While the pandemic of 2020 changed the lives of everyone on our Earth, many artists used this period of tumult and isolation to create and dive deeper into their psyches to represent this unease and fear as gorgeous pieces of art. Ilia Belorukov is no exception, and he took his normal, home composing routine and took it in a new direction. Mixing analog and modular synthesis, field recordings, percussion, and processing, Scattered Underfoot was born into an unsure and drastically changing world. A definite product of that changing, growing, intermingling zeitgeist, Ilia’s composition is getting to see the light of day through MC Crónica 195 on January 10th.
Mixing electronics with natural, acoustic sources, Belorukov constructs an interesting blend of sounds that evoke a varied emotional response. Scattered Underfoot is composed in such a way that it almost bridges the gap between ambient and musique concrète. Considering when the album was composed and recorded, the bleak sounds on display really capture the state of the world at the time as well as varied outlooks into the future. The almost broken sounding horns that appear over the low, mechanical drone on “The Night Whispered and Sang” alludes to a very dystopian and dark future. One can imagine walking down along the muddy tracks from the album’s cover and hearing sparse, somewhat mutilated sounds of joy from an era that’s passed. There is a definite lost and lonely vibe throughout Scattered Underfoot, and Belorukov deftly captured the feeling of the time. His take is interesting, too. Although we’ve heard many releases that were composed and recorded at this time, this is clearly a very individualized vision, despite similarities in tone to other albums. We may have all gone through this together, but our realities are shaped by our perceptions, and that is unique to the individual.
Scattered Underfoot hearkens back to a wild and highly influential time in our world’s history. This is because it was composed and recorded during that tumultuous period and is being released by MC Crónica 195 on January 10th. Ilia Belorukov’s use of both electronic and acoustic sources brings forth an evocative look at a strange present and a possibly grim future. Slowly moving and growing, the layers here utilize both ambient and musique concrète and wonderfully express one man’s vision of a very historic time. Paul Casey
via Musique Machine