Unearthing the Music

Unearthing the Music. Footnotes on Sonic Resistance in Non-democratic Europe 1950–2000 is the final piece of an international project initiated in Portugal, which has established an online archive for experimental underground and protest sounds. This archive encompasses both the “real socialism” of Eastern Europe and the often-overlooked regimes of Spain, Portugal, and the Greek military dictatorship.

The book presents key aspects of this spectrum: the relationship with the state, the desire for escape, the power of counter-communities, but also the disappointments that followed liberation. It covers topics such as jazz in Poland and the GDR, conceptual post-punk in Yugoslavia, state-run electronic music studios, Roentgenizdat and Magnetizdat productions, women in subcultures, Romanian avant-garde, Iberian punk, and the Ukrainian underground. A journey of discovery, enriched with numerous photos for deeper exploration.