James Blake - Trying Times Tour

James Blake returns to Berlin with his Trying Times Tour: on 16 October 2026 at the Astra Kulturhaus. The singer, pianist and producer, who grew up in a London suburb, has explored the intersection of club culture and songwriting since his first EPs. After his 2011 debut album and 2013’s Overgrown, he went on to collaborate with Bon Iver and Kanye West — milestones that have shaped his work between analog warmth and digital ruptures.

Live, Blake pares his tools down to the essentials: a multilayered voice, circling piano chords, spare beats, synths and deep bass that set the pulse. The songs take on new shapes on stage, with loops, pauses and small shifts that cast familiar motifs in a different light. The setlist stretches from early tracks and the self-titled album to current material from the Trying Times phase — at times intimate and close, at others driving and jagged. The result is a concentrated, detail-rich set that clearly bears Blake’s signature without locking itself into a single mode.