An Armed Forces of Ukraine unit in the south of Ukraine depends on John Object’s 1991 Opel Frontera crossover SUV. You know what to do: support Timur, support Ukraine, get new music, and replace this broken car. Be a better friend and ally than the USA is at the moment. There’s more to say so – I’ll just say it.
“The war is still on. It’s horrible. It’s worse than you think.”
That’s how Timur Dzhafarov aka John Object led for this last fundraiser – and it’s still true.
John Object lived as an up-and-coming experimental musician before the 2022 full-scale invasion took over his life and many others in Ukraine. While Western media debates the infamous White House meeting from Friday, missiles and drones have continued to rain down on Ukraine. Russian drones even targeted a hospital in Kharkiv on the weekend. Every time I talk to a friend from Ukraine and they open up, someone else they know has died – many young men from the music scene, but also friends and relatives killed in their homes in drone and missile attacks targeting civilian areas.
It was, therefore, horrifying to see the USA halt aid, including the Patriot missile interceptor system that powers a lot of Ukraine’s air defenses. These are missiles that save lives by shooting Russian inbound missiles out of the sky. I’ve seen footage of that system working as friends passed around videos taken on Kyiv balconies: a missile suddenly drops to the ground instead of landing in someone’s bedroom or kitchen. Other systems like HIMARS can save lives on the front lines. I’ve never been a fan of defense contractors or weapons systems. But we’re now talking about the country I was born in (like many of you) taking away defenses that protect our friends and their families, people we’ve played music with, and many more Ukrainian neighbors we’ve never had the fortune to meet. Like so much of our governments’ policies and our world right now, it is utterly inhumane.
The response is to act – do something about it. That’s what Ukrainians have done day in and day out for over a decade, especially since the start of 2022. Social media, as Timur points out, is replete with fundraisers. (pictured above, from his deck) Those of us hanging out with Ukrainian musicians know that it’s become an integral part of the music scene. John Object’s first music fundraiser successfully bought a diesel generator, diesel heater, gas generator, and charging stations – equipment that can be essential on the front lines.
So we can all be a little more Ukrainian today and join in Timur’s fundraiser.
PayPal = ohnobject@gmail.com (no j!)
Text above and here:
Hello, A G A I N
I am continuing my military service from Kyiv and I need nothing, but back in the South of Ukraine my old Armed Forces of Ukraine unit tells me that our car broke, and l’d like to buy a replacement.
Since its inception three years ago, my unit has had a 1991 3-door Opel Frontera, which was initially cherry red, soon repainted coyote brown. It was mainly used to transport small personnel groups between various points and command posts in the rear, as it was never quite reliable enough for us to be used at the frontline (despite being called a «Frontera»). We also had to fix it a lot.
Over the years I spent in and around our Opel, it would often break and in our unit we frequently had to pool our money to cover the repairs. Come to think of it, l’m not sure why I never threw a fundraiser then. I guess, I didn’t have my laptop and couldn’t design this, and also had no music to offer in return.
This time we are looking for a cool $8000, because at this point it makes more sense to buy a used small SUV (Nissan X-trail or possibly a Freelander) instead of sinking more money into the Opel.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to donate more, I just expect the fundraiser to take longer.
So, what am i offering this time?
I played a show and you can have a recording of it.
The show was a week ago at a small venue in Kyiv, I played new noise and industrial sketches (and a cover of a song by The Normal); badly sung one of my own songs. There is also a version of a strange track we wrote with Ludwig Wandinger in Berlin in October 2021, while making a collab record we’d never finish.
It is a soundboard recording (made directly from my gear, not from a mic), so you can hear in great detail my troubles with the microphone, my Memory Man and Sherman Filterbank fuckery, without crowd noise & echo.
As usual, if you donate any amount, you will have my deepest admiration, and for donations of $15 or over (and 200 for Ukrainians) | will provide a download of my the live show — please DM me with proof of donation.
The donations are to be made to my PayPal or monobank, links available in my story and in the «Donate» highlight on my profile.
Considering the fact that the US has sided with Russia and suspended all military aid to Ukraine, this is your opportunity for direct aid, if you’d like. As soon as we buy the new SUV, I will report back and post pictures.
You can also see the results of the previous fundraiser in the«Donate» highlight. Thank you.
BBC Sounds also has published an extended half hour-plus “sonic journal” program by Timur (long-time readers and followers of our collaborative Ukraine Radio Resistance now probably know this piano):
The frontline sonic journal of a Ukrainian musician-soldier.
Wartime soundscapes recorded by Ukrainian experimental musician-turned-soldier Timur Dzhafarov: sketches on a broken piano in an abandoned house near Bakhmut, rain on a field hospital roof, dogs howling in tune to the sirens…
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Timur made experimental electronic music in Kyiv under the name John Object. He walked through life with open ears, picking up unusual sounds to use in his compositions. Then on the third day of the invasion, he joined the Ukrainian Army. As a soldier, Timur still finds a few moments to tune into the sounds around him: the staccato firing of a rifle, the dissonant tone of air-raid sirens, a pianist playing in the mess hall. But his relationship to the aural environment is to change as the war drags on. L
Between the Ears – East Piano [BBC Radio 3, available for listening worldwide not only UK]
I’ll leave you with this – 909MACHINE, aka Viktor Drenjik, was well known in the Ukrainian music scene as both a DJ and sound tech. Close friends of mine I know were close to Viktor – my heart goes out to you. He died on the front lines last year.
This is not how I want to see our friends go. We owe them so much more. And we owe Ukrainians to listen to Ukrainians talking about Ukraine – not the US Vice President and what he saw on social media, not US and European pundits comfortably opining from comfortable capitals far away. Listen to actual Ukrainians. They should be extended music family to all of us.
Kyiv Independent also posted this guide. I can say as someone has worked many times as a (volunteer!) lobbyist – yes, US citizens, call and write the White House switchboard, call and write your Senators, call and write your US Representative. Be polite, succinct, and let them know your position. Those do get counted. If you tell enough friends and family to do the same, it adds up.
Most to all of this guide will be relevant outside of the USA, too. But if you pay taxes in a country, you should also have those taxes go to Ukraine – useful as Timur’s PayPal may be.
I very much look forward to the day when we’re talking about music of artists like John Object and other friends – and the war is just a memory.