Victory Beats in the Research Book "Ukrainian Field Notes" About Ukrainian Music During the War
Victory Beats in the Research Book "Ukrainian Field Notes" About Ukrainian Music During the War
In spring 2026, Italian journalist Gianmarco Del Re published his research bookUkrainian Field Notes: Sound, Music & Voices From Ukraine After the Full-Scale Invasion" — and we are honored to be a part of it. In May 2025, we gave an extensive interview and presented the work of Victory Beats and EnterDJ for this project. The material was first published in June 2025 as part of the author's podcast on acloserlisten.com, and has now been included in the book, which encompasses over 300 conversations with people whose lives and creative work became intertwined with the reality of full-scale war.
"Ukrainian Field Notes" began as a series of interviews with Ukrainian artists immediately after February 24, 2022, for A Closer Listen — a platform specializing in experimental music. The project soon grew into a monthly podcast on London's community radio station Resonance FM. "I started it because it was exactly what I wanted to read and hear myself: the voices of those living through these events, through the lens of sound," Gianmarcoexplains. By the end of 2025, he had conducted over 300 interviews with musicians, DJs, producers, label representatives, and activists — everyone who shared with him the intersections of war and sound in their lives.
The book explores a question that seems simple but turns out to be profoundly complex: how do sound and listening reveal the human experience of war? The sonic environment has been irreversibly transformed — by explosions, air raid sirens, their acoustic echoes in everyday life. And yet the author traces how these new, harsh acoustic realities are being reinterpreted or deliberately erased through the language of electronic music — a language that has itself changed under the pressure of events. "On the following pages, music artists and industry professionals reflect on their experience of destruction and overcoming loss within the artistic community, and on the purpose of art during wartime," Gianmarco writes in the preface.
Importantly, the book does not speak of a single experience — it gathers different voices and different fates. Gianmarco heard how war "in different ways, often complex ones, changed sound and music for civilians, people actively serving in the armed forces, veterans, and diaspora communities." This is precisely why the presence of Victory Beats and EnterDJ in these pages is meaningful to us: music therapy for veterans is not a separate island, but part of a broader conversation about what happens to a person and to sound in times of war.
Gianmarco Del Re is a researcher with a consistent and deep interest in sound: he created a documentary about the experimental music scene in Bratislava, "The Sound and Fury – Cadillac Face and the Noize Conspiracy," as well as short films about independent artist Adam Bohman and psychedelic folk musician Simon Finn. All interviews in the book are contextualized by research into Ukraine's political, cultural, and musical history — so that the reader understands not only what is happening, but why it is happening in precisely this way. "Ukrainian Field Notes" is a document of an era, assembled with respect and attentive listening. And we are glad that the voice of Victory Beats sounds within it.
Victory Beats in the Research Book "Ukrainian Field Notes" About Ukrainian Music During the War
In spring 2026, Italian journalist Gianmarco Del Re published his research bookUkrainian Field Notes: Sound, Music & Voices From Ukraine After the Full-Scale Invasion" — and we are honored to be a part of it. In May 2025, we gave an extensive interview and presented the work of Victory Beats and EnterDJ for this project. The material was first published in June 2025 as part of the author's podcast on acloserlisten.com, and has now been included in the book, which encompasses over 300 conversations with people whose lives and creative work became intertwined with the reality of full-scale war.
"Ukrainian Field Notes" began as a series of interviews with Ukrainian artists immediately after February 24, 2022, for A Closer Listen — a platform specializing in experimental music. The project soon grew into a monthly podcast on London's community radio station Resonance FM. "I started it because it was exactly what I wanted to read and hear myself: the voices of those living through these events, through the lens of sound," Gianmarcoexplains. By the end of 2025, he had conducted over 300 interviews with musicians, DJs, producers, label representatives, and activists — everyone who shared with him the intersections of war and sound in their lives.
The book explores a question that seems simple but turns out to be profoundly complex: how do sound and listening reveal the human experience of war? The sonic environment has been irreversibly transformed — by explosions, air raid sirens, their acoustic echoes in everyday life. And yet the author traces how these new, harsh acoustic realities are being reinterpreted or deliberately erased through the language of electronic music — a language that has itself changed under the pressure of events. "On the following pages, music artists and industry professionals reflect on their experience of destruction and overcoming loss within the artistic community, and on the purpose of art during wartime," Gianmarco writes in the preface.
Importantly, the book does not speak of a single experience — it gathers different voices and different fates. Gianmarco heard how war "in different ways, often complex ones, changed sound and music for civilians, people actively serving in the armed forces, veterans, and diaspora communities." This is precisely why the presence of Victory Beats and EnterDJ in these pages is meaningful to us: music therapy for veterans is not a separate island, but part of a broader conversation about what happens to a person and to sound in times of war.
Gianmarco Del Re is a researcher with a consistent and deep interest in sound: he created a documentary about the experimental music scene in Bratislava, "The Sound and Fury – Cadillac Face and the Noize Conspiracy," as well as short films about independent artist Adam Bohman and psychedelic folk musician Simon Finn. All interviews in the book are contextualized by research into Ukraine's political, cultural, and musical history — so that the reader understands not only what is happening, but why it is happening in precisely this way. "Ukrainian Field Notes" is a document of an era, assembled with respect and attentive listening. And we are glad that the voice of Victory Beats sounds within it.
See Also:
New
Collections
Support the project:
Follow us!