In the social sciences and humanities, discussions about whether it is perhaps time we bid postsocialism as a conceptual framework goodbye has been going on for over a decade (most prominently, in the works of Martin Müller and Kevin Platt). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the socialist block, their former constituting states had more than 30 years of individual development trajectories. New generations have grown up, and the presence of the socialist past – if there ever was a socialist past shared by everybody – in their lives is inevitably waning. The accession of the Baltic states into the EU, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its subsequent war with Ukraine, including the ongoing full-scale invasion, and other events have, in the words of Müller, “further deepened rifts between post-Soviet states, belying the idea of a common socialist heritage in politics.” Culture has certainly not remained oblivious to these political changes. But what about music as a distinctly non-discursive art form? New music is known to find inspiration in folkloric traditions and international trends. But do contemporary composers look to the period of state socialism and its aftermath for inspiration? Do the socialist and postsocialist periods form part of the habitus of contemporary composers from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Caucasus, and beyond, at least to some degree? Does “postsocialism” have anything to offer – even if this inspiration is negative (used, for instance, for self-decolonisation), or should we say goodbye to it as well?