Club Transmediale has always been a rare breed among European music festivals: taking place at the same time as its sister festival Transmediale (dedicated to multi-disciplinary discourse and media art), CTM's busy schedule alternates between workshops, lectures, films and presentations during the day and an exquisitely programmed music line-up at night.

In this, CTM's 10th year, the festival curators have drawn together an unparalleled schedule of musical acts and performances. Over a 10-day programme from January 22-31 well over a hundred international DJs, bands and live acts will celebrate the festival's anniversary edition.

Each of the 10 night follows a different stylistic theme, from 'Spektral Disco' with Elitechnique and Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, over 'Frictions' with Mika Vainio and Radian's Stefan Nemeth to the 'Audictive' night with Guillaume & the Coutu-Dumonts and Anja Schneider.

There couldn't be many more fitting places in Berlin to meet up with Stefan Betke, better known as Pole, than the pleasant waterside surroundings of Kreuzberg's "Club der Visionäre". Built on wooden boards and pontoons on the river Spree, it's a location that radiates an air of relaxed tranquility, while minimalistic techno grooves, selected by Daniel Bell and Pole's partner and spouse Barbara Preisinger, remind you that you are still deep inside the beating heart of the German techno culture that is Berlin.

The interview's backdrop seems a valid metaphor for Pole's music, which oscillates between warm, analogue layers of bass-heavy dub and live instrumentation on one hand and poignant cutting-edge sound design on the other. "Nature is indeed a major source of inspiration for me", admits Pole, who is incidentally just about to embark on a field recording trip to the countryside. "Having a studio in the mountains would be nice, preferably somewhere in the Alps", he adds, "but for now we just hit the countryside by car whenever we can."