa.
Risa, or Dr Natcha Techaaphonchai, is another Thai person presenting at MW:M25, on the subject of the BASc degree I am currently studying in. While I didn't meet her for a coffee or meal, we briefly met at the hotel as she was just going out to do some sightseeing. As I had soundcheck scheduled at 4, I didn't think going along with her would be the best decision, so I stayed around in Prenzlauer Berg and took a stroll to see where I could sit down and get some work done. Turns out, there's a coworking space hidden within a vegan eatery called Easy Peasy, just a 6 minute-walk away from the hotel. As per Asian manners, I ordered a glass of peach tea to get the rights to plug my laptop in and start working for 3 hours nonstop before ordering a small plate of grilled cheese sandwich. To be honest, I got everything done for the soundcheck in 3 hours, which is just impressive considering that I work quite slow and even slower with jetlag and sleep deprivation.
As the clock hits 3, I quickly pack my stuff up and paid for the meal then beelined to S Prenzlauer Allee Bahnhof to get to S Schönhauser Allee Bahnhof and switch to the U Bahn to get to U Eberswalder Straße Bahnhof, where the SODA Club, my office for 2 days (buro, you could say), is located in the Kulturbrauerei establishment just 1 block away from the train station. Sound check was good, as the technician team was very professional and quick with their work. Thank you again, Jakob, for dealing with me and my demands. It was kind of surreal to hear my music on a d&b Audiotechnik sound system arranged in quadraphonic. After the soundcheck, I met Jason Snell and Senaida Ng, 2 very cool artists based in Berlin, working with technology that reimagines performativity of human actions (martial arts, calligraphy, brain-wave activities). I went for dinner with Risa right after at Adam's Pizza & Pasta, just next to Kulturbrauerei. At the meal I met Risa's acquaintances, P' Nuun and Holger, a Thai-German couple living in Berlin. I had a very pleasantful meal and a great time chatting with them, I still owe Holger a meal as he treated me to one there. As we were waiting for the Straßenbahn at the Prenzlauer Allee/Danziger Straße stop, the tram was delayed for too long, which Holger promptly joked that "You are experiencing Berlin public transportation at its best, if an accident happens on a tram line, the whole thing gets delayed for hours until someone steps in to fix stuff." before we walked back to the hotel. Fortunately enough, it was just a 15 minute walk, which means that I can't pass out from that. When I got back to my room though, I fell asleep shortly after taking a shower and unpacking what just happened in the last 15 hours.
On the next day, I woke up and went down to get breakfast with Risa at the hotel lobby. I stayed in the whole day to make final preparations for the presentation and performance. I left the hotel around 2:30pm to grab a quick bite at the Kulturbrauerei (Currywurst) before my presentation slot. That afternoon I met many cool people, a.k.a. the rest of the presenters, including Johannes Marx, Federico Visi, Sophie Skach, and Victor Shepardson. The performance and presentation of "spatialized algorithms" was well received, and it sparked a lot of conversations with the common theme of "things are happening in Thailand". It was surreal to have performed multichannel audiovisual livecoding in a club in Berlin, let alone do an academic talk in it. I was particularly impressed at how low frequencies in club sound systems respond differently when compared to the usual sound diffusion system environment I am accustomed to, especially when that club is transformed to a multichannel one. Hearing stuff vibrate because of the sound pressure back in Birmingham was something, but this is something entirely different. I remembered drinks glasses shaking at BLAQLYTE Rover on their Void Acoustics system in the Lab room, however, the bass hitting your chest and Huge thanks to everyone who came to that performance. After the performance, all of the speakers stayed behind to have a long chat, and it was not long until "oh you know this guy too?" came up and we chatted for so long. We later went to grab dinner and beer at the Franz building. I got back to the hotel at midnight and instantly passed out.
November 13th. I woke up to pack up stuff and get breakfast at the hotel, before moving to spend a night at the Thai temple (Wat Buddhavihara) in Pankow. Well, more like to find somewhere to sleep. You see, that day I bought a ticket 2 months in advance for Berghain's "Hunger to Create" event, curated by Dasha Rush. To be in Berlin for a visit and have a guaranteed entry to Berghain is something I have to capitalize on as a techno worshipper. I met up with Risa's boyfriend at the temple, and we took the X54 bus to the U Pankow Bahnhof to get to U Eberswalder Straße Bahnhof. Risa is presenting at the Kulturbrauerei for the research track, talking about how the BASc program in Creative Arts and Technology came to be. We later went to get dinner at Italian Food Berlin (yes, that's what it is literally called). Risa and her boyfriend went back to the Temple to get some rest, while I embarked on the pilgrimage to the Temple of Techno.
I know that this is not the most efficient way to travel, but this was how I got to Berghain. I took the U2 U Bahn from U Eberswalder Straße Bahnhof to S Schönhauser Allee Bahnhof then took an S42 S Bahn to S Treptower Park Bahnhof, connecting with the S9 S Bahn heading towards Spandau to finally get to Ostbahnhof. Ost = East. I knew I was at just the right place. After getting some more stuff and using the loo at the station, I beelined to Berghain through Hellweg parking lot. There it was, the establishment was shining in all its glory as artists finish their soundcheck. I queued up, with depressed art student look on. Just moments later, stickers were put on my phone camera to prevent me from taking photos, signalling that I was in. I put all my stuff away at the Garderobe (the lady was super nice) before making my way up to the main floor. Immediately, 4 stacks of Funktion-One graced my tearing eyes, just before I beelined to the bar to get a beer. That night I saw Dasha Rush, Lars Hemmerling, OORA, Nastia Reigel as Rosa Damask, and Solar X. My ears were blessed. No phone in sight. Just people living in the moment. I wish I could have captured how majestic it was inside there, but it's hopefully better to leave the insides of Berghain unknown to outside eyes. I went back to the temple by Uber at 2, just after Solar X's set ended. By the way, I got a Tschau from the bouncer!
Oh boy. That was intense. I can still see the fumes in Berghain blurring my vision, but it was probably just eye boogers. On the morning of the 14th, I woke up with some blood clots in my nose, but I'm guessing it was just the cold weather that my Thai lungs couldn't adapt to. I had breakfast, did some TEAMS stuff in preparation for TagTEAMS 2026 (president things), and got myself ready for the day. That morning I packed up to go After putting my stuff at Matthias' place, I went to the Synthesizer Museum Berlin in Kotti (Kottbusser Tor) and did some fun stuff. Here's the bandcamp link to the album (six pitched/unpitched variations on Klai Baan). The museum had a serious collection of synthesizers that really shaped the sound of music since the 80s, it was very impressive that I could play a CS80 and the Buchla Music Easel in real life and not just the VST version. Later that night, I met with Risa and her boyfriend for dinner at Ronin (ronin.berlin on Instagram) near the S+U Alexanderplatz Bahnhof. What an experience waiting for an U-Bahn at Kotti! I visited Ritter Butzke that night to chill for a bit before returning to crash at Matthias' place.
I did not do much on the 15th except work on a new piece, more TEAMS stuff, going to ://about blank and Tresor for a bit, before returning to Matthias' place to have a drink and chill a bit, talking about stuff in Thailand at KMITL.
It's the 16th. I woke up a bit late, but just in time to leave with Matthias at 11 to go queue up at Berghain again. Hah. I was rejected. 3 hours in the rain. But it was just a "Tut mir lied" because the bouncer just let 9 people in before me. Well, it doesn't matter now because it's 3 in the afternoon, and I had to meet Risa at Uber Arena to go to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) at Uber Platz. Turns out it was a bummer and they selled nothing at all except food, so we found another place which is a medieval christmas market just north of the S+U Warschauer Straße Bahnhof. We hanged there for a while before going to radialsystem to attend the Composer in the Loop, a Musikfonds event focused on Exploring AI in Music. It was a blast to listen to the pieces in an unconventional space like that. Alexander Schubert cancelled though, so that was another bummer of the day. Still, it was a very great way to close this trip.
On the last day, 17 November 2025, both I and Matthias woke up super late, which meant the morning was super rushed. He cookedWe hopped on his car, and he dropped me off at the Ostkreuz Bahnhof. I hurriedly hurried my butt to the FEX Boom. Qatar Airways check-in counter. Security. Souvenirs. Duty free. A beer. Two beers. Immigration. Gate. Boarding. And before I knew it, I was on the plane back to Bangkok. I used the rest of my travel time to reflect on this trip, farm a bit of Dragon Quest 11 on my switch, and take a rest. When I got back to Thailand I immediately went to call a cab to get back to my place. I was so tired from having to deal with turbulence and rude people on flights that I instantly passed out the moment I got back to my place. I later unpacked to find out that my suitcase reeks of cigarette smell from all the shirts I wore to the club. Thanks, Berlin.
That was fucking fun!
Special thanks to Goethe-Institut Thailand for sponsoring this trip. I will be giving a talk on this trip and the research that I presented in Berlin, and how I used my clubbing time to critically think about the seriousness of dance music and its association with sound reproduction technology soon in January of 2026.
Cordially