To begin 2026, we’re gathering the DAS HAUS crowd for the world premiere of Journey to Softness, a quiet revolution of music and movement. We come together to resist the grind, the noise, the pressure and choose something looser, more alive, and unapologetically honest. A breath, a reckoning and a new beginning.
Journey to Softness traces a musical arc from tension to release, from the staircase we’re trained to climb in today’s society to the freedom we rarely allow ourselves. Pianist and musical queer voice Kunal Lahiry bends the classical canon until it breathes differently: Ligeti crashing into Beethoven, Ravel drifting into Radiohead, sound folding into protest, and softness revealing itself as a form of power. Congolese-rooted performance artist YAV joins him onstage, carving movement through the score with ritual, club energy, and raw intimacy; a physical counterpulse that deepens the night’s emotional terrain.
For anyone who’s ever felt the weight of expectation … and wondered what it might mean to unlearn it. This is classical music stretched, queered and cracked open.
Indian-American and Berlin-based, Kunal Lahiry moves through the classical world with a mix of integrity and sensual curiosity that turns every program into a statement. A former BBC New Generation Artist, he has performed everywhere from Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Elbphilharmonie to spaces in the queer underground, blending avant-garde imagination with emotional precision. His concerts are immersive encounters where identity, protest, and intimacy meet head-on; making Journey to Softness both a personal story and a musical uprising.
Brussels-based artist YAV works across contemporary dance, music, and fashion, with appearances in films, global campaigns, and international performance festivals. His movement language blends the ritualistic with the sensual, adding a visceral physicality that turns sound into something almost touchable. In this premiere, he becomes the human mirror inside the music — vulnerable, electric, and unafraid.
Start the year with us. Let go of the climb, the noise, the shoulds. Come soften with us.
This is your invitation to begin again — with music that opens new doors.
Schedule:
19:30: doors, drinks & food
20:30: start concert
21:45: end concert & drinks