TSA Over Berlin - Transition, Experimentation, Movement, and Cultural Transmission as an Act of Resistance

The music platform Tsa was founded in 2019 to support Georgian music. Since then, it has evolved into a digital archive and community, dedicated to documenting and promoting Georgia’s musical heritage.

Beyond preserving and promoting what already exists, Tsa aspires to create a space for experimentation and collaboration. This exact vision lies at the heart of its new project: TSA: in transmission, a traveling series through which the Georgian sky will be projected across cities in Europe.

TSA: in transmission is envisioned as a series of live, physical music experiments, centered on collaborations between Georgian artists working with both electronic and acoustic sound. Originally scheduled to launch in 2024, the project was delayed due to political unrest and ongoing repressions in Georgia. Yet in crisis, new meaning emerges: Georgian music now takes flight as a form of resistance, crossing borders to speak about rebellion and defiance.

The first stop is Berlin - silent green Kulturquartier, a former crematorium in the Wedding district, now a cultural center known to fans of experimental music.

On August 7, TSA: in transmission will arrive there and the evening will feature three unique collaborations:

Mess_Montage x Reso Kiknadze

Anushka Chkheidze x Daniel Adikashvili

Natalie Beridze x Tamriko Kordzaia

Mess_Montage is the alias of Tornike Margvelashvili, a Georgian sound artist, producer and graduate of the Sound Studies program at Berlin’s University of the Arts (UDK). His performances incorporate modular synthesizers, field recordings and Georgian polyphony, all of which explore themes of post-Soviet identity, cultural memory and transitional states.

Reso Kiknadze is a composer, saxophonist and an educator. A composition and Georgian traditional music graduate of the Tbilisi State Conservatory, in 1991 he pursued his studies in Germany at the Lübeck University of Music under Friedhelm Döhl (composition) and Dirk Reith (electroacoustic music). He has collaborated with numerous free improvisation ensembles and festivals and served as a rector of the Tbilisi Conservatory (2011–2019). Currently, he is a professor and a head of the Music Center at Ilia State University. Since 2011, he has been teaching at Tbilisi State Conservatory, giving lectures and masterclasses on electroacoustic music, composition, improvisation and jazz.

Anushka Chkheidze is one of the most distinctive young composers in Georgia. Her musical journey began in childhood with choral singing and choral textures continue to shape her work even today. She debuted in 2019 with tracks on the compilation Sleepers, Poets, Scientists, curated by Natalie Beridze. Her 2020 debut album Halfie was followed by Move 20–21 (2021), created during the pandemic and exploring themes of isolation and immobility.

In 2025, her new piece Intricate Pipes, written for MIDI organ, will premiere at the Monheim Triennale. She is currently working on a joint project with Berlin-based mentor Robert Lippok.

Daniel Adikashvili is a drummer, composer and a multi-genre musician. Active since 2010, he’s been a key figure in Georgia’s rock and pop scenes, performing at Tbilisi Open Air and other festivals with various acts, including the pop/fusion band Green Room. He is a co-founder and resident of Tbilisi’s vibrant jazz club 1984. Daniel’s musical style is influenced by heavy metal, jazz/fusion, electronic/ambient and progressive genre influences. He is currently involved in several projects, including an ongoing collaboration with Anushka Chkheidze.

Natalie Beridze (aka TBA) is a composer, producer and a pioneer of Georgian electronic music. Her work has been released on renowned labels such as Max Ernst, Monika Enterprise, and Room40, and she has collaborated with artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Thomas Brinkmann.

In addition to her electronic music work, she is actively involved in acoustic composition and teaches music production at Creative Education Studio (CES).

Tamriko Kordzaia is a pianist known for her acclaimed performances of Mozart and Haydn, though her artistic focus shifted to contemporary music after relocating to Switzerland. She has won numerous national and international awards, including first prize at the Sakai International Mozart Competition in Japan. A lecturer at Zurich University of the Arts, she is deeply committed to promoting contemporary music in Georgia. Since 2005, she has organized the biennial Close Encounters festival, held in both Georgia and Switzerland. Tamriko frequently collaborates with experimental, jazz and electronic musicians.

Alongside the live performances, Tsa is also launching TSA Records - a new label that will release the project’s collaborative works on vinyl.

Tickets for the August 7th event are now available on Resident Advisor and will also be sold at the door.