Berlin is knorke: Immersive music experiences

Berlin, 26. May 2025: If you close your eyes and listen to music, you almost automatically enter a completely different world. Sounds, melodies and rhythms have a lovely habit of awakening memories, creating emotions and providing the soundtrack for experiences of all kinds. In combination with immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), “immersion” in musical sound experiences is now being taken to a new level. Concert halls, companies and clubs, among others, offer their visitors and customers exciting opportunities to make music even more tangible and to integrate sounds artistically and authentically into virtual and real environments. That is also the case in Berlin. So it’s worth listening in.

But what exactly are immersive technologies? Immersion first of all describes the immersion in a virtual world – so intense that reality is forgotten for a moment. This effect can be created with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). While VR applications allow users to enter virtual worlds using a head-mounted display, i.e. VR glasses, and also move around and interact in them, all they need to use AR is either a smartphone or AR glasses so that virtual elements can extend the visible reality around them. Both technologies differ in terms of their respective requirements for use and their level of interaction. In addition, immersive audio, also known as spatial audio, allows audio elements to be positioned in a three-dimensional arrangement so that the resulting sound completely surrounds listeners. The sound experience is thereby expanded to include the dimension of height and the natural sound impression that we humans have is artificially reproduced using technical means.

But how does it work in practice? What exactly happens when immersive technologies and music merge? Those interested will find resonant answers in Berlin. For example, in the digital world of the Konzerthaus Berlin. In order to reach as many people as possible, even when they are not sitting in the concert hall but on their sofa at home, the concert hall uses AR and VR elements such as smartphones, games, streaming and VR glasses. Innovative formats such as the streaming service “Spielzeit” on the livestreaming platform twitch.tv present classical music in a modern context. In a digital exhibition, visitors can also experience a virtual quartet by using their mobile phones or put together their own orchestra using VR glasses. If you want to experience sound up close, use the interactive experience “Environments”. The AR application can be used on tablets and smartphones. The goal is to track down creatures, make them sound by tapping them, combine them with each other and create your own, completely individual sound composition.

The “Helios” project by Berlin-based company Studio Deussen is just as exciting as it is creative. As part of an AR artwork, real-time weather data was transferred into musical, visual works of art. AR adds a new level of interactivity and immersion to the artwork. The impressive fusion of art, music and technology was presented at the Art Biennale in Lindau. Virtual Berlin clubs such as DISTRICT and the Rave Space Club. prove that music can be experienced together and connects people beyond physical boundaries. Using a normal Internet browser, club visitors can log into the club and cheer on DJs in a 3D club, interact with other guests and enjoy a virtual drink. However, immersive music experiences are not only impressive and fun, when they are combined with a higher-level benefit, they can also go beyond the passion for experiencing sound. Berlin-based company KLING KLANG KLONG is one of the companies demonstrating this by turning a visit to the German pavilion at the Expo 2025 world exhibition in Osaka, Japan, into an immersive experience with sound scapes.

In summary, it can be stated: Technologies such as VR and AR offer a lot of potential to make music accessible on a new level and to bring it into line with virtual realities, but also with very real experiences such as a visit to a trade fair. Good news for all music lovers – new formats, initiatives and offers are created almost every day that can be used beyond Berlin’s borders and are waiting to be discovered and, above all, heard in the form of virtual worlds.