Ukrainian Field Notes

Ukrainian Field Notes Synopsis

Based on over 300 interviews, Ukrainian Field Notes explores how sound and listening reveal the human experience of war. It examines how the aural environment has been transformed by explosions, alarms, and their sonic byproducts, and how these new acoustic realities are being reinterpreted or erased from the language of electronic music. Since the full-scale invasion, music-making in Ukraine has adapted in remarkable ways: composing on mobile phones, streaming performances from bomb shelters, and organising festivals within curfew limits.

Clubs became centres of volunteering and fundraising before regaining their cultural role once reopened. Meanwhile, the diaspora reshaped the musical landscape, severing old ties while creating new global networks of collaboration. Ukrainian Field Notes offers a 360-degree perspective on how sound has shaped musicians' wartime lives and influenced evolving notions of identity - personal, collective, and postcolonial.