Alexander Pehlemann
About
Alexander Pehlemann is a music journalist, author, editor chief, compiler, curator and organiser, but sometimes dj, producer and sound system selecta too. In 1993 he founded Zonic, a fanzine which later turned into an almanac, subtitled 'Cultural Views from the Margins & Moments of Involvement“, that found its special field in exploring the (former and now lost) underground scenes in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on this in 2006 the so called Zonic Spezial serial began.
First came 'Spannung. Leistung. Widerstand. Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979-1990' (2006, Verbrecher Verlag/ZickZack: GDR tape underground between punk, poetry and performance art, with interviews and essays and for the first time recordings of the Eastgerman tape scene on two CDs), second 'Go Ost! Klang - Zeit - Raum. Reisen in die Subkulturzonen Osteuropas' (2014, Ventil Verlag/Eastblok Music/ZickZack: a hyperpersonal approach to subcultures from the East, accompanied by a compilation with sounds from 1982 to 2013), followed by '1984! Block an Block. Subkulturen im Orwell-Jahr' (2015, Ventil Verlag: subcultures in the very Orwellian year in both blocs and in bloc free Yugoslavia), 'Warschauer Punk Pakt. Punk im Ostblock 1977-1989' (2018, Ventil Verlag: Warsaw Punk Pact. Punk in the Eastern bloc 1977-1989) and the most recent 'Magnetizdat DDR. Magnetbanduntergrund Ost 1979-1990' (2023, Verbrecher Verlag: Magnetizdat GDR, accompanied by a triple vinyl compilation).
Besides this he was co-organiser of the PolenmARkT festival in Greifswald from 2000 on and based on this in 2009 he made the first Zonic compilation called „Polska Rootz. Beats, Dubs, Mixes and Future Folk From Poland“ (Eastblok Music). He worked for the Portuguese Eastern Bloc sound archive project Unearthing The Music between 2017 and 2021 and has been the sole curator of Edition Iron Curtain Radio published by the Leipzig-based Major Label since 2021. Currently he is living in Leipzig, where he co-runs the Kulturny Dom Lipsk/Salon Similde and as part of NSK Staat Lipsk is trying to establish Neue Sorbische Kunst.