Sounds of the Past: Eastern Crates

On a rainy weekend in the office, I discovered something to cheer up my mood…and forget the miserable weather and the pile of work on my desk. Eastern Crates is a website put together by a thirty-something living in Leipzig. He was born in East Germany, and lived for a part of his childhood in Kiev. The Berlin Wall fell when he was thirteen.

For the past thirteen years he has been building his collection of vinyl, mainly from the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe. The motivation for this was nothing more than a love for the music, and the fact that “somehow especially the jazz scene in eastern Europe developed its very own style.”

The website Eastern Crates was created to “bring all this mostly unheard of music to the public”. The records are presented with track-listings, the musicians who played on the records, as well as information on the artists and the tracks that they are playing, as well as some personal opinions and impressions. Where it is possible, links are posted to (legal) downloads and other places to access the music…if indeed it is still possible.

Most definitely a labour of love and a fascinating insight to the sounds and the music of a very definite period in history – that as in all aspects of art, culture and daily life – had its distinct impact on the music that was created.

The link once more: Eastern Crates