A lot had happened since our previous meeting in May 2019 in Helsinki. Isolated geographically, we both knew many things had changed, in us, and in everything around us.

Even though we stayed in touch regularly, and even collaborated remotely, we couldn’t imagine how those changes would manifest when sharing a time and place through sound.

In October 2023 in Novi Sad, Serbia, where Ilia had relocated, we had the chance to share a time and place. We set up an ad hoc recording space inside the kuda.org office in the Detelinara neighbourhood. We spent a good few days recording and trying out various ideas.

Somehow the situation felt similar to our first duo recording sessions way back in 2013 in Helsinki. We were starting afresh. Furthermore, I had circled back to playing the electric guitar and effects pedals, as I did back then, whereas Ilia’s saxophone and analog electronics have since evolved into an intricate modular synthesizer setup.

So had anything really changed after all?

In essence, no, because the initial bilateral dynamic and trust built through a decade long musical partnership, had remained the same. But I would like to believe that this facilitates a situation where we can embrace (at least an apparent) change as the fuel for our expression, as we search for the unstable, the incompatible, the uncertain, to construct a mental and physical presence in which disparate, dissonant and even adverse realities are transformed into fragile dialectics of sharing.

This fortifies the notion, that for that search, there are still reasons to improvise, to engage, to keep ”breaking” the surface, trying to expose something hidden beneath. And then try to ”fix” it in order to rearrange the pieces again. Hopefully something of this is translated onto the recorded artefact.

To say this in a much simpler way, I’m very happy that I could meet my friend after those long isolated years to share and create music together again.

Heartfelt thanks to kuda.org for hosting us and to Zsolt Polgar for helping us with engineering and recording. Thanks in addition to The Creative Europe cultural programme and Dragan and Antifestival 2K+ for making the project possible. And finally, thanks to Richard and NUNC. for putting our music out into the world.

Lauri Hyvärinen, January 2 2025, Helsinki.

Ilia Belorukov – modular synthesizer
Lauri Hyvarinen – electric guitar, effects pedals

Recorded by Zsolt Polgar & Ilia Belorukov at kuda.org studio in Novi Sad, Serbia on 19, 21 & 22 October, 2023
Mixed and mastered by Ilia Belorukov

Artwork Picture : « A woman divided into two, representing life and death. Oil painting. » Wellcome Collection.
Graphic Design by Ilia Belorukov

Thanks to kuda.org, 2K+ Antifestival, Creative Europe and NUNC.