The Notwist ・ Pop-Kultur Festival 2026

August 24–30, 2026 | silent green Kulturquartier, Festsaal Kreuzberg, Kulturbrauerei, Pierre Boulez Saal, and more 

Live concerts, experimental music formats, talks, and more. You can look forward to international and local artists, world premieres, and music in all its forms—from large stages to intimate club shows.

Over the years, The Notwist’s musical landscape has continually evolved: from the hardcore punk of their early days as a trio in the late 1980s in Weilheim, Upper Bavaria, through guitar-driven music, to the open soundscape blending electronica, dub, jazz, and pop—which the band, now based in Munich and having grown into a large collective, represents today. One thing, above all, has remained constant on this sonic journey: Markus Acher’s voice. Soft, fragile, and with a deliberately unpolished timbre, his voice carries lyrics that oscillate between restraint and latent melancholy without ever veering into the melodramatic. With “News from Planet Zombie,” The Notwist continue this evolution this year, albeit under slightly different circumstances. The album was recorded live at Munich’s Import Export, a nonprofit space for art and music—something The Notwist hadn’t done since their early days. It was an experiment whose rapid success surprised even the band itself. Thematically, the tracks revolve around the paradoxes of a present that is increasingly becoming alien to itself. The references to zombie and horror film aesthetics serve as an explicit commentary on the state of the world, which is veering into B-movie-style grotesqueness. At the same time, the album emphasizes the possibilities of connection—not as a utopia, but as a quiet assertion. It is precisely in this restraint that “News from Planet Zombie” unfolds a form of subtle radicalism that rejects the sensationalism of the zeitgeist and finds its essence in calmness.