ILIA BELORUKOV & VASCO TRILLA “Laniakea” C35 (Astral Spirits)


Ilia Belorukov plays alto sax and fluteophone as well as dabbling in electronics, and Vasco Trilla is the percussioso, a word I made up. Hey, if Belorukov can make up words like “fluteophone,” so can I! (I’m … kidding. I hope you know.)

Laniakea was recorded in Barcelona at Trilla’s studio, and if you’ve got all that time to mess around and work out ideas and stuff, why not release it out into the world? Oh, the tape was recorded on one day, July 16, 2017? Well, I’ll be – instead of tinkering forever and getting everything exactly right, looks like Belorukov and Trilla improv’d this bad boy and got the heck out of the studio. Which makes me wonder – was this some sort of guerilla session where the duo broke into a local cable access station and used their gear in the dead of night before absconding with the fruit of their labor?

Not even a little bit. That I know of.

Laniakea is a freakishly tense ambient(ish) soundtrack to … I don’t know! Something freaky and tense, OK? My imagination can’t be firing on all cylinders all the time. And as a freaky and intense soundtrack, it succeeds in making me feel the very marrow in my bones as the tape progresses. It’s harrowing, foreign, and uncomfortable, and it’s also thrilling and vibrant in baffling and disturbing ways. Is that enough to spur you to try this out for yourself? You should – if you have the GUTS.

I don’t mean to be rude, though. I just think you should challenge yourself when you have the opportunity, try something new and interesting that you haven’t before. It’s a path to self-improvement.





--Ryan