The Quietus is delighted to announce a new partner project: Альтернативи: New Voices Ukraine. Supported by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute, New Voices Ukraine will bring a spotlight to otherwise unheard stories and music from those currently in the country.
Our partners are 20ft Radio, a renowned independent broadcasting station currently located in a small garden of a former brewery in Podil distinct, Kyiv, and Neformat, an underground publication that deals mainly in all forms of heavy, and metal, sounds. Neformat started as an internet forum back in 2004 and now acts as an online publication and guide. Both organisations cater to underground, forward-thinking, or overlooked Ukrainian music.
20ft Radio will run a series of six podcasts called Memory Leaks: The Story of Ukrainian Indie, Underground and Beyond. The focus is on the history of Ukrainian independent music, using active memories as a primary source of knowledge. We trace how the bedroom avant-garde of the early 90s transformed into the electronic cross-genre experiments of today.
The first episode explores the early days of Ukrainian independent music, focusing on Цукор Біла Смерть (Sugar White Death), Олександр Юрченко (Oleksandr Yurchenko), and the avant-garde scene in Kyiv in the late 1980s.
Neformat’s main quest is to determine “Where the modern Ukrainian underground hides”. In a two-part feature, we investigate those organisations and individuals whose work forms the modern Ukrainian underground scene. Special attention is paid to the women actors who currently create and shape Ukrainian music in wartime conditions. Another focus for Neformat will be the new Ukrainian metal, rising from the underground since 2022.
As Neformat’s Yaryna Denyschyuk says, “Strange times to build a culture, but what do we fight for otherwise?”
The project will run throughout 2024 and is part of The UK/UA Creative Partnerships programme: a wider initiative between the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute that supports existing partnerships and creative collaborations between Ukrainian and British arts organisations. New Voices Ukraine is one of 14 projects in the disciplines of music, literature, film, animation, visual arts, and performing arts. Learn more and discover the projects in this link.
