Liam Cagney

Liam Cagney’s writing has been described by the Irish Times as ‘stunningly strange and powerful’. His fiction has been shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize, anthologised in The Other Irish Tradition (Dalkey Archive Press) and published in journals like Winter Papers, The Moth and gorse. His essays have been published in TOLKA, gorse, Numéro and PVA and broadcast on Irish national radio. Liam’s criticism regularly appears in places like the Guardian, the Spectator, the TLS, the Telegraph, DJ Mag and Gramophone.

Liam is the recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary and a City University of London doctoral studentship. As a musicologist, he is the author of two books: the monograph Gérard Grisey and Spectral Music: Composition in the Information Age (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and the edited volume The Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music (Oxford University Press, 2024). Liam teaches at BIMM University and lives in Berlin.

BERGHAIN NIGHTS: A Journey Through Techno and Berlin Club Culture was published by Reaktion Books in 2025.

One of the Books of the Year 2025 at The Irish Times. 

A pulsing, personal, and fabulous ride through the music and culture of an iconic nightclub scene.

Berghain Nights is a personal account of Berlin’s "legendary" club scene and the music, people and places which make it unique. It will also include interviews with leading techno DJs and artists. From kinky parties in the labyrinthine KitKat Club to the gloom of Tresor’s basement, from the verdant garden of Buttons to the psychedelic lab of Cocktail d’Amore, Berghain Nights not only captures the excitement of Berlin club culture; it asks how techno in a club context allows people to strip away layers of inherited hang-ups to access a realer self.

Praise:

'Let Liam Cagney take you on an intense and revelatory journey from Donegal to Berghain. It's a trip that takes in the history of techno, the thrill of nightlife and the freedom of the self. Candid and captivating, Berghain Nights is a deeply exciting book which made me think in new ways about clubbing as an experience'. - Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors

'An immersive, fascinating whirl through a famous club, but also culture, psychogeography and the things that bind us together. Utterly gripping, often moving and a nostalgic re:up for anyone who has given up on clubbing or musi'c. - Sinéad Gleeson, author of Hagstone