Press room

Summer 2025 at the Barbican 

Barbican presents Frequencies: the sounds that shape us​, a season taking you beyond music, exploring the power of sound and sonic experience to shape how we move, think, feel and to inspire change 

22 May – 31 August  

Launching Barbican’s Summer 2025 programme, Frequencies is a curated season about the power of sound featuring a packed programme of film screenings, concerts, events, workshops and talks. The season kicks off in May and explores how the power of sound moves more than just the body, and how it continues to inspire generations to rebel and create change.  

Highlights within Frequencies include Feel the Sound, a bold new multi-sensory exhibition experience that examines our relationship to sound; the world premiere of a new version of the award-winning Virtual Reality experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats; live music events and concerts, a film series, and Rebel Radio, a month-long programme of broadcasts, talks, workshops, club experience and screenings celebrating London’s Pirate Radio story and exploring radio as a space for community, creativity, and subversion.  

Frequencies programme 
 

• Feel the Sound, 22 May – 31 Aug
   
• In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, 22 May – 3 Aug
   
• Rebel Radio, throughout June:
• A month-long residency by Reprezent Radio, broadcasting live (FM & online) from the Barbican
• Weekly co-curated communal listening events Sunday Selecta
• Interactive Listening Posts in the Barbican foyer
• An exclusive ClubStage club night
• 2x day podcast masterclass Make Yourself Heard
• Talks programme Them Ones Presents, curated by Tobi Kyeremateng offering opportunities to hear from pioneers of pirate radio and contemporary thinkers on the legacy of the rebel community
• Gaps in the Dial: a 6-episode podcast about the history of Pirate and Community Radio
• A series of archive films exploring the rebellious world of pirate and community stations  
   
  Live music events and concerts:
   
• Actress x Suzanne Ciani present Concrète Waves, Fri 30 May
• Moin, Sat 31 May
• Rampage: Carnival Classics 2, Fri 20 Jun
• Ligeti Quartet: Nuc, Sat 21 Jun
• Jeff Mills + London Symphony Orchestra: Blue Potential, Sat 28 Jun 
   
  Cinema screenings:
   
• God Bless the Child.  A Performance Lecture by Christopher Harris, 27 May
• Good Vibrations: The Sound of Neurodivergence: Eden + introduction by curator Lillian Crawford, Wed 2 Jul
• Good Vibrations: The Sound of Neurodivergence: Shorts programme + ScreenTalk, Tue 8 Jul
• Movies with impressive soundtracks and films that embrace remarkable sound and soundscapes as part of Barbican’s wider Outdoor Cinema programme in August (on sale 7 May) 
   
  Talks & events (on sale April):
   
• Listening as Activism, a panel of artists and thinkers exploring sound and attention as a tool for social change
• A special event on sonic resistance and electronic music with musician Paul Purgas
• Dancefloor Solidarity, a talk and workshop organised with Nicholas Hadfield (Wavefield)   
   

Feel the Sound 

At the centre of Frequencies is Feel The Sound, Barbican’s new multi-sensory immersive exhibition where audiences use their bodies as listening devices to explore new ways to experience sound. Through a series of installations including new commissions and UK premieres, Feel the Sound takes place in spaces across the Barbican Centre, from the entrance on Silk Street, in The Curve, the public foyers, to outdoors on the Centre’s Lakeside Terrace. For the first time, the Centre’s underground Car Parks will also be part of the exhibition experience.  

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats 

The Frequencies programme brings the world premiere of a new version of the award-winning Virtual Reality experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats. This new iteration of Darren Emerson & East City Films’s nostalgic immersive adventure of finding an Acid House rave in 1989 pushes the technology even further to create a truly collective experience, where friends share the same virtual space and interact together on a euphoric journey into the heart of a music revolution. 

Rebel Radio 

Taking place in the Barbican throughout June, Rebel Radio explores the role of radio as a space for community, creativity, and resistance, highlighting the radical spirit of pirate broadcasting and its lasting impact. Rebel Radio features a rich and varied broadcast programme including a month-long residency by Reprezent Radio, who will be broadcasting themed shows live from the Barbican foyer; a 6-episode Podcast by DJ and radio presenter Tayo Popoola will explore how today’s creators are reinventing radio for the digital age; Sunday Selecta, celebrating the request radio era, with audiences invited to select and introduce songs, new and old, mixed by a live DJ on Barbican’s freestage every Sunday. Throughout the month, visitors can also enjoy Listening Posts in the Barbican foyers, to access recordings of the radio broadcasts and podcasts, as well as a place to record memories of their own time spent interacting with pirate radio. 

ClubStage, returning to Barbican’s underground foyers, will see major DJs reviving their original sets from back in the day, paired with contemporary DJs for one exclusive night in June. Alongside a Talks Series exploring the cultural and social seeds sown by pirate radio into the present day; radio professionals will run a 2-day Podcast Masterclass taking twelve participants through the process of making a short-form podcast or radio show, with sessions on editing and mixing audio, the art of the interview, and more. A Cinema series exploring the rebellious world of pirate and community stations completes the programme. Rebel Radio programme will go on sale in April.  
 

Concert Series 

Frequencies will feature a series of concerts bringing audiences on sonic adventures through immersive sound experiences, exploring dance, rave and Carnival culture. Concerts include Concrète Waves, a groundbreaking live music collaboration between two titans of avant-garde electronic music Actress x Suzanne Ciani; and Moin, who’ll be making their Barbican debut with music from their new album You Never End, as well as guest features and classics from their back catalogue. In June, Barbican hosts Rampage: Carnival Classics 2, a special night that sees the Rampage Sound System return, this time joined by the 30-piece Nu Civilisation Orchestra to reimagine Carnival classics and celebrate over three decades of iconic tracks that define the sounds of Notting Hill Carnival.  

Also in June, the Ligeti Quartet will perform tracks from their 2023 album Nuc, fusing acoustic and electronic music for string quartet by Mercury-nominated composer Anna Meredith alongside visual projections; and a much-awaited return by Jeff Mills with the Barbican’s Resident Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra for a very special evening marking the 20th anniversary of Blue Potential, Mill’s groundbreaking 2005 project and 2006 album combining electronic and symphonic music.  
 

Film Series 

In God Bless the Child. A Performance Lecture by Christopher Harris, the filmmaker presents a performance around his work in progress film, God Bless the Child. Delving into themes of memory, history, and the materiality of film itself, the film challenges traditional storytelling with striking soundscapes and layered sonic textures. Barbican Emerging Film Curator Alumna Lillian Crawford curates two Good Vibrations events, exploring neurodivergent responses to sound and music within a cinema space: The Sound of Neurodivergence (shorts programme) + ScreenTalk, and Mia Hansen-Løve’s electronic music drama Eden, with an introduction from the curator herself.  

Completing the film programme, Barbican’s iconic Outdoor Cinema this year brings a selection of movies with impressive soundtracks and films that embrace remarkable sound and soundscapes.  

Devyani Saltzman, Director of Arts & Participation at the Barbican, said: “We’re delighted to launch the Barbican’s Summer 2025 programme with a series exploring the power of sonic experience. From creating joyful and communal moments to being an inspiration and an instrument for activism, from music to white noise, to frequencies, rhythms and vibration, sonic experience is an intrinsic part of our lives, and this season explores and celebrates it across art forms and disciplines.” 

Frequencies is part of Barbican’s Summer 2025, a season packed with unmissable events in Theatre, Music, Cinema, Visual Arts and more, including Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha; Fiddler on the Roof and Good Night, Oscar in the Barbican Theatre; Classical concerts Khatia Buniatishvili & Friends and ​CBSO Orchestral Qawwali with Abi Sampa; as well as Herbie Hancock celebrating his 85th birthday; ​a film season and two special Classical Music concerts celebrating PRIDE in June; and Barbican’s Outdoor Cinema with its full season of films under the stars.