When it comes to new music, Berlin may be the global capital of innovation, or at least the city most willing to give the stuff a chance, and to generously fund its programming and promotion. “This isn’t just the mentality of a high-spending social democratic nation that invests in high culture, though it’s partly that. It is also a shrewd realisation that, lacking any industrial base, culture is Berlin’s only real calling card. This is why, despite the city’s dire financial plight, spending on the arts hasn’t suffered as much as everybody feared.”