XebeK

Follow the X on the map and leave with something you keep. That was the promise XebeK made when it started as an electronic music series in Berlin. The name comes from the sailing vessel, and the format was built around discovery rather than familiar headliners or a single genre.

Rafael Rojas founded the series and leads it creatively. He developed the concept and the format, built the visual identity, curates the line-ups, coordinates artists and venues, designs the promotional material, produces the events and performs as Tasfet. He also founded Intaqta, the Berlin electronic music label the series grew out of.

Breaks, garage, electro, house, techno, bass music and Shibuya-kei all have a place in the bookings. What connects the artists is energy and perspective rather than genre, which lets every edition change direction without losing the identity of the series.

Intaqta artists form the core of the programme, joined by guests from whichever city hosts the edition. That gives the label’s roster a stage it can count on and opens it to artists and audiences outside its own network. The series works as a platform for the label rather than a showcase of it.

Every event is a new destination. Dates and venues turn into points on a map, and a tone of voice borrowed from pirate radio carries a narrative from one edition into the next. XebeK runs as a queer, free and inclusive space with an awareness concept behind it and clear expectations around the safety of its audience.

Paloma Bar, Lauschangriff, Fitzroy and Crack Bellmer in Berlin. Abroad, editions have run at Planet Wax, Four Quarters and AAJA in London and at Onaciu in Santiago de Chile.

A Berlin club series has turned into a format that travels, with 18 editions across three cities on two continents since 2023, and it is still running. It gives the Intaqta roster a recurring stage, puts performers from separate scenes on the same line-up and has built an audience that runs on curiosity rather than recognition.