The debut album by Illia Nevtoma’s solo project features 17 tracks that blend ambient, glitch, screams, and recitative. ‘Podorozh tryvalistiu v bil’ is described as a ‘kaleidoscope of personal experiences’ of the artist and his journey toward finding hope
Work on the LP began in 2024, when individual tracks ‘started coming together into a cohesive picture’. While working on it, the musician focused on momentary impulses and an attempt to preserve the raw emotion:
‘In the process of writing, I realized that it doesn’t matter what you use, which studio you’re in, or how high-end your microphone is. If you lose the emotion or the impulse along the way, you might as well go home and stop torturing yourself and your computer. So for many of the songs on the album, I recorded the vocals on my laptop. At night, when I felt I had to do it RIGHT NOW. Even in the studio, so as not to lose the moment while setting up the equipment, I would just record straight into the laptop’s built-in mic’.
Illia wrote the track ‘plakiia’ in 2022 ‘in an attempt to find himself’. It reflects nevtoma’s uncertainty about the future. ‘zlo-zlo’ is about his previous creative projects, while ‘struktura kryvavoho oniksu’ and ‘palimpsest’ are about unconditional love.
According to nevtoma, despite its title, ‘Podorozh tryvalistiu v bil’ is not about fatalism, but about ‘acknowledging and accepting one’s path as it is’.
‘‘I’ is not a fixed concept stuck somewhere in the past, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of tomorrow. It’s a variable in a constant, intense process of searching. And there’s no way to do it without hope. You might not notice it at first. My parents say I write things that make you want to hang yourself, but for me it has a different meaning. I’ve lived through it, digested it, expressed it, given it form — and I’m still here, which means not everything is lost’.
About nevtoma
The story of the nevtoma project began in 2023 and became a ‘fresh start’ for the musician. Unlike his other projects, nevtoma gives the artist more freedom — ‘in recitative and rhyme’.
‘nevtoma is not a project — it’s me’, Illia explains:
‘In 2023, I forgot a bag in the backyard of my dorm. Inside were a pencil, an eraser, and a 2TB hard drive. The drive had everything on it: archives of all my music projects, camera files (concert recordings, personal photos/videos) — basically backups from every device I’d ever had. The bag was returned, and with it — the pencil and the eraser. But the drive was gone. After losing all my backups, the only thing left was to start from scratch. Literally the next day, I wrote the instrumental for ‘struktura kryvavoho oniksu.’ When I sat down at the computer, I told myself, ‘Man, just make something — not for some theoretical release or project, but just music you’d listen to while having a smoke.’ And that’s what happened. I finished it, went up to the top floor of the dorm, smoked, listened to it on repeat, and cried. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I felt that this was exactly what I had been missing all this time’.
In addition, nevtoma is a participant of Mirage Camp Special by DTF Magazine. A track by his collective, ZHSTK)))0, will be included in the camp’s compilation, which will be released on streaming platforms.
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Besides nevtoma, the musician is known for his involvement in the bands ivl-ivl, Alfater, NIRA NIRA TAO, and ZIPCULT. In 2025, nevtoma took part in the Young Blood showcase by Jager Music Awards.
