Eastbloc Dispatches is the podcast for the Eastbloc culture you’re missing

From DJ and journalist Andra Amber Nikolayi, the Eastbloc Dispatches podcast is your pass to all the culture you could easily miss out on elsewhere, from central, eastern, and southeastern Europe, and various parts of the world recovering from the Soviet Union. And it’s full of terrific conversations.

Now, we can actually run statistics on how much you’re missing from eastern Europe, even with some festivals located in the region. That compounds inequalities of other groups – particularly MENA/WANA countries – to mean that Europe is skewed. Now, the upshot of that for lovers of music, culture, and ideas is you are missing out on all the great talent. And for someone tuned into all of that, Andra is a perfect guide.

You can catch up on these episodes on Radio Punctum from Czech:

EASTBLOC DISPATCHES by Andra Amber Nikolayi

So for instance, the latest edition catches up with media artist Sophia Bulgakova from Odesa, Ukraine. Sophia is co-host for the MusicMakers Hacklab with CTM Festival this week, too, alongside Darsha Hewitt, so if you’re in Berlin – clear your Sunday evening for a one-of-a-kind performance laboratory. (Having just stopped by their studio, you’ll see some wild creations live.)

This is a perfect way to begin – enter a beautiful space of meditations, a mind exploration:

Speaking of Ukraine, a must-listen is this episode with Maya Baklanova (and just as relevant almost a year later), with a terrific playlist and conversations:

Or here’s the amazing Katarina Gryvul:

Some other favorites:

The epic FOQL joined in 2022:

You need to hear Justyna’s music, check the 2022 LP for instance:

And Lukatoyboy in January, who has long been a fulcrum of the European experimental scene (plus apparently might show up in Austin, Texas, soon, so get ready Texans):

Want more eastbloc sounds? There’s the wonderful antifascist mixtape by AGF for our friends over at Eastbloc Antifascist Sound Alliance, which could be just the radical energy your afternoon needs:

Oramics, by the way, ran stats on this, and even after the visibility of this report, it continues to be heavily skewed. (It’s a nice echo of the work female:pressure is doing, and there’s still way more to do there, as well.)