Ilia Belorukov – zither, alto fluteophone, objects
Kirill Shirokov – melodica, children’s glockenspiel, objects, field recordings, electronics
Composed collaboratively by Kirill and Ilia
Recorded live at Media Studio of New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, Saint Petersburg on June 26, 2021
Recorded by Andrey Martynov
Edited by Kirill Shirokov
Mixed and mastered by Ilia Belorukov
Designed by Liu Lu
The score for June ‘21 was made in early summer of 2021, in a dialogical process of close live collaboration. Everything we talked about — music, time, politics, and place — was treated as a kind of material with the possibility of being brought into the piece. We didn’t aim to use sound to express such concepts directly, but rather created music with attention to the circumstances: when it was written, where, to whom and by whom it would be played.
There was a mutual understanding that we were about to make music between the determined, scored, and the unexpected, improvised: the unexpected both for listeners and for us. Our concept was to actively explore the space together with the audience, trying to reach the effect of co-presence, and the ‘in-between’ of the chamber. The listeners’ role was important to us. In a careful, imperceptible dialogue, many risky points of play were made possible with the attentiveness present in the space. We played at the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg — a large institution that was interesting to try and shake from within, by creating the conditions for more experimental sonic explorations. The black box space was chosen because of the silence that allowed us to concentrate our energy precisely in the ways we intended.
We chose to limit the dynamic range to the quiet, which is reflected in the instrumentation. The zither was not Ilia’s main instrument, so he approached the challenge with joy. The objects used on the strings and the body of the instrument made the experience even more playful, at times with no knowledge of what sounds would be produced next. Fluteophone is more familiar to Ilia because of its similarities with the saxophone. It was chosen to contribute with a more classical sound in the selected sections of the performance. Kirill decided to play the material where every sound — tonal, noise, instrumental and electronic — was regarded as separate and independent. This made certain sections consisting of discrete chains of sonic events.
The composition and performance were prepared over seven weeks: from initial thoughts about the concert, to writing the score and setting the instrumentation. The 65-minute long cassette is an edited recording of the live performance, with many rebalanced and recomposed details made afterwards. It is hard to say whether the score we wrote, the walks we took together, or the post-performance minutiae were of more significance for the album. This version is produced for home listening, whilst also attempting to create the feeling of the unexpected that we experienced live.
Text by Kirill and Ilia, edited by Sasha Elina
Ilia Belorukov is a musician from Saint Petersburg, Russia. He works in the directions of improvised, noise and electroacoustic music. He’s widely collaborating with local and foreign musicians and performers. Ilia practices an experimental approach of sound extraction on alto saxophone, using modular synthesizer and other instruments. His works were released on such labels as Clean Feed, SOFA, Moving Furniture, Astral Spirits, Notice Recordings, Raw Tonk, Mikroton and many others. Also he is a founder of Intonema label and was one of curators of Spina!Rec label. Organizer of events in Saint Petersburg and Russia, was co-organizer of the Teni Zvuka and Spina!Fest festivals. He writes reviews for Jazzist and notes about music as musicworm in Telegram channel.
Musician, composer, performer, poet and independent curator Kirill Shirokov focuses mostly on longform situations and pieces with silences, movements, field recordings, melodies, noises, interdisciplinary connections. Often based on the hearing/listening attentivity. While working with composed, improvised, performative, stage music, he is observing close attention to the extensions of momentical. Performers of his music are La Gol, Alter Ego, The Same, Leo Svirsky, N’Caged, Eva-Maria Houben, MCME, Dante Boon, Vacuum Quartet, Germaine Sijstermans, Koen Nutters and other musicians with wide range of personal focusings.
In collaborations Kirill is exploring sound/time relations and pure sonic experience with a diapason of settings on different musical fields, as well as with visual and performance artists, literators, theatre/film directors.
Works were released on the Steep Gloss, Edition Wandelweiser, SUPERPANG and other labels.
Performer of compositions by Antoine Beuger, Laurence Crace, Jürg Frey, Alvin Lucier, Johan Lindvall to name a few. Previously curator of the DianaPlaysPerception ensemble and Silent Music Consort.
Kirill’s also active as lecturer, mainly thematizing the experience of perception, teacher-practicer for music/sound, and independent researcher exploring contemporary artists’ experiences as well as historical motives.
Some scores are published by Material Press.
