Unearthing the Music! – conversation with Alexander Pehlemann + Dj set

We invite you to a meeting with Alexander Pehlemann – music journalist, cultural researcher, and editor of the book Unearthing the Music. Footnotes to Sonic Resistance in Non-democratic Europe (1950–2000)), published by Spector Books. This publication is a multi-voiced story about alternative music scenes in non-democratic countries of the second half of the 20th century – from Yugoslavia to Poland – which, through sound, created spaces of resistance, independence, and artistic freedom. Unearthing the Music… is part of the history of many years of research conducted by the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź on independent culture and experimental music in Central and Eastern Europe, presented in exhibitions such as Notes from the Underground… and Sounding the Body Electric.

More about the publication: https://www.spectorbooks.com/book/unearthing-the-music

The book is published by Spector Books, with which the Muzeum Sztuki is also preparing two publications accompanying the new exhibition "Ways of Seeing."

The conversation in English will be led by Wiktor Skok.

The evening will end with a DJ set by Alex Pehlemann.

Alexander Pehlemann – music journalist, author, editor chief, compiler, curator and organiser, but sometimes dj, producer and sound system selecta, too. In 1993 he founded Zonic, a fanzine which later turned into an almanac, subtitled „cultural views from the margins & moments of involvement“, that found its special field in exploring the (former and now lost) underground scenes in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on this in 2006 the so called Zonic Spezial serial started off. First came "Spannung. Leistung. Widerstand. Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979-1990"(2006, Verbrecher Verlag/ZickZack: GDR tape underground between punk, poetry and performance art, with interviews and essays and for the first time recordings of the Eastgerman tape scene on two CDs), second "Go Ost! Klang - Zeit - Raum. Reisen in die Subkulturzonen Osteuropas" (2014, Ventil Verlag/ Eastblok Music/ZickZack: a hyperpersonal approach to subcultures from the East, accompanied by a compilation with sounds from 1982 to 2013), followed by "1984! Block an Block. Subkulturen im Orwell-Jahr" (2015, Ventil Verlag: subcultures in the very Orwellian year in both blocs and in bloc free Yugoslavia), „Warschauer Punk Pakt. Punk im Ostblock 1977-1989“ (2018, Ventil Verlag: Warsaw Punk Pact. Punk in the Eastern bloc 1977-1989), „Magnetizdat DDR. Magnetbanduntergrund Ost 1979-1990“ (2023, Verbrecher Verlag: Magnetizdat GDR, accompanied by a triple vinyl compilation) and „Power from the Eastside! Jugendradio DT64 – Massenmedium und Massenbewegung“ (2024, Ventil Verlag: youth radio DT64 – mass media and mass movement). Besides this he was co-organiser of the PolenmARkT festival in Greifswald from 2000 on and based on this in 2009 he made the first Zonic compilation called „Polska Rootz. Beats, Dubs, Mixes and Future Folk From Poland“ (Eastblok Music). He worked for the Portuguese Eastern Bloc sound archive project Unearthing The Music between 2017 and 2021 and is co-editor of the book „Unearthing the Music“ (2025, Spector Books). Since 2021 he has been the sole curator of Edition Iron Curtain Radio published by the Leipzig-based Major Label. Currently he is living in Leipzig, where he co-runs the Kulturny Dom Lipsk/Salon Similde and as part of NSK Staat Lipsk is trying to establish Neue Sorbische Kunst.

Wiktor Skok - author of publications, reviews, and articles in official periodicals, as well as in low-circulation, unofficial publications. Curator of music and visual art projects. Promoter of concerts and events in the industrial scene. Combines writing, curatorial work with musical and visual art. Editor and publisher of the zines Zygoma (1988–1992) and Plus Ultra (since 1999). Active participant in the punk/hardcore scene since the early 1980s. Organizer of the Wunder Wave concert series since 1989. Founder and vocalist of the band Jude (since 1993). Co-founder and co-manager of the Łódź club DOM. DJ active in the underground electro-industrial scene. Entirely devoted to all varieties of extreme mechanical music.