Community Picks is a weekly series where artists submit a release to be voted on by members of the Nina community. Once a week, the release with the most votes will receive editorial coverage. This week’s winner is GAME-O by Ilya Gurin-Babayeu. The release is six tracks of elastic, experimental electronic music that contains no shortage of production ideas and stylistic tics. We sent over some questions to the artist, read the interview and listen to GAME-O below.

Where are you from?

Ilya Gurin-Babayeu: Based in London, originally from Minsk.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?

Zone of Elusive Meanings.

Tell us about your release on Nina.

GAME-O—short for both “game-oriented” and “game over”—captures my intuitive approach to music production with the idea of creative practice as a game. The EP represents reflections on re-imagining myself in a new place. Like all my previous works, this release seeks to potentially push certain boundaries—first of all within my creative practice. This time, I experimented with a broader palette of genres while maintaining a cohesive audio aesthetic from track to track.

What kind of tools do you use to make music?

The tool that most accurately reflects my approach to production is undoubtedly the Octatrack. Hardware-wise, my go-to units are also: Moog DFAM, OTO Machines BAM, Waldorf Blofeld, Roland TR8-S. In terms of software, apart from Ableton Live, where all my sketches ultimately come together, I also work in VCV Rack and Quantum. I enjoy constantly bouncing ideas between different tools and software until I find what I’m looking for.

Who are 3-5 independent artists you think people should check out?

Artemiy Sei, Ylowii, Triš, jung latch, sportsmanship.