Leo Feigin

In 1973, Leonid Samuilovich flees the USSR and lands a job at the BBC in London. Five years later, radio host Alexei Leonidov starts releasing clandestine recordings smuggled from totalitarian countries via intricate cloak-and-dagger operations. Today, 86-year-old music producer Leo Feigin sits on top of over 30.000 LPs, contemplating on the meaning of his work amidst the grim outlook of new Iron Curtains. Leo Records is a symbol of musical resistance against authoritarian regimes and a pioneer of what we now know as avant-garde.

Creativ was an avant-garde jazz duo performing under the oppressive regime of 1980s communist Romania. Due to state censorship, they could not release albums in their own country - and yet they became pioneers of free-jazz in the West.