Kyiv-based independent radio station 20ft Radio has announced the launch of its own label, 20ft Records, and revealed its first release. The compilation ‘Blackout Tape’ will be released on June 20 and features 10 tracks by Ukrainian electronic musicians, including Maryana Klochko, Polje, tofudj, and Native Outsider
‘Blackout Tape’ is described as a conceptual compilation created in response to the lives of Ukrainians during blackouts caused by russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
All 10 tracks on the release are united by a common concept — each was created without using electronic instruments, relying solely on analog and acoustic instruments.
‘Over the three years of russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 63,000 energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine have been damaged. As of mid-2025, it is estimated that about 50% of Ukraine’s power system has been destroyed or rendered inoperative. This results in constant blackouts — one of the many challenges faced by the people of Ukraine, — 20ft Radio explains. — The goal of Blackout Tape is to draw international attention to these realities’.
Tracks for ‘Blackout Tape’ were created by 10 representatives of the Ukrainian electronic scene: Maryana Klochko, Bryozone, Polje, tofudj, undo despot, Native Outsider and radiant futur, Acid Jordan, noorj, and the band Tongi Joi. The release will come out in cassette format.
20ft Radio explains that each artist ‘reinterpreted the given theme in their own way’. For instance, undo despot used samples of traditional Ukrainian singing, tofudj incorporated the sounds of air raid sirens and explosions into their track, and Tongi Joi presented their track in the format of a ‘psychedelic raga rock composition’.
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‘For artists who usually work with electronic instruments, ‘Blackout Tape’ became a creative challenge and a completely new experience. Working solely with analog and acoustic sound sources carries a special tactile warmth and a sense of vitality. It is a reflection on life amid instability, where light is not only essential for survival but also symbolic’, the label’s team adds.
All proceeds from the release of ‘Blackout Tape’ will go to a charitable project by the NGO ‘Kosmos Tabir’, which installs solar energy systems in regions left without electricity due to russian occupation.
Artists on their tracks for ‘Blackout Tape’
Maryana Klochko — ‘Improvisation for Voice and Piano’
‘The blackout experience was strange and quite difficult. Like everyone else, I constantly monitored the power outage schedules, and my life — especially my professional life — literally depended on them… I remember sometimes in the middle of the night, when I heard the distinctive sound of the air conditioner connecting to the grid, I would immediately jump out of bed and rush to my laptop to finish something or to charge it. This ‘paranoid’ state is incredibly exhausting.
Another thing I found particularly hard to endure was the sound of generators. As someone who works with sound, that constant noise outside my window was unbearable. Silence is essential for music — but there was no silence, and no electricity either.
For this compilation, I recorded a piece imagining that all electronic devices had lost power. All I had at my disposal was a voice recorder: I created a small sketch for voice and piano and recorded our old ‘Ukraine’ piano, which was once my first musical instrument.
Nothing is perfect in this composition: the recorder was too close to the instrument and too far from my voice, glass candleholders on top of the piano started resonating and rattling because of the low frequencies, the pedal squeaked, the chair creaked, and on top of that, I wasn’t always hitting the right notes. But in the end, it still sounds beautiful. Or at least not bad. That’s what I love most about music — sometimes it just ‘happens’’.
tofudj — ‘vechirniy kyiv’
‘The track was recorded on my balcony. Three different evenings that reflect life in Ukraine’.
undo despot — ‘sea spirits’
‘An archive from 2023 — lectures on electroacoustic music at the Monsters Castle in Odesa. A jam session that happened afterward with 10 completely different musicians playing trembita, membrane drums, flute, and singing. It felt intimate, the rhythm lasted for hours. It was a trance, and I miss it’.
noorj — ‘Mouchette’
‘I think this music speaks for itself. There’s raw emotion and a lot of pain in it, which, in my opinion, is expressed through the melodies and harmonies, as well as the binary form, which in this case serves as a rather fatalistic element’.
Acid Jordan — ‘rassle!’
‘In the short breaks between sitting without electricity, water, heating, or any entertainment — after talking on the phone with my child, who was safe, going to school, and playing hide and seek — I used my limited technical knowledge to create a few sounds that would cheer me up’.
About 20ft Radio
20ft Radio was founded by a team of enthusiasts in December 2016 at Nyzhnioiurkivska 31, where a shipping container became the base for the first broadcasts — live shows and DJ sets from local artists. Over time, the area around the container transformed into a place where people could simply have a good, carefree time, listen to music, or dance.
20ft Radio became one of the few urban music projects operating outside the confines of club culture — techno, electro, IDM, leftfield, dub, psychedelic rock, and rare digger finds. As its creators state, ‘the radio operates in a format of musical diversity’. Being a non-commercial project, 20ft faced financial challenges but managed to survive thanks to its community.
During the warm season of 2023, the container found a new home at another music spot in Podil — in the courtyard behind Community Café on Kyrylivska Street 41, where it continues to operate to this day.
