From Kyiv through Warsaw to Žilina. I found out about the Ukrainian independent music label and collective Iriy Records through Veronica, a Warsaw connection and a member of the label. @veronicami, who is a DJ and event organizer herself, helps the label with international connections. You could register Iriy Records for the first time on Swine Daily a few weeks ago, when we premiered their project with the artistic duo iiuoiim.
The idea of Iriy Records arose relatively recently; the year was 2023, and Ukraine was in the second year of war with Russia. The main idea was to combine the functioning of Western labels in terms of technical quality, responsibility, and professionalism, and Ukrainian creativity. The team behind Iriy (more than 10 people) is very active. In addition to a number of interesting music labels, from which a distinctive and original energy radiates, they also regularly release DJ guest mixes and organize their own events in Kyiv.
You will learn more in the interview below ↷
How many core members are in Iriy Records? When did you start? Can you tell us a little bit about your beginnings? Do you have some inspiration for which artists you want to release in the future, or which labels inspired you somehow?
The team of Iriy Records consists of two founders (one head curator – Luther and head administrator Illya), Publicity Director (Daria), and a Global Outreach Specialist (Veronicami). We also have a roster of four sound engineers (Anton Derevianko, drwncvnt, Demian Feriy, plagibel, and uniq id) that mix and master our releases, four graphic designers (Sima, Oleksandr, Bohdan, Kristina), and associates-representatives in Kyiv and Marseille. Iriy Records was started in 2024, and our first release was the single “Жидає” [Zh’dae] by YUVI.
We started planning Iriy Records in 2023, the second year of the full-scale war. At that time, there was a sense of immediacy due to the general atmosphere of risk and impermanence. Hence, we were motivated to fulfill his ambition to start a music label that will combine the organizational approach of Western labels (legal transparency, delineated spheres of responsibility, technical mixing/mastering benchmarks, etc) with the innate creativity of Ukrainian sound producers. We began establishing a schedule, and once we had the first three artists in our roster (YUVI, Geyera, human margareeta) we started releasing on a monthly basis.
Currently, we have all of 2026 laid out: an album by iiuoiim (Khrystyna Kirik + Yurii Boyko), an album by panghoud, a debut album by evil iseeshine, a debut album by kvitka, another single from human margareeta, an album by N FN R, and an end-of-the-year compilation (we are hoping to start a tradition of these for our label). We have also begun planning out the 2027 release schedule, but we will keep those artists as an intrigue for now.
In terms of inspiration, there are a few musical labels that serve as models for us, such as Hakuna Kulala and N.A.A.F.I., which started off as local labels but were able to build global recognition for their local soundscapes. We love the early sound of experimental British dubstep from Skull Disco. There are also American labels like Halcyon Veil and Purple Tape Pedigree that we feel have a similar musical attitude and sound to us, and, of course, we are inspired by musical organizations our founders have worked with. Particularly, ISSUE Project Room, where Luther (founder and curator) has worked as a recording engineer, from which we draw inspiration to attempt to reveal experimental sounds to a wide audience. In fact, we have a whole radio show on 20ft radio – Iriy.frequencies that is all about the labels that inspired us.
It is also worth noting our friends in closer proximity like Rukh in Odessa, 20ft and DTC in Kyiv, BE$HKET in Lviv, and Anticlub in Poland.
If I can ask, in which city, or cities, is Iriy Records based? Are you travelling between Poland and Ukraine?
Iriy is based completely in Kyiv, although our artists are from various different cities in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Nizhyn, Odessa, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv), and a lot of them currently live abroad (Spain, Germany, Poland, etc). Also, we have label associates in Warsaw, Marseille, and Barcelona who help us with outreach and overall support.
Your releases are full of raw energy, almost punk energy. There is a lot of electronic music, but it’s not so subtle or soft (I’m thinking about electronic labels from Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, for example); it’s wilder and rougher, and I like it. How do you see the curation of Iriy Records? What are some musical elements that you are drawn to?
Iriy Records is focused on releasing music with a well-defined and complex low-frequency sound, and in that regard, all our releases can be considered “bass”. Another defining principle for us is the participation of the material on our releases with broader musical concepts, for example, sampling from completely different styles of music, re-contextualization of techniques, subversion of stylistic conventions etc. Hence, we often call our music post-club. In short, we would say that Iriy Records releases post-club and experimental bass music.
However, the raw energetic sound that you describe is bigger than us. It’s the overall Ukrainian sound that you like. Naturally, we also lean toward these elements (industrial raw sounds, abrupt shifts in tempo, overall gloomy and introspective vibes) as our music is the product of our local soundscape and atmosphere.
You had several music projects coming out. Tell us about the recent releases. For what kind of listeners are those projects?
We had a very active start to the year 2026. We had an album released by Kalyuzhna (fka nizhna) “Eastern Low-End Memories” – a meditative memory-journey filled with ambient bass and field-recordings. A single by human margarita “help me” – a subversive glitch-bass and jazztronica piece, and a release by iiuoiim “пuiic” – an upcoming album with heavy bass drones, dreamy pads and hypnotic vocalizations. All of these releases are different, but highlight similar approaches to crafting sophisticated bass-sounds and a complex musical composition. In vain with the organizations that inspire us, we wish to make this music known to wide audiences, but without compromising on quality. Our ideal listener is introspective and curious about the music they listen to.
You are a Ukrainian music label. Do you feel somewhat different feedback for your projects, and yourself personally as a Ukrainian? Do you feel some change of perception, of how music fans, and maybe other European fans, react to your work? In negative or positive ways?
When Iriy just started, being Ukrainian was almost a marketing trend in terms of the attention that it garnered, but, naturally, this automatic boost has faded away. Yet the situation now for musical content for Ukraine is better internationally than it was before 2022. Before, global societies either didn’t pay attention to Ukraine or viewed it as a safari for “wild” techno-parties and a laissez-faire attitude. In 2022-2024, Ukraine was somewhat a museum, a living artifact of civilizational downfall. Of course, we didn’t fall or fade, so now Ukrainian content is judged more competitively with larger European content. And we at Iriy think that it is a good thing. Fair competition and standards drive progress and creativity.
Our music is usually received positively, as we do make niche music, even though we try to popularize it widely. Thus, the challenge for us is to increase our outreach. In some countries, like France, it was pretty easy, and our music is very well received; in others, it’s more difficult. We try to work with local associates in different countries who would help promote our music from “within”.
In your Various Artists compilation, „Lowlands“, you mention the concept “низові ініціативи” that refers to grassroots, fringe artistic movements that exist outside mainstream promotion. Can you explain this to us more?
We impose a slightly different connotation on that phrase. It takes a more context-specific meaning. Fringe isn’t an accurate concept in the Ukrainian electronic scene as there is no singular, dominant trend that can establish the “mainstream” (even the infamous techno scene is very anarchic here). Moreso, the musical society here is split among dispersed communities, and what we aim to do is to get a musical conversation going between them. Lowlands is a compilation (hopefully the first of many) that is meant to be a cross-section of Ukrainian experimental music. Another important meaning of “grassroots” is what we call in Ukraine “horizontal connection”, where people from different backgrounds can communicate and represent their groups among their peers, and we have put in a lot of effort in Iriy to develop these horizontal connections.
On your YouTube channel, you have a great DJ mix series, “Tower of Veles”. Do you want to invite more artists to this series? Do you see DJ mixes as an ideal form to share music with fans online?
At the Tower of Veles is a monthly series, and we release them in three-episode “seasons”. Currently, we are on season 4 with a DJ set by TRS. We also have a radio series called Iriydium on Rukh, and a series Iriy.frequencies on 20ft. Each of these series highlights different vectors of our work. Tower of Veles is more about “horizontal connections” and providing a space for DJs and artists to freely make sets (we do not impose restrictions on styles or durations of these sets); Iriydium is about culturological research of the post-club music scene; and Iriy.frequencies is about giving praise to labels that inspired us.
However, I think the ideal form for labels is a “radio takeover”. This allows for the label to get the full attention of radio listeners and to construct holistic musical narratives, where each set is a chapter and the overall session is a complete story. We have done takeovers for Radio Beguin, Refuge Worldwide, Ola Radio, and have one coming up on June 21st on 20ft radio.
Are you planning to organize more live events in the future? Maybe across Europe? Or do you want to focus more on Ukraine?
We have a few ongoing live series that we will continue to make if our resources are sufficient. Iriy presents – a series of shows dedicated to album releases by our residents; Spirits of Iriy – a series where we bring key underground artists from around the world to Ukraine; Baile del Sur – a series of Latin club parties in Kyiv, and Iriy Showcases – sporadic events that are meant to underscore our in-the-moment musical directions. Most of our events happen in Kyiv, but we want to expand these events to other cities in Ukraine.
In terms of international outreach, we previously made shows in Warsaw and Berlin in 2025, and we wish to continue and expand this trend. We already have plans to make a show in Krakow and Berlin together with Anticlub in the summer, and are looking at organizing a few shows in France (Paris and Marseille) later in the year. Of course, organizing events is pretty difficult without a physical presence in those regions, so we are always looking for local partners and/or people of the Ukrainian diaspora who can help us with organizational and logistical difficulties.
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/ Interview: Krištof Budke / Follow Iriy Records on Bandcamp and Instagram /
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