Music or Weapon: Four Monologues from Ukraine by Dmytro Fedorenko

Music or Weapon: Four Monologues from Ukraine

Podcast

Episode 14 of the TIMEZONES podcast series, co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut. This episode features four testimonials from Ukrainian artists. They were recorded during the summer of 2022, a few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The statements are candid monologues about music, dignity, and life during the darkest of times. The four artists speak about their visions of freedom and fear, their feelings about the future, and the influence of this war on their lives and their music; the situations they are facing and the choices they are making. What happened to their art and how do they perceive the role of the artist in this war?

Ukraine is fighting for freedom against Russia, and for many Ukrainians, this war, along with death and destruction, has prompted extreme and often unexpected transformations of consciousness. The country appears united again, more so than ever before. Artists have become volunteers and soldiers. Music and art have turned into a part of the total resistance. Every day, new meanings and concepts are being devised, everything inevitably changes, and a new future for Ukraine is being born as we speak.

Credits

A podcast by Dmytro Fedorenko

Co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut

Featuring: Burning Woman, Symonenko, Ujif_notfound, and Igor Yalivec
Includes a bonus talk, moderated and produced by Peter Kirn, featuring Sophia Bulgakova

Interviews recorded in August 2022

Artistic Editor: Suvani Suri
Project Management: Hannes Liechti
Video Trailer: Emma Nzioka
Jingle Voiceover: Nana Akosua Hanson
Jingle Mix: Daniel Jakob
Mastering: Adi Flück, Centraldubs
Artwork: Šejma Fere

→ Full transcript of episode 14

Listen On

→ Listen to further TIMEZONES episodes

Featured Artists

Burning Woman is the moniker of Kyiv musician, sound designer, and DJ Kateryna Kostrova who works in the genres of dark ambient, drone, techno, IDM, industrial, and noise. She constantly experiments with her own sound, using various methods of sound synthesis and processing as well as field recordings. Being born and raised in Eastern Ukraine, the artist has nurtured a tender love for industrial aesthetics and tries to reflect this in her work, creating noisy sound textures. Kateryna is a member of the Women’s Sound educational platform for female electronic music producers and has performed at many of its events. Follow her on SoundCloud, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

Symonenko, born in Luhansk, is a live artist and DJ from Kyiv who works mostly with electronic dance music such as techno and its substyles. The artist came to his recent sound through classical guitar music and songwriting in the indie band Simon Stone. He recently immersed himself in a modular experimental setup and also works on a modular live dance performance. Follow him on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Facebook, or Instagram.

Ujif_notfound is a media project of Georgy Potopalsky, new media artist, electronic musician, and composer. Founder of the alternative art space Kontrapunkt. Resident of the KVITNU label. Co-founder of BLCK BOX Media Art School and PHOTINUS Studio. As a media artist, he has participated in numerous Ukrainian and international projects and festivals. Lives and works in Kyiv. Georgy Potopalsky combines the practice of a media artist and a musician. His installations and live performances usually merge software, visual, and audio components. Follow him on his website or on SoundCloud, Vimeo, Bandcamp, Instagram 1, Instagram 2, or Facebook.

Igor Yalivec is a composer, musician, sound artist, and founder of the bands Gamardah Fungus and Submatukana from Dnipro, Ukraine. Follow him on Bandcamp, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

Bonus Talk

Ukrainian Artists on International Terrain: Staying Connected, Being Heard
moderated and produced by Peter Kirn, feat. Sophia Bulgakova

In this bonus episode of TIMEZONES, we shift the focus from Ukrainian artists in a country at war to those who permanently live and work abroad. Independent digital media artist Sophia Bulgakova, based in The Hague, Netherlands, joins series producer Dmytro Fedorenko. Both artists have been politically active, interweaving their message with their music and art practice among other things.

Fedorenko describes how he envisioned this series and what he hoped to achieve with it. Bulgakova talks about how she’s managed the flood of news and trauma since the full-scale invasion in February, how she stays connected with loved ones in the country, and how she has adapted her artistic work. They also discuss the challenges of the international arena and foreign audiences. Bulgakova details some of the problematic aspects of the ongoing entanglements of international art with Russian artists and Russian funding. Both also reflect on where art, activism, and the Ukrainian and European arts communities may be headed next.

Music or Weapon: Four Monologues from Ukraine by Dmytro Fedorenko

Peter Kirn is a composer, music producer, and journalist. He is the creator of the daily music technology and electronic music site CDM.link and writes for various publications, including recent contributions to Resident Advisor, Chapter Magazine, and others. For RA, he has written in detail about efforts by Kyiv clubbers to help free their friend Brahim Saadoun, imprisoned in Russian-occupied Donetsk. He is also a curator and organizer, facilitating the MusicMakers Hacklab for CTM Festival. Peter has worked on various international collaborative projects, including in Russia, prior to their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He now runs the label Establishment in Berlin and appears regularly on Refuge Worldwide.

Sophia Bulgakova (born 1997, Odesa, Ukraine) is an ArtScientist interdisciplinary artist and activist currently based in The Hague, Netherlands. Sophia is working on the intersection of art, technology, and society, focusing on the relationship between light, perception, and imagination. In her installations and performances, she engages viewers through various sensorial inputs, impacting their ways of perceiving reality and exploring new possibilities beyond it.

Playlists

A selection of recent releases of Ukrainian experimental music, including artists from the TIMEZONES episode Ukraine. Several of the tracks were written or released in 2022 during the war.

To be released on Spotify January 5, 2023.

Curated by Dmytro Fedorenko

Trailer

By Emma Nzioka

The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: what does living and working in culture and the arts involve in different countries, cities, and contexts today? The artists’ thoughts on their moods, their social, political, and intellectual realities and their philosophies (of life) have been worked up into experimental audio collages.

The podcasts run the gamut of formats and content, from straight journalism to experimental and documentary approaches, ethnography and fiction, sound art, and improvisation. The TIMEZONES series endeavours to create new artistic forms of storytelling, listening and exchange across the boundaries of geography, time zones, genres, and practices.

The TIMEZONES podcast series is co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut.

This episode is supported by:

Biography

Dmytro Fedorenko is a multidisciplinary artist and one of the early and most active pioneers of the Ukrainian experimental electronic music scene, responsible for a huge number of highly acclaimed experimental music projects, festivals, and art events in his home country. Now based in Berlin. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, or on his Website.

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TIMEZONES – Season 1

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The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: what living and working in culture and the arts involvse in different contexts today? Season 1 with a focus on Nairobi, Belgrade/Sabac/Zurich, Delhi, the Bay Area, and Rio de Janeiro.

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TIMEZONES – Season 2

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The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: what does living and working in culture and the arts involve in different countries, cities, and contexts today? Season 2 focuses on Beirut, Montréal, Dhaka, Mt Makiling, and Gaza.

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TIMEZONES – Season 3

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The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: what does living and working in culture and the arts involve in different contexts today? Season 3 travels from Budapest to Colombo, Buenos Aires, and Ukraine.

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Published on December 29, 2022

Last updated on October 12, 2023

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Norient Mixtape #2: South Asian Pop meets Resistance

Mixtape

by Thomas Burkhalter

From M.I.A. to Charli XCX to Priya Ragu – South Asia between global pop, underground sounds, and protest. Norient founder Thomas Burkhalter travelled through South Asia for his upcoming podcast series South Asian Sound Stories and searched current sound streams. His second Norient mixtape offers bhangra pop, rap, indie sounds, and some quotes from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, and the diaspora – produced for SRF3, the Swiss National Radio pop channel.

Tracklist

Isuru Kumarasinghe: «That Butterfly in the Chest»
Ammy Virk: «Teri Jatti»
Jazzy B, Dr Zeus, Happy Singh: «Rude Boy»
Kaldi Moss: «Culture»
Simran Raj: «Kaali Shirt Waleyaa»
Karma DJ: «Racism»
Word Sound Power feat. Banth Singh, Delhi Sultanate, Chris McGuiness: «Comrades»
Rebel 7: «Not Eazy»
Coolie, Jaz Dhami, Jay1: «Kisan»
OJ Da Tamil Rapper: «Graveyard»
SOS, 30KEY!: «Ahad»
Bo Sedkid: «Kavvandha»
Manmeet Kaur: «Time Will Tale»
Arooj Aftab feat. Anoushka Shankar: «Udhero Na»
Phatcowlee: «Nidaauna Deu»
Marvan: «Culture»
Kaaktaal: «Jorgrostho»
Bo Sedkid: «Rahasin»
Aniruddh Menon (with Disco Puppet): «Sunsets»
Prya Ragu: «Adalam Va!»
Disco Puppet: «OK»
Aerate Sound: «Mages»
Yakawrath / Fira: «Flat Line»
K.O: «3DP AND Audiosynthesis»
reFux feat. Gandhi: «Awesome Comes Back»
Shorbanoor, Alien Panda Jury: «Cutlery»
ELSZ: «Take Me to the Sun»
Phatcowlee: «Insomnia»

Extended Playlist

Listen to an extended playlist on Spotify that will be updated with each new edition of the Norient Mixtape.

From the Norient Archive

Buy More Incense was the first production ever done in the name of Norient. Thomas Burkhalter and Michael Spahr have produced and directed this film in the year 2000. Since then many things have happened including 9/11. But somehow the documentary film about British Asian musicians in London and Birmingham is still not totally out of date.

The mixtape is produced by Thomas Burkhalter, for Swiss National Radio SRF3. For more context read this background article by Claudio Landolt.

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Links

Audio Pervert: «The indian Side of Sampling» (Norient)

Faisal Mohammaed Khan: «Dhaka’s Electronic Music Scene» (Norient)

Thomas Burkhalter: «Cast-Netting for Bangladeshi Electronica» (Norient)

Thomas Burkhalter: «East Isn't East» (Norient)

Published on February 21, 2023

Last updated on May 07, 2024

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Norient Playlist

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Ghost City, Tear Gas, Novel Rhythm, Nowhere to Go

Sound Piece

by Maria Frederika Malmström,

Desert Kites

By thinking about and with sound, we experience the world through embodied practices. In her mesmerizing sonic essay based on field recordings in a protest-struck Cairo, our contributor asks: How are bodies, things, and cityscapes interconnected?

Ting, ting, ting, sonic bodies, beep, beep, beep… please wait while your transaction… Doot, doot, doot. Drrrrrrrrrrrrr. And the government is always NAGGING, NAGGing, NAgging. And you can even tell by their body language that they carry ahhh burden. Allaaah akbaaar… Horns, tuk-tuks, motorists. Ting, damtatamdam. Clinking of the gas man’s tools. Tatata. Beware. Paap, pu-pu-boom. Shootings. Do not care. Fuckfuckfuck, fuckin’ widda real. Aaahh, fuckin’ widda real. Tell me how you feel when you fuckin’ widda real? Ahh. Daddidadidaaadidaaa. Big brother. Swish, thith. Sky. Is. Enemy. Helicopter birds. Loud. Mahraganat. Sweating. Vibrational bodies. Forgetting. No. Yes. Dadoom. Stella. Dissonance. Escaping. Whirling. Dadooom. Blade-passing frequency. Sound of silence. Ousted. Curfew. Ghost city. Flight. Tear gas. Choking pain. Pull of suspicion. He took the bullet meant for me. Guilt. Shame on you. Massacre. Shootings. Sirens. Low-flying aircrafts. Novel rhythm. Nowhere to go. Metallic birds again, again, again. Anxiety-ridden bodies. Touched bodies. Crowded Cairo. Loud voice. SILENCE. Reorientation. Alienation. Sonic disciplining. Absence of sound. Loss of navigation. Vicious circles of uncertainty. Aural communication. Protesters. No. Irhal. Sonic enemy of silence. DADOOM. Poom, sthiiiiik, dadooom. Reverbation. Ahmed. Mohamad. Karim. Ibrahim. Abed. Hassan. Mahmood. Sherif. Said. Ali. Whispering. Names of prisoners. Sounds of the living dead. Moving voices. Aaaahaoh. Streets are talking to me. Ghost bodies. Desire to disappear in order not to disappear. Dadoom, schh, aeeehhh, hchmm, dadadadaaaa. Waiting. Tataatick, tichk, da, chch, krchkrch. Revolution of the poor is coming. dANG, DANG. Never. Forget. Chchhhhh. Tututut. Frequency. Amplitude. Beep, beep, beep… please wait while your transaction… Doot, doot, doot. Drrrrrrrrrrrrr. Fuckfuckfuck, fuckin’ widda real.

I am triggered by the vast potential of worlds that are still to be unlocked, attempting to spin new webs of thought spanning the globe. This specific piece takes us through the Cairo streets, where we hear sounds of various human actors, but also non-living actors. This phenomenon unlocks unfamiliar worlds and invites the listener to listen from sonic fragments, matter, spaces, and places since 2013 and onward. Consciously listening, attending to sounds is a political tactic, because listening alters the body of the listener (Labelle 2018). It is a method for transmission of sound knowledge and for novel ways of being in the world of self and others. Sound knowledge initiates a process of social change, even if we must linger in spaces of discomfort, in both the pain and praise of others (Kapchan 2016).

Thinking and speculating with sounds instead of about sounds produces new knowledge about the world and our understanding about us being-in-the-world, body-subjects, to use Merleau-Ponty’s (1968) terms, far beyond the Cartesian logic (dualist model of body and mind). We experience the world through embodied practices rather than through cognitive and linguistic models. By focusing on only our hearing, we learn to trust ourselves and unknown others. It instructs us to sonically sense the story of the aftermath of the «failed revolution» in Egypt and what happened to it after the disaster in 2013, as well as to experience matter, places, and spaces through the politics of the ear in relation to an imagined or rejected nation. We experience the world through embodied practices rather than through cognitive and linguistic models.

The sonic affects us, touches us, moves through our bodies and alters our emotions, vibration and rhythm. It allows us to reflect upon ways that the materiality of sound, the emotions connected to the sonic, the censorship of sound, or the propaganda with sound, help us understand (counter-) power, claims to authenticity, authority, resistance, and deviance. Our new sonic emotional knowledge opens common experiences and potential paths for change. By acknowledging sound, whose vibrations are material and can be measured as infrastructures, we are able to explore vibrations as sonic infrastructures, as tools of techno-politics.1

Sound Piece

My intention in the sound essay Affective Sonic Fragments in Sisi’s Egypt is to invite you to use several senses at the same time and to think with sound instead of about sound. I want to touch the relationally porous skin of your body and to move your sonic body through aural communication and let you sonically understand specific forces of sound. How do sonic vibrations mediate consciousness? How does sound shape/constrain the actions of individuals/groups? How can sound tell us more about being human and about imagination? How are bodies, things, and cityscapes interconnected? How do they produce sensations in relation to intense and slow times (temporality and frequency)? How will collective bodies of trauma, like the sonic bodies of Cairenes, but also in relation to the global body, navigate? How will they cross the street into the unknown future as one relational collective body? Is it possible to find stillness in the movement? The sonic body can act, tell a larger story, be evidence and be de/re-formed. The loud and silent body may also signify contradictions, since it is capable of both reaffirming and transforming forms of domination. By using the senses instead of words alone, one may be able to grasp what is beyond language in language.

1. Sonic infrastructures encompassing both audible spaces and matter and by new collective sound knowledge we are able to creates a dialogue with contemporary global struggles, even if autocratic regimes consciously produce and perform both concrete and symbolic sonic violence, where changes of rhythm and frequency are key.

List of References

Labelle, Brandon. 2018. Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance. London: Goldsmiths.

Merlau-Ponty, Maurice. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Kapchan, Deborah. 2017. «Listening Acts: Witnessing the Pain (and Praise) of Others». In Theorizing Sound Writing, edited by Deborah Kapchan. 277–93. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.

The sound piece intimately communicates with Malmström’s book «The Streets Are Talking to Me: Affective Fragments in Sisi’s Egypt». It is co-produced with Desert Kites combines field recordings from multiple fieldworks in Cairo between 2012 and 2018 with music by Desert Kites, along with the Egyptian musician Mr Kordy’s (with his permission) composition Fuckin’ Widda Real (video directed by Raed Al Murish).

«Sonic Worlding» is a monthly Norient column. It invites writers and artists from all over the world to to think and speculate with and not only about music. Where most music writing treats music as something that can be categorised and placed in pre-determined boxes (personality cults, end-of-year lists, genres, origins, styles), «Sonic Worlding» is interested in the vast potential of rhythms, ideas, and worlds that are still to be unlocked, attempting to spin new webs of thought spanning the globe. Edited & curated by Norient editor Philipp Rhensius.

Biography

Maria Frederika Malmström is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology and Research Fellow at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. She is also a Visiting Research Scholar in the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City. Follow her on LinkedIn.

Biography

Desert Kites is a New York-based composer and musician. Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, their debut album «This Blazing World» will be released in 2023.

Published on December 20, 2022

Last updated on April 09, 2024

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Music or Weapon: Four Monologues from Ukraine

Biography

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Norient Mixtape #2: South Asian Pop meets Resistance

Biography

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Ghost City, Tear Gas, Novel Rhythm, Nowhere to Go

List of References

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