Our Man In Kyiv Goes Record Shopping

record life during wartime

When I traveled by train to Kyiv earlier this month as part of a small group invited by the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, I stocked up on a headlamp, power bank for my iPhone and various other sundries in anticipation of blackouts and nights in a bomb shelter. While blackouts up to 16 hours have become routine thanks to incessant Russian bombings (many buildings have their own diesel generators) that have targeted the Ukrainian energy sector, I was surprised to encounter a bustling city that was anything but evocative of London during the Blitz. Perhaps the most surprising thing I kept stumbling upon was vinyl stores.

Vinyla

As it happens, I first got a whiff of the avidity for vinyl in Ukraine upon visiting the office of David Arakhamia, the chief parliamentary whip for Ukrainian president Volodoymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. Tucked away along a wall in his large office was a stereo system that included a McIntosh MT5 turntable. It was the first time I myself have encountered a high-end system in a politician’s office.  

A few nights later, my friend Inga Vyshnevska, a civil society activist, conducted me to a store called Vinyla that is located in central Kyiv. When you enter the store, an array of stereo equipment greets you before entering the LP section. There’s also a bar where you can get a drink. I discovered a cornucopia of LPs, ranging from jazz to rock ‘n roll to Ukrainian music. In coming days, as I walked around Kyiv, I bumped across a variety of other LP stores, including Vinylotheka, which is located in a basement.

None of this might seem remarkable to the average westerner, but in the context of Ukraine’s long war against Russia, such stores represent an act of faith. A stray missile or Iranian Shaheed drone could wipe one out in an instant. In a sense, their very existence serves as an act of defiance against the terror campaign being waged by the Kremlin against Ukraine, which seeks to cow it into submission. It was impossible not to be impressed by the pluck and courage that Ukrainians displayed in the face of Putin’s attacks upon civilians.

Upon returning home, I discovered a wonderful Christmas present from a close friend who had recently traveled to Kyiv, where she procured an album for me called Too Old To Sell My Soul. This nifty LP by the Ukrainian musician Sasha Boole, his fourth full-length one, was recorded in 2020 and features songs in both English and Ukrainian that hover somewhere between the blues and country music. If Johnny Cash had sung in Ukrainian, you might start to have an idea of what Boole (whose actual name is Oleksandr Bulich—his stage name is a composite of the porn actress Sasha Grey and the British scientist George Boole) sounds like.

Sasha Boole LP on Air Force Zero

Boole was born in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine once more became a sovereign nation. Now, Boole has suspended his musical activities and joined the Ukrainian Army to help repel a vengeful Vladimir Putin who is intent on restoring what was lost in 1989. “Everyone is afraid to die,” Boole told Rolling Stone. “But I feel the spirit of brotherhood.” Anyone who listens to his album, at Ukraine’s great moment of peril, will likely feel it as well.