Ilia Belorukov new cassette is Scattered Underfoot (CRÓNICA ELECTRÓNICA 195-2023), a series of four strange electro-acoustic compositions he made during the lockdown period. Although working with some techniques familiar to him, he tried hard to introduce unpredictable elements by bringing in percussion (he’s not a drummer), and allowing the computer to make some decisions with the application of its randomised pseudo-mind. Accordingly, electronic noise, synths and field recordings are rendered quite alien in nature by these treatments, and each piece follows its own horrifying non-logic.
I suppose this disjunctive effect is most evident on the nigh-unlistenable ‘High Shrubs Forming a Thicket’, which presents a barrier of thorns and brambles to this listener with its chaotic spread of marmalade. ‘The Night Whispered and Sang’ is less zany, but simply presents a grey flat vista with its boring sounds, barely worthy of the viewer’s contemplation. Only ‘The Morning Brightened the View’ seems to work on any level, indicating how a ride on public transport can be enhanced with low-key electronic murmuring and bird song fluttering right inside your eyeballs.
Not the greatest statement we’ve heard from this prolific St Petersburg creator; more in the nature of unfinished pages from a sketch book. (March 2023)