An album by Dnipro electronic producer Igor Yalivec has been released via the American label Whited Sepulchre Records. The musician presented the album for the first time during a performance at the MOT art space in Dnipro in June.
‘Etudes’ is the second album by Igor Yalivec. According to the musician, the release is ‘something between really melodic and arpeggiated ‘Still Life’ (Igor’s first LP. — Note from DTF Magazine) and heavy experimentalism in the music by Gamardah Fungus (a band that consists of him and guitarist Serhiy Yagoda. — Note from DTF Magazine)’.
The album is almost entirely created with a single modular synthesizer. Yalivec clarified that this is where the title of the release comes from, because an etude is a piece of work created using a particular technique for the purpose of learning it.
‘I recorded these tracks while honing my knowledge and skills of working with a modular synthesizer. If you listen to my first solo album and the new one in a row, you will notice how and in what direction I am developing in my musical explorations and what kind of music inspires me’, Igor explained and added that he already has an idea for the third album, which ‘will be the finale of this trilogy’.
‘Etudes’ was written after the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Igor explains that he decided to write a calm ambient-based album as ‘a kind of sedative for his fellow countrymen against the background of war and nervous tension’.
‘In my opinion, there are enough energetic and aggressive albums for today. I fully support all musicians who feel that they need to create exactly this kind of music. It’s an expression of the emotions and feelings of the present. Creativity is about expressing and reproducing emotional states and life experiences. I feel the same way as my new album sounds. And I think a lot of people need an emotional reset sometimes’, Yalivec explained.
While working on the release, the composer was inspired by the music of electronic music pioneers including: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Terry Riley and William Basinski.
The album is available in digital format on Bandcamp, and will be released on vinyl around January.
Igor Yalivec is a composer and sound artist who has been working with electronic music and media art for over 20 years. He is an inventor of musical instruments, synth geek, founder of the bands Gamardah Fungus and Submatukana.
Igor’s work is based on the ideas of cyclicality, repetitiveness and layering of sound fragments, interaction of silence and pressure, minimalism, ambient and melodic diversity. Igor creates music through improvisation on modular synthesizers with extensive use of generative algorithms, granular synthesis, equalization and sampling.
