Ukrainian Field Notes XXVII

For the current episode YurcSa discusses how the war has influenced his sound, Noirnor sends us her interview from Berlin, JmDasha founds herself having to move to Ivano-Frankivsk from Mariupol, Dima K. gets overwhelmed by Koloah’s “Breath”, Kurl go deep into their anticolonial analysis and Dariia Kornieieva (alias Zahvat) reflects on her podcasting experience. Finally, Mirek Trofymuk compares the Ukrainian to the Polish music scene.

Coinciding with the current episode, we also celebrate the release of the Ukrainian Field Notes book and fundraising compilation out on система | system comprising all 170 interviews that appeared on ACL over the course of the first year of the full-scale invasion. 567 pages, also available as an ebook [both in Pdf and ePub versions], and over 8 hours of music with proceeds going to Musicians Defend Ukraine.

A number of tracks are introduced by the artists themselves in the current episode of our podcast on Resonance FM.

Tracklist:

Gamardah Fungus – “Vega”
Raveshark – “Restricted Areas”
Waveskania – “Essential”
Difference Machine – “Повідь”
Natalia Tsupryk – “beyond the cemetery wall”
YLOI – “UAV Hunting”
Andrii Kunin – “threshold”

New releases include a remix album by John Object a fundraising metal compilation, and new EPs from Hanna Svirska, Ujif_notfound, and Amphibian Man. In the Viewing Room there’s a documentary with Igor Yalivec about the making of his latest album. But first here’s our monthly Spotify playlist.

 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023 – ODESA REGION

YurcSa

My name is Yuri Lupashko, and I’m a musician under the name YurcSa. My musical journey began in childhood when I first started to feel the impact of music on my feelings and emotions. As I understood that music is a language to express even the deepest emotions, I began experimenting with sounds and creating my own music at the age of 16. I’m now 22 years old, and I take pride in not leaving music.

Has the full-scale invasion changed your setup and the way you think about music and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

The full-scale invasion has influenced my perception of the world and music. There were immediate changes in the sonic landscape to reflect the new reality. My music became more expressive and emotionally charged, with its purpose being not only to entertain but also to reflect complex emotions, fears, and madness of what’s happening.

You released a number of tracks in 2023 including the album Ruthless Industrial Sound. Did the full-scale invasion influence their sound in any way?

My album was influenced by the situation in Ukraine. It’s an attempt to convey the emotions and thoughts that arose during the full-scale invasion. It expresses the desire for an improved situation and conveys hope for a better future.

Where are you now and have you been displaced by war at any point?

My family is located in the Odesa region, Ukraine. I have been on conscripted service since 2020, and I’m not being released because the authorities are ignoring my service for 1.5 years.

Are there any Ukrainian releases from the past year and a half that you feel can help make sense of current events?

Works by artists such as TUCHA, STRUKTURA SCHASTYA, BADWOR7H reflect important aspects of our reality and can help better understand the current events.

Following from the previous questions, are there any specific tracks, albums, artists, or genres that evoke particular moments or events in the development of the full-scale invasion for you and that you now find difficult to listen to?

Regarding tracks or genres, I can’t say there are specific compositions that are hard to listen to. It’s essential for music to reflect the broad spectrum of emotions and thoughts related to current events.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering?

Sounds of war in music can be powerful and expressive. They help to convey emotions and emphasize the significance of events.

Has the role of music in Ukraine shifted from one of entertainment to encompass the expression of identity, communication, and emotional and physical survival?

Music has always been a means of expression and communication. With the onset of the full-scale invasion, its role became even more critical. It helps us express our thoughts and emotions and contributes to psychological survival.

Has the sonic environment you live in changed at all since the full-scale invasion?



 

OCTOBER 7, 2023 – BERLIN

Noirnor

I’m Anastasiia aka dj Noirnor. I was born in Kyiv but have both Ukrainian and African roots. From early childhood I knew that I belonged to the music world. I was preparing concerts for my family, learning how to play acoustic guitar, dreaming of obtaining music education and later taking vocal lessons. I dreamed of becoming a singer, however, my family wasn’t excited with this idea and as a result, I ended up with a masters degree in International economics.

Afterwards I’ve been working in online advertising for about 7 years till I understood that I couldn’t continue like this. I took a break and realized that I needed to find my true calling. I’ve been attending local Kyiv parties and was so inspired by our local electronic music scene that one day I decided to try deejaying. Once I tried, I realized that it was a place where I feel comfortable and confident. FInally I felt a balance in my life. But back then I couldn’t even imagine that in 2.5 years I would be able to play at such top venues as Tresor, Watergate, Kater Blau, Renate and others. I think my example could encourage other DJs who just started their path to believe in themselves, work hard and continue doing what they love, no matter what.

Has the full-scale invasion changed the way you think about music, and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

Definitely yes. My life has been divided into “Before” and “After” forever.

I guess my sound has become more deep, I almost don’t play funky music as I used to play before in Kyiv. I also started experimenting much more, but I think it’s more Berlin influenced.

You played at the Closer Connections party, at HVLV three days before the full-scale invasion. Was there a sense at the time that this was going to happen?

Actually that party took place on 21st January, not February. Anyway, it was 1 month before full-scale war started and actually I can’t say I was very anxious. One week after this party I also went on vacation without any thought of danger. There were some gossips but I never believed that it could be real till the morning of 24th February when Russia actually invaded my homeland.

You are currently based in Berlin, what has your experience of displacement and relocation been like and how integrated is the Ukrainian community there?

I have lived in Kyiv since I was born and never lived somewhere else for more than 1 month. Moving to Berlin is my first emigrant experience. First half a year I moved to Berlin was probably the hardest time…new country, language barrier, totally different mentality and daily worries about your family in Kyiv. Very complicated mixture. However, how can I complain when there are ukrainians on the frontline or in war zones?

As for the Ukrainian community in Berlin, I think they are quite easy to integrate. Almost everyone I know started learning German, including me. Some of them work, some of them are studying.

This set I recorded in the most difficult time after moving to Berlin. It perfectly describes my feelings back then.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering? Also, how do you feel about bayraktar-core music?

I think it depends on the context and quality of the music. I also played tracks with sounds of air raids and explosions at HÖR to remind the world about the war in my country. The air raid and explosions were recorded by my friend Nick Aver while he was under heavy shelling in Kharkiv and when he combined these sounds with violin and electronic music, it became a piece of art.

However, there are really few proper examples of implementing such sounds into music. I don’t really like using war to promote yourself as a musician.

You’ve done guest mixes for Gasoline Radio, amongst others. How do you see the Ukrainian electronic music scene develop under present circumstances?

Every crucial historical event usually causes a new round of electronic music scene development. Even now I can see that our local scene has completely changed and there are a lot of new names which are really good. Besides, new record shops are opening, new promo groups are throwing their parties and I am very happy to see our people so unbreakable and creative, no matter what.

What would you say the West still gets wrong about Ukraine?

I still can hear the narrative “not all russians are guilty”, or this is “NATO-russia war”. In this case I recommend learning more about the history of Ukrainian-russian relationships. Usually after this people change their mind. I think Ukrainian refugees need to be patient and not afraid to explain the real situation to western europeans.

Do you experience burnout and what do you do to relax and unwind?

I had burnout when I was working at the office. I think music, yoga and traveling help me a lot in such cases.

Which book / film / album / song / traditional dish / podcast / blog / artwork / building / meme best captures Ukraine for you?

Who should I interview next and what should I ask them?

Karine, Roma K, Pan4ez, Sony Synth, Roma Khropko.

 

 

OCTOBER 7, 2023 – IVANO-FRANKIVSK

JmDasha

I’m JmDasha, Ukrainian DJ, Resident of Shum Rave, Freeture Music, and Tu Mariupol. Born in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region. I have been performing for 4 years.

I started my career as a deejay artist in Kharkiv at the community of Kultura Zvuku. After this I joined Shum Rave and am still very closely connected with them. With Shum Rave I improved my skills of performing and playing music. We grew up together as professional performers and as a platform for artists. Since the time of our parties at abandoned places, we have already made a collaboration with Boiler Room.

When I moved to Mariupol in 2020, I joined the initiative Platform Tu and started to teach deejaying courses. Also in 2023 I became a resident Freeture Music.

Has the full-scale invasion changed your setup and the way you think about music and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

In my situation, when our team (me and community platform Tu) went to Berlin in May 2022 where we showed a short film about Mariupol, made a short presentation and I played my dj-set. On that event I was crying during all of my set, because I understood that my playlist and tracks in it, were from the parties we had back home in the Donetsk region, I played this music there before the invasion and it brought me feelings of joy and happiness, but at that time of the performance (which was after the invasion) all this caused me awful pain, and I didn’t understand: how to live on and how listen to music in general.

My attitude to the music: it heals, but it takes time for all people.
PS now I can listen to this music without any tears.

You are from Donbas and have experienced war with Russia since 2014. You also lived in Mariupol when the full-scale invasion happened and made a perilous way out onto Ukrainian territory. What would you say the West still gets wrong about Ukraine?

I’m from the Donetsk region and lots has happened during these years, but from that time I don’t forget this feeling of fear and not understanding why we are going through these terrible things.

I very much appreciate the support of the West and other European countries, but the war here feels much harder than what people see on their phone or computer screens.

Where are you now and how difficult has the process of relocation been for you?

Now I’m living in Ivano-Frankivsk. First of all, I didn’t want to do this forced relocation and it was very difficult for me, so I’m still waiting for the moment when I can return home.

What can you tell us about Shum.rave and how do you see the Shum.rave community evolving under present circumstances?

In these circumstances Shum Rave began to act differently. We held: The Festival of relocation business “Check-in” in Dnipro,organized such festivals: NGO youth movement “Shift” NGO art association “Modul” NGO “Shum Rave” the purpose of which was: to destroy the stereotype about immigrants.

Also Shum Rave held a two-day conference that was named Brave Culture Meet Up. The main goal was meeting with representatives of the cultural sector after the full-scale invasion and discussing how to work for developing culture after the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Has the role of music in Ukraine shifted from one of entertainment to encompass the expression of identity, communication, and emotional and physical survival? And has playing live acquired a new dimension for you since February 24, 2022?

I think so. The music has changed a lot from that time. As you said, it has exactly changed from entertainment to encompassing expression, communication and emotion and of course physical survival. It’s our way of expression and self-identification!
Thanks to modern Ukrainian music nowadays people know more and more about Ukraine and about us at all.
In short: music is one of the tools of influence.

Are there any specific tracks, albums, artists, or genres that evoke particular moments or events in the development of the full-scale invasion for you and that you now find difficult to listen to?

As for me, I didn’t listen to the music from the beginning of the full-scale invasion ‘cause I didn’t have the right mood and energy to do this. Only a few weeks after the full-scale invasion I began to listen to the music normally.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering? Also, how do you feel about bayraktar-core music?

I feel good about the inclusion of “war-sounds” in releases , because music with these sounds helps to reflect our pain, mood and feelings. This is the way to cope with the pressure that we are feeling now.

About «bayraktar» music, I think that it has a place to exist, but Ukrainians and listeners from other countries should pay more attention not to this music, but to really worthy releases of Ukrainian electronic artists.

Which book / film / album / song / traditional dish / podcast / blog / artwork / building / meme best captures Ukraine for you?

I really love our nature in any part of the country, at home I like our Donbas Terikons and chalk rocks of Bilokuzminivski, of course the blue lakes which are located in Lyman (Donetsk region), and from time to time I visit the Carpathians and I like to look at the mountains here and feel this incredible energy.

For me, the film Спадок perfectly conveys what our country looks like.

Who should I interview next?

Yung Berkut (Igor Berkovskyi), Maks Yos, Alex Tune, MF SKINNA, CHWBK.

 

 

OCTOBER 11, 2023 – KYIV

Dima K

Hi! My name is Dmytro Korenko, or some may know me as Dima K.

I started my musical journey when I was 16 years old, it’s all started with the learning of classic guitar, shortly after I became a part of a little cover/band where I became familiar with the structure of music and components that create a memorable and energetic track. However, one night changed it all, it was April 13th, 2018, and some friends suggested that I check out the CXEMA party, and since it was my birthday and I had no plans I decided to give it a try.

I still remember the first time I entered a dancefloor it’s as clear as it was yesterday, thousands of people, the feeling of freedom that surrounds it, and music I’ve never heard before. I didn’t know anything about electronic music at that point, I ran towards a stage and saw that it was not a band, but just one guy with a bunch of synths and a very focused face. This guy was Voin Oruwu, and he was playing amazing Cinematic ambient scapes combined with highly energetic dance rhythms. At that moment I realized immediately that it was the music I wanted to make the music. As soon as I came back from this party I started learning how to write electronic music, and I have learned this every day since.

Has the full-scale invasion changed your setup and the way you think about music and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

Since the day full-scale invasion started it changed my setup and music flow completely.

Before the invasion I was a general ableton person, Laptop and headphones were all I needed to make a track. However, this setup was lacking in the speed of production and most of my inspiration went through the window in the process of setting everything up before making a track, and since full-scale invasion made me think and act fast because I could die at any moment, I bought myself a synth and a groovebox, linked everything together and set up so it is always ready to record at any given moment.

As for impact on a Music Playlist, war hasn’t impacted it much, since I was always listening to mostly Ukrainian music long before the war.

Has performing live changed for you since the full-scale invasion?

The process itself hasn’t changed at all. For live performances, I prefer DJing due to how easy it is to set up everything before the show. However, at this time I am planning a non-daw Live set, I feel like I can express myself much better with synth and drums in front of me.

Are there any Ukrainian releases from the past year and a half that you feel can help make sense of current events and are there any specific ones that might be enlightening for an international audience?

RUSIIICK, K​ø​rper — Втома – Polygon Records

As a Ukrainian, I feel a deep connection to this track, although it’s quite energetic, it has a subtle sad touch to it. Втома translates directly as “fatigue”, that’s the feeling all of us have felt for the last year and a half. However, this track is a manifestation that even when we feel fatigued we have no right to stop, to stop helping our friends and family, helping our army, helping the ones that were directly impacted by war.

RUSIIICK, BADWOR7H, ТУЧА – Russia is a terrorist state
This track needs no explanation in my opinion

Following from the previous questions, are there any specific tracks, albums, artists, or genres that evoke particular moments or events in the development of the full-scale invasion for you and that you and that you now find difficult to listen to?

Koloah – Breath. For me, this track is strongly connected to the start of the invasion, and the first couple of days of it, which were the scariest period in my life. Now when I’m listening to it I’m completely overwhelmed with emotions that are hard for me to grasp.

Is there any music that has been helpful to you in articulating feelings of loss and separation?

I find live jamming and making music myself helpful with this matter, I use music as a way to explain my feelings to myself. It’s always helpful to look at yourself from a different point of view.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering?

Honestly, I do not like war sounds being implemented uncreatively, for me it’s the first sign of a shitty track that was made without a thought-out Idea.

The usage of Air Raid Sirens triggers the most.

Has the sonic environment you live in changed at all since the full-scale invasion?

Yes, I moved to a different district of my city, so in general, the soundscape changed to a calmer one. Only occasional Sirens and blasts of Air defense systems destroy this calm.

Do you experience burnout and how do you deal with it?

I do experience burnout from time to time, due to a large amount of work both music-related and my main work, recently it’s become difficult to properly balance these two aspects of my life.

To deal with burnout I usually take a little vacation to go to the forest or mountains to find inspiration and sort all the thoughts in my head. I find it helps the best.

What would you say the West still gets wrong about Ukraine?

It saddens me that part of the Western people try to justify russian barbaric invasion. It’s really strange to me that some people find ways to justify the killing of innocent people as if we are the ones who started this war on our behalf.

Which book / film / album / song / traditional dish / podcast / blog / artwork / building / meme best captures Ukraine for you?

Ті́ні забу́тих пре́дків (eng: “shadows of the forgotten ancestors”) film and story. That’s a film from 1965, and in my opinion, it’s the best at showing Ukrainian culture and mentality.

Who should I interview next and what should I ask them?

I would advise you to interview Vitalik Symonenko.

As for questions, it will be interesting to know more about the city where he was born, about this musical journey, and about his point of view on this war. He is a very strong and interesting person in regard to his story, music, and political views.

 

 

OCTOBER 11, 2023 – SOMEWHERE IN UKRAINE

Kurl

Olena: Hey! I’m Olena, a music listener with a close to none background in music itself. In Kurl, I started to sing and then became more involved with the songwriting, but I think my role in our music-making is that of a fascinated amateur.

Arsenii: I’m Arsenii, and my first ‘serious’ involvement with music was a punk rock band Cat Inside where I played guitar and wrote songs back when I was a teenager. Our stuff is still available, although from today’s perspective I consider most of it to be juvenilia. Back in our punk days, we also released some good stuff from other local bands via our teeny tiny CD label (yes, back when CDs were a thing!).

In 2018, we came up with an idea of Kurl with Olena and Langusta, which was natural since all three of us were very close. Langusta was my former bandmate and had a beat making setup ready to be exploited, and Olena was there with her impeccable taste and great singing voice.

With the beginning of full-scale invasion of moskali to Ukraine, I joined our defense forces and am still in active service. I was lucky to find some time to work on “Хмари” although all credit for releasing this track goes to Olena and Langusta. I’ve also released one new track under my indie folk moniker Oodkind in early 2023.

Has the full-scale invasion changed your setup and the way you think about music and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

A.: Not really. Listening to music is a huge source of emotional release and comfort, and after the initial shock when nobody was able to think about anything except for the most urgent news, I returned to my usual listening habits, just as most people probably did. As for playing music, I never had a setup and mostly was just writing chord progressions and lyrics, strumming on an acoustic guitar; and now, without having conditions to play guitar, I’m probably losing all the limited instrumental skills that I had in the first place. But it’s not really important now. If I’m lucky, I’ll re-learn it later.

O.: I can’t say that it changed a lot: I haven’t been listening to Russian music for many years now, and have been systematically digging for the hidden gems of Ukrainian underground before the full-scale invasion. It took me several months to get back to listening to any music at all, but my music taste or listening habits weren’t really affected.

You recently released a new track “Хмари” on Liky Pid Nohamy. Your previous EP Fickle was released back in 2021 with a new version with added bonus tracks that came out just before the full-scale invasion. Could you describe your current production process, how your sound has changed and how you came to choose the poem by Yevhen Pluzhnyk, one of the poets of the Ukrainian Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, as lyrics?

O.: Apart from “Хмари”, our sound didn’t really change. Other songs that we’re working on now will probably sound similar to our previous EP. “Хмари” is rather an exception for our production process: the demo was first recorded with the rhythm guitar, like with a lot of our previous material, but instead of getting rid of it and replace it with the beat, we decided to keep it and base the whole arrangement on it.

We chose the poem before the full-scale invasion but I guess it feels a bit different now when the tragedies of previous Ukrainian history feel closer to our day-to-day experiences. The poem itself is not tragic but the feeling of loneliness and numbness it emanates is perhaps familiar to all Ukrainians at this point.

A.: From what I can recall, Pluzhnyk’s poem was an “accident” in a sense that we took a book off the shelf and just started toying around with it. Me and Olena already did one song based on a famous poet’s lyrics, “The Other” by Sylvia Plath, although it isn’t available anywhere online; it had a limited CD release back in 2016, and we also performed it live several times as part of a Kurl live set. Back then, the process of choosing the material to work with was the same, although it would be far-fetched to call both accidental since what books you have on your shelf is no accident.

“Хмари” was written a little before the full-scale invasion, and I recorded rhythm guitar for Olena to rehearse it over maybe two or three months into it, having a day off service in Lviv. After that, Olena and Langusta took care of the rest. I like that the demo guitar track has made it into the final cut, and that “Хмари” still sound droney, rough and apathetic, something close to how you sometimes feel amidst all that.

Where are you now and have you been displaced by war at any point?

O.: Now I’m back in Ukraine but I’ve been displaced several times: first moving from Kyiv to Lviv on the 10th day of the full-scale war and then having the artist residency in Sweden where I’ve been working on my fanzine about Ukrainian independent music of today called ‘bubblegum zine.’

A.: Of course I was. I am a war hobo, living where I’m told to.

Are there any Ukrainian releases from the past year and a half that you feel can help make sense of current events?

A.: Any Ukrainian releases from the past year and a half will do; war casts a big enough shadow over all of us, even those who’d prefer not to discuss it through music explicitly, or hide it even. Ultimately, all Ukrainian music now is war music. Just go to Olena’s SoundCloud page and explore her 2022 and 2023 Best Ukrainian Tracks playlists.

O.: Since Arsenii is ardently promoting what I’m doing, I’ll add the link to the write-ups I did for my last year’s selection of releases.

This year there’s been a bunch of releases that are critical for understanding this war and how it affects us and our culture, but I’ll come up with some thorough thoughts in the next printed issue of my zine, so get ready!

Following from the previous questions, are there any specific tracks, albums, artists, or genres that evoke particular moments or events in the development of the full-scale invasion for you and that you now find difficult to listen to?

A.: If difficult to listen to means painful, then probably no. There is another aspect though: songs which reflected a certain development in our collective consciousness, but now, as we moved on further, simply don’t seem relevant anymore. This can be said for two hilarious tracks by a rapper jockii druce, “Шо ви браття” and “Будем снідать.” Those are still fun and spot-on, but only in relation to what war felt like in 2022; now those lyrics sound like museum relics.

O.: On my way from Kyiv to Lviv on the day 10 (I still mark the days of the full-scale war in my diary) I listened to Quatuor pour la fin du temps by Olivier Messiaen. I wouldn’t want to relisten to this piece for a long time.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering? Also, how do you feel about bayraktar-core music?

A.: I feel like bayraktarcore music played its part, and how the genre is slowly fading away. Maybe I just don’t listen to enough radio. In the first months after the full-scale invasion, you couldn’t spend a day, literally, without hearing “Ой у лузі червона калина” playing on someone’s telephone, or radio, or smoothing iron, for that matter. I regret I wasn’t methodically noting all the times and situations I’ve heard it in; this would make for a good conceptual diary of our 2022 sonic environment. Of course, this track or “Доброго вечора, ми з України“, although both are pure kitsch, still aren’t as blatantly horrible like most of other AI-generated bayraktar songs are. But, I guess, back then people haven’t had any resources to listen to music for fun, and they needed to hear something, so that space was filled with Червона калина, “Українська лють” and such. Now everything is different, and new terrible “patriotic” shlock music is being made primarily to fill the void after russian shlock pop either was banned on radio stations or got “cancelled” by the public themselves.

Has the role of music in Ukraine shifted from one of entertainment to encompass the expression of identity, communication, and emotional and physical survival?

A.: The role of music always and everywhere is to encompass the expression of identity, communication and perhaps not always survival, since not all music is made by people immediately afraid for their lives, but certainly dealing with existential questions. So in that regard there wasn’t any change, was it? The only change is the way people are embracing their own culture instead of feeling some internal protest against it [such “national” self-loathing is a common psychic trauma for (post)colonial nations, as Fanon would tell you].

O.: I wouldn’t make entertainment and encompassing identity etc. an opposition here. Music as entertainment is still there, only it’s now colored in blue and yellow. I guess a lot more artists now feel like their thoughts and voices matter and make more consistent music lyric- and style-wise. But the epigons are here as well.

Has the sonic environment you live in changed at all since the full-scale invasion?

O.: I remember when I “internally replaced myself” to Lviv and went to the volunteer centers to help weaving the camouflage nets, there were people from all over Ukraine, some of them have just moved, and everyone had an air alarm app set to their city, so we were hearing alarms from Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, etc. It felt weird, and in a weird way soothing: you have the whole country gathered in one room, working for the victory together. I got so used to air raid alarms during the first four months of the full-scale war that being out of Ukraine sonically felt empty.

A.: In the later months of 2022, I had some days off service, I was in Lviv and I walked through the city centre which is as touristic and over-the-top as European city centres could be. It was precisely that, but there was no power – russians were busy bombing civilian power infrastructure – so all those kitschy food and beer spots were working on power generators. These things are loud. So there it was, the usual downtown Lviv trying to get you to stay and spend your money on food and cheap souvenirs, but at the same time it was drowning in the loud roaring and shrieking of power generators. This felt like a deliberate intrusion in a usual, tiresome, gentrified environment, and stuck with me somehow.

What would you say the West still gets wrong about Ukraine?

A.: Great deal of things. Although I’m not sure what you mean by the West exactly and I’m not endorsing such categories. So I’ll answer what the WORLD gets wrong about Ukraine. First, the war is not over and is not “a new normal,” although the fact that Ukraine isn’t as much in headlines anymore suggests that it is starting to be viewed as such. We hoped for a tectonic shift in how the world outside (with the possible exception of our closest neighbors such as Moldova and the Baltic states who kind of get it) viewed Ukraine, but instead it was a light disturbance on the water’s surface, and now, as it would’ve done before, The Guardian give their main headline to the russian war criminal once he’s put out of his miserable existence – but fails to give purely Ukrainian subject matters the same spot. I believe that happens because people are still drawn towards their view of the world where russia exists and somehow matters, and everything else geographically close to it is second-rate and not as important.

This is colonial optics which russia effectively promoted worldwide for decades, and people fail to recognize it as such. Moreover, people fail to see russian culture as a thing underneath their current genocidal mission to erase anything on a post-Soviet territory which they consider a deviation from the norm. I can’t put my head around how people can still watch Tarkovsky’s movies and read ‘tolstoyevsky’ novels without realizing the ideological horror which they represent – not an abstract horror, but the one in action right now!

Ultimately, people worldwide failed to widen their understanding of our region, failed to learn more about Ukraine, be it listening to Ukrainian music or studying our history. Read a decent book or two, and naturally you’ll start to view Ukraine as a subject, not an object of its own history, to see its own agency which needs to be respected and taken into primary account if you discuss Ukraine itself, and your understanding of Central / Eastern Europe which, for many people, is still russia-centric, will change. That’s why things like this blog truly count, and I am very grateful for the work you put into it.

Finally, it’s completely baffling for me to see that our war is considered a ‘conflict’ with ‘many complicated aspects about it’ by some. What’s happening is as clear a battle of good and evil as can be. This is as uncomplicated as one person trying to brutally rape and then murder another just because they feel they’re fit enough to do so and that they can get away with it; this is a strong analogy, but any view of the war which doesn’t start with the similar viewpoint is simply wrong, politically and ethically.

O.: What he said. Haha, no, seriously, I totally agree. The most important thing the outer world should understand is that Ukraine needs all the visibility and all the support it can get. We’ve been silent for too long, we were taught silence. And solving this is easy: just shut the Russians up and give us their spots.

Which book / film / album / song / traditional dish / podcast / blog / artwork / building / meme best captures Ukraine for you?

BOOK:

O.: My favorite Ukrainian book is Amadoka by Sofiia Andrukhovych. It was out in 2020, had 1000+ pages and across them made many little disruptions in Ukrainian history of the past hundred years. It connected many dots for me and will surely do that even to a reader that’s completely out of Ukrainian context. And apart from that, it’s just great literature. Now it’s being translated into several European languages, so try and find it in the one that suits you.

A.: I finished reading The Orphanage by Serhii Zhadan just recently and realized that, seeing so much of Zhadan’s public persona (and we see a lot of him, sometimes wishing it would be less), I completely forgot what a powerful, amazing writer – probably one day a Nobel winner – he is. For me it was a heartbreaking read, full of nuances about the reality of Eastern Ukraine which are hard to deal with, but we deal with them constantly, without properly realizing or reflecting it. And of course The Orphanage is about the war in 2015, and since the 2022 war is much different, the book with a similar storyline would be written in a completely different way if written now. But in many of its aspects, it is relevant, and touches on many things which non-Ukrainian readers need to be informed about.

Another book I’d recommend is Valerii Markus’s Footsteps on the Road. From what I can find, it is translated to Lithuanian and Polish if you read those, and English translation is in the works. Markus is a war veteran and a public persona; from the number of Ukrainian fighters’ memoirs that I’ve read, this is the best by far, capturing not just war, but many mundane truths of post-Soviet army and life in general. Seek it out once it’s translated.

FILM: Allow me to go a bit deeper here, since my civic profession is film historian and, if I survive, I plan on returning to researching Ukrainian cinema after we win this. So I’ll skip over Dovzhenko and Illienko and such other obvious classics, much as I love and respect them, and will recommend some hidden gems:

• Sashko Protyah and Freefilmers oeuvre, including films dealing with 2022 (available for free on their YouTube channel or on request): My Favorite Job and ‘100% Off.’ Before russians shelled Mariupol to the ground, Freefilmers were based there.

• My Weekend and Timbres of Summer by amateur filmmaker Orest Bachmaha, which he shot with self-made camera on location near his town of Vinnyky, Lviv region. Those amateur shorts are astonishingly beautiful, poetic and ecologically conscious. A short Portrait of Orest Bachmaha was produced by Lviv’s Centre for Urban History, and is freely available with English subtitles, to help you get a sense of who this man was.

• Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann, a Volker Koepp documentary about two elderly Jewish residents of the city of Chernivtsi. A powerful documentary that will help you get a glimpse of Ukrainian cultural diversity.

As for fiction works, I’ll list three masterpieces which haven’t received enough (or any) recognition worldwide although they certainly should, and there are English subtitles available for all three of them if you take a good enough look!

• One is Letter to America by Kira Muratova, which deadpan humor and low-as-you-go budget both reflect the Ukrainian 1990s and the atmosphere of Odesa with precision.

• Second is Miracle in the Land of Oblivion, Nataliia Motuzko’s completely overlooked masterwork of magical realism, with witches, doppelgangers and a bizarre whodunit plotline, which says more about Ukrainian character than we’d sometimes like to admit.

• The third one would be For Two Hares, a goofy Kyivan period comedy; probably the most lightweight watch from this whole watchlist.

MUSIC:

A.: Some swell songs which capture Ukrainian experience in some way or another are “Колискова” by pusca (пуща), “vidbytky” by !alarm, and “Я устроївсь” by Kostia Shalrayh (the latter was deleted from his bandcamp page, I hope it’ll re-appear). “Мумітроль” by Скрябін sounds like generic, lame pop rock, but I believe it to be one of the most precise poetic reflections on the relationship between Ukraine and russia.

And if you want a full album, go for Blood in Our Wells by black metal project Drudkh, it’s pretty mindblowing. HTyouall’s full-length tribal ambient record Znyshyty vsih, is a very important reflection on our war — HTyouall is one of Oleksii Volusunov’s approximately 10000 monikers, but you know that already (you interviewed him in on one of the previous episodes). The honorable mention goes to Stepan Burban’s rap lyric “The feeling of being eternally fucked with gives away that I’m Ukrainian” (Відчуття вічного наїбалова видає, що я з України).

O.: I’m too deep in the topic to pick anything but for me it feels like a matter of honor when it comes to Ukrainian music. I would add Польові записи з лютого by Adaa Zagorodnya — a set of stark field recordings and ambient sounds that capture the wartime existence precisely. Also the s/t raw punk rock album by Oseledets, a band from the 1980s Ukrainian diaspora in Poland, is great and relevant for any moment in the history of independent Ukraine.

TRADITIONAL DISH: Mivina instant noodles, obviously.

PODCAST: This would be a 666th time someone recommends this, but I can’t help stressing how useful for anyone interested in Ukraine and/or for history buffs in general is to listen to Timothy Snyder’s Yale lecture course Origins of Modern Ukraine, now podcastisized.

As for podcasts in Ukrainian language, I have a soft spot for Halas (Галас), one of our few podcasts about music. Its hosts are the most awkward conversationalists ever, but somehow this comes off as authentic and even charming.

BLOG: DeepStateUA Map or anything else specifically related to war, weaponry and such. That’s what’s important now.

ARTWORK: Let’s stick with an oldie but goodie, namely frescoes in Trinity Gate Church in Pechersk Lavra, Kyiv.

BUILDING: Drama Theater in Mariupol, or any other building in Mariupol, for that matter.

MEME: https://t.me/tasty_flashbacks/2096 (left: A Brigade Going on Rotation to Renovate Its Efficiency / right: A Newly Formed Brigade)

Who should I interview next and what should I ask them?

O.: One of my favorite Ukrainian bands which also has managed to keep a low profile for a dozen years will release their new album this week. The name of the band is Bad News From Cosmos, they are an Odesa-based duo and they make this heavenly dreamy and dubby synth pop.

My latest find on Bandcamp is anton malynovskyi: he makes a strange amalgam of noise-ambient with ethereal melodies in the vein of Oleksii Podat (whom you probably already know). And you should definitely talk to Lune of the bands Pree Tone and Kavkazka Sound who’s also the founder of an exciting cross-genre festival Loony Fest.

 

 

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Zahvat

My name is Dariia Kornieieva (alias Zahvat), I am a DJ, deejaying teacher, and the author of the Vzahvativid podcast.

I have been deejaying since 2021, but I have been dealing with music since childhood. I started by playing the piano academically and continued with players and a mixer.

I periodically return to the instrument, improvise, and create some small pieces. This spring I took the plunge and posted one of them, but this work went unnoticed. I think the audience is mostly used to hearing dance music or podcasts from me.

Has the full-scale invasion changed your setup and the way you think about music and sound in general, and has it had an impact on your playlist?

Such things as war cannot but change you. You’re changing, and so is the music you listen to. The first thing I can say is that all russian artists have disappeared from the playlist. What about the transformation of music perception, it was difficult to listen to music during the first days of the invasion in general. I remember the first album I was able to let in my ears was Circles by Mac Miller. His voice seemed to sing to me that everything would be okay.

Electronic music came later: at first, I wanted to listen to dark techno or aggressive electro. I guess, In this way, I tried to free myself from at least some of the negative emotions that were in excess.

Only some time later I began to notice an interest in lighter and more cheerful music in myself. The fact is that when you are already in a quite dark context, it is important to learn to balance: to supplement what you’re missing out. That’s the reason why I began to turn to 2step, UK funky, and tribal techno more and more often and completely moved away from the dark sound. None of us knows when our defenders will be able to relax by the sea somewhere in Latin America, but music has always been a good teleport.

Apart from being a DJ, and a DJ teacher you also hosted the podcast Vzahvativid on Gasoline Radio, counting AXT, Data Molfar, Cantrust, Pledov, and Roma Khropko among your guests. What can you tell us about that experience, and what have been the most surprising things you’ve learned from talking to fellow artists?

This project means a lot to me. Even more than I can realize at this point in life I guess. So, considering the pause in the work of Gasoline Radio, I decided to continue and work on recording the second season. Talking to people is one of my greatest pleasures. And I think I’m good at it: I know how to listen and ask questions. I did this project primarily for myself. When the listener pulled up, I verified: to do something with sincere interest is the only way. From each conversation, I grab some thoughts, which I return again and again. But to sum up, all the people with whom I had conversations have some common: the realization that they (not someone else) are the only people, who make their lives the way they get it. I suppose that this realization unites the majority of Ukrainians. That is why we have been fighting for at least several centuries.

Where are you now and have you been displaced by war at any point?

In Kyiv. A few days after the full-scale war started, we were forced to flee to Warsaw, Poland. I am grateful to myself for this decision – it definitely helped me to at least partially save my mental health. But the best decision recently was to come home.

How would you say curfew restrictions have changed the electronic music scene in Ukraine and how do you see it developing under present circumstances?

Obviously, we don’t hang out at night anymore. And opinions about it are very different. Someone is not happy, and someone, like me, is happy to maintain the daily routine and other pluses of daytime parties. I hope that after the victory, the night events will come back, but the demand for daytime parties will not decrease. These are not interchangeable, but different types of leisure. If we talk about music, the daytime format has also made its adjustments. It became lighter. But it doesn’t mean that there is nothing to listen to for lovers of a heavier sound: based on the circumstances, we have learned to turn day into night.

Do you feel there’s something of a divide now between those who left Ukraine and those who stayed behind?

Yes and no. It depends on the person. I know Ukrainians who left and continue to carry their (little or big) cultural mission abroad. But I also know those who chose a different strategy of behavior. I think the gap is a consequence of this choice: not to follow the situation in the country, not to maintain contact with those who remained, not to help those who fight. I have a hypothesis that the gap feeling is also related to the feeling of guilt. So, in my opinion, those who left feel it more than those who stayed.

Are there any Ukrainian releases from the past year and a half that you feel can help make sense of current events?

There is one music work I immediately thought about – the track Home, which is included in the neoclassical electronic release of my good friend Artem Baburin (as known as techno producer Septim). It’s the soundtrack to the documentary Wounded Land, which tells the story of Ukrainian vintners and farmers who keep working even during wartime.

How do you feel about the inclusion of “war sounds” in recent releases by Ukrainian artists and are there any specific sounds you find triggering? Also, how do you feel about bayraktar-core music?

Despite the fact that we are all going through a common experience here, it is still different for everyone. Someone is used to the sounds of a siren, but there are people for whom it will definitely cause terrible feelings. I do care how the person next to me feels, so if you can avoid using “war sounds” in written works or DJ sets, it’s better to avoid it. As for “bayraktar-core” – I think it is a product of today, which could not be missed. Something like folk art, when what is seen is singed. Apparently, this is the first stage of creativity, the initial stage of reflection. In my opinion, an interesting product is born when a person rethinks his experience on a deeper level.

Has the role of music in Ukraine shifted from one of entertainment to encompass the expression of identity, communication, and emotional and physical survival?

I think music has always been a tool for identity expression, communication, emotional and physical survival. The war only aggravated the situation, forcing us to look even deeper into ourselves.

Has the sonic environment you live in changed at all since the full-scale invasion?

Yeah. I remember how grandmothers in my childhood, recalling WWII, told me that hearing an airplane is not always a good sign. Unfortunately, this is also our present: the sound of an engine in the sky no longer means that someone is flying on vacation. The sound of a garbage can tipping over into a garbage truck can sometimes be too loud, like an explosion, and it’s scary. At the same time, during the period of mass shelling, you sometimes have breakfast by the sounds of anti-aircraft fire. It shouldn’t be like that.

Do you suffer from burnout and how do you relax?

I think the nervous systems of most of us are still in “save” mode now. The first days, weeks, and months after the beginning of the full-scale invasion were so shocking that the psyche “clenched itself into a fist” for the sake of its own salvation. I’m afraid the realization of burnout and the extent of the personal trauma for each of us can come as suddenly as the invasion – right after victory is declared. However, I am not a psychotherapist, so it is possible that all this is only an assumption.

Which book / film / album / song / traditional dish / podcast / blog / artwork / building / meme best captures Ukraine for you?

Ukraine is a young country that fights genocide and terrorism day after day. It is very different: it seems that it has everything in it. So every time I remembered anything from the list above, it wasn’t enough. So I turned to my memories. May 7, 2023, the opening of the backyard of the ∄ (club at Kyrylivska St, 41). Recid closes his performance with a mix of tracks by Sestrycka Vika and Armand Van Helden. Later, this set was posted online, so I will leave the link and timecode (02:41:30).

Pay attention – on the recording you can hear people singing along. At this moment, many points came together: my compatriot Recid (we are both from the small town of Kropyvnytskyi, in the center of Ukraine), plays quite a patriotic piece in an important place for the Ukrainian electronic scene and for me personally – K41.

Who should I interview next and what should I ask them?

Alex Savage and Recid. To be honest, both are not very public people but if you manage to persuade them, the result will be great I guess.

 

OCTOBER 20, 2023 – POLAND

Mirek Trofymuk

 

NEW RELEASES

Plead ~ John Object

If there was something else that felt like this, it would be bought and sold as we breathe.

My Life, The Remix

“This is not me. I am not a soldier in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wearing my father’s wartime uniform, on a laptop in a basement somewhere. I am an experimental producer.
but for some reason Russians want me dead, therefore
This is not me. I did not produce these wonders of soundwave, I did not mix the remix and master the masterpiece. I am a soldier in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wearing my father’s uniform.

But a heart is a heart and there are eleven hearts here and they are S280F and Grischa Lichtenberger and Angelo Harmsworth and Galen Tipton and sv1 and trngs and Sara Persico and Hwoaranng and Ludwig Wandinger and Ross Alexander and John Object. I am a file on their drives and they are the song in my heart.”

Program ~ Amphibian Man

Brand new album from Ukraine’s king of surf rock.

Zabuttya ~ Hanna Svirska

“Hanna Svirska is an electronic artist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Hanna’s music combines old ambient and new-age with contemporary electronica and folk motives. She uses a granular synthesis of nature sound, choral singing, and recordings from the air. Her work is an experiment with textures, sampler synthesis, and vocal loops.

Mystictrax is happy to present her latest work, Zabuttya. The central theme is escaping from reality. Because everyone has their own oblivion. It can be love, a hobby, or a computer game. Just something that can help our brain to release the tension, something that can help us to relax.
The character of the main track finds her oblivion in the state of dissolving in supernatural transcendental meditation. There is no color, no sound, illusion, pain or remorse. There is only calm. She decides to stay there forever by making a deal with wandering spirits. They offer her a new body of wind and clouds if she never returns to the earth.

The EP consists of 4 tracks, 3 created in collaboration with Ukrainian electronic artists. Those who joined the search for the oblivion: Pymin, Lostlojic, Revshark, Seréen.”

Aneuch ~ Ujif_notfound

“the last release in the mini-cdr-series again comes from
the ukraine.
ujif_notfound, i.e. gregoriy potopalski, is part of the scene
around the kiev based kvitnu label and works as a media artist
engaged in the construction of algorithmic interpretation systems
by means of programming languages.
he studie audio and video processing with max/msp/jitter and
has done some video-installations and projects with artists
like v4w.enko.
his work has a huge bandwidth, so this release can only cover a
small range of his oeauvre.”

Nation of the Unconquered ~ Ukrainian Resistance

The charitable compilation «Nation of the Unconquered», organized by the public initiative of Ukrainian musicians of heavy genres «Ukrainian Resistance», is available for listening and purchase in digital format!
The compilation consists of 28 remarkable compositions by various prominent Ukrainian Black Metal artists. The total duration of the release is about 3 hours.
All the funds raised from the purchases on Bandcamp are sent directly to the «Steel Wings» Foundation, founded and led by Vladyslav Stadnyk, public activist and brains behind «Metal Pilgrim» YouTube channel. The fund specializes in the purchase and transfer of UAVs, tactical gear and optics, computers and other necessary equipment according to the communicated requirements of the Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline.
Make your own investment in Ukrainian artistic resistance, dive into the music on this compilation, donate and share the link to it with the fellow metalheads worldwide!

 

VIEWING ROOM

(Gianmarco Del Re)