IliaBelorukov’s “NRDDRMTWO2022–2024” is not your average percussion album – it’s a sonic séance with a machine. Across thirteen tracks, this Russian-Serbian experimentalist transforms his NordDrum2 into a kaleidoscope of tempos, textures, and reverberant spaces, all on a strict one-step pattern that mutates over time. Think of it as minimalism caught in motion: a single rhythmic seed sprouting variants as tempo drifts.
Belorukov stumbled onto this method while pushing the Drum2’s six channels through tempo ranges and reverb algorithms; suddenly, a small tweak in delay or resonance made sounds bloom into entirely different creatures. Tracks are titled like schematics – “4.31, 4+5+6, 270–140” – but they’re anything but clinical. Instead, they reveal playful curiosity and sonic empathy, like birdwatching frequencies in their natural habitat.
And let’s be real: each track is a miniature adventure in acoustics. One moment you’re swimming in low-end rumble at 300 BPM, the next you’re plucking echoes at 50 BPM. Yet there’s no overthinking here – Belorukov recorded everything live, at the moment, no edits, just EQ and compression afterward. The result is elastic, alive, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes unnerving.
What surprises is how much emotive force this can hold. Vital Weekly noted you might feel nothing at first, but give it volume and space – and suddenly all these layers snap into focus: a texture-rich field that rewards patience. It’s sonic minimalism made maximal, not by adding elements, but by coaxing meaning from tiny shifts in repetition and space.
Belorukov isn’t just playing a drum synth; he’s conversing with it. His background – deep in improvisation, noise, electroacoustic work, saxophone, modular systems – feeds into this: he doesn’t impose patterns, he discovers them. “NRDDRMTWO” is part tribute to red Nord box and part field recording of an electronic creature evolving in real time.
In short, this CD is a quietly radical statement. It’s not flashy, but it is full of intent: each tempo shift morphs emotional terrain, each reverb change reshapes the room, and each track feels like a fragment of a larger exploration. Listen loud, and you’ll glimpse something that’s both machine-made and eerily organic – a dance of code and chance you didn’t know you needed.
Why it matters:
– Tempo as form – one-step pattern becomes polymorphic through speed.
– Space as ingredient – reverb isn’t decoration; it’s co-author.
– Live spontaneity – no edits, pure in-the-moment creation.
– Emotive minimalism – volume and patience reveal surprising depth.
If you’re tired of overproduced beatwork and crave something that breathes and evolves on its own terms, “NRDDRMTWO2022–2024” is your companion: a patient explorer of rhythm’s hidden architecture. Vito Camarretta
via Chain DLK