Footnotes to Sonic Resistance in Non-Democratic Europe 1950–2000

This monumental volume is the analog component of an international project initiated in Portugal, an online archive for experimental and underground protest sounds from the latter half of the 20th century. This archive covers sounds that have emerged under the "real socialism" of Eastern Europe as well as the often-overlooked regimes of Spain, Portugal and the Greek military dictatorship. 

Unearthing the Music charts the key stages of sonic resistance: the citizenship's fraught relationship with the state, the accruing power of counter-communities producing dissident sounds and the disappointments that follow liberation.

Abundantly illustrated with archival photos and ephemera, the volume traces the development of jazz in Poland and the GDR, conceptual post-punk in Yugoslavia, state-run electronic music studios, Roentgenizdat and Magnetizdat productions, Romanian avant-garde, Iberian punk and the Ukrainian underground, among other topics.

With contributions from Chris Bohn, Daniel Muzyczuk, Ivo Pospisil, Jelena Petrovic, Juraj Duris, Ksenija Stevanovic, Mara Traumane, Paula Guerra, Ana Oliveira, Pavla Jonssonova, Rui Eduardo Paes, Sergio Blardony, Stephen Coates, Zoran Pantelic, Wolf Kampmann, Hannelore Fobo, Octav Avramescu, Chris Cutler, Alexander Pehlemann, Trever Hagen, Yuriy Gurzhy, and José Mendes.

Edited by Alexander Pehlemann, Rui Pedro Dâmaso, and Lucia Udvardyova

Designed by José Mendes

Published by Spector Books, 2025

Softcover, 624 pages, 300 b&w images, 6 × 9 inches

ISBN: 978-3-95-905540-6

Published by Spector Books, 2026