Author: macha

In October “Riga Room” presents series of unique concerts of the leading Baltic saxophonist Denis Pashkevich performing together with outstanding Danish musicians – guitarist Christian Frank, bassist Claus Kaarsgaard and drummer Carsten Landors.

On October 4th, the concert will take place at the Rocket Bean Roastery, at 29/31 Miera Street, Riga, and will be a retrospective of previous years of musicians co-operation. The concert will feature compositions from the jointly released albums “Outlook,” “Close” and “Yours Faithfully”, which was awarded with the Latvian Music Records annual prize “Golden Microphone 2017” in the category “Best jazz / blues music album”.

On October 5th, Denis Pashkevich, Christian Frank, Claus Kaarsgaard and Carsten Landors will perform in the restaurant “32.augusts”, at Sēļu street 12, in Marupe, and present the program called “Frank & Pashkevich Quartet” Meets Jazz Classics. That means that audience will have the opportunity to enjoy the world-famous jazz standards in the original interpretations of these musicians.

On October 6th, in the newly opened art space “Freska”, the unique event will be presented. Musicians will perform unheard songs from the new upcoming album, which will be recorded this November in studio in Denmark. During the concert solo exhibition of the painter Arnis Jansons “The Happiness Code” will be displayed. Moreover, audience will witness art happening performed by Agija Jansone, who will paint in front of the audience under music impression. At the end of the concert the masterpiece created by Agija with her and musicians autographs will be offered for sale.

Musicians met in 2010 during music seminar in Copenhagen. They decided to collaborate and after several concerts they released their debut album “Outlook”. Two years later came out their second album “Close. In 2016 they formed quintet with world famous pianist Aaron Parks (USA) and released album “Yours Faithfully”, which won Latvian Grammy 2017 as the best Blues & Jazz album. Original compositions by Deniss & Christian are mostly atmospheric ballads full of calm and relaxing sophisticated jazz vibes, saturated with intimacy and hint of melancholy. It is a fusion of Nordic laconicism and a wide range of jazz styles. 

Line-up: Deniss Pashkevich (composer/tenor saxophone), Christian Frank (composer/guitar), Claus Kaarsgaard (double bass), Karsten Landors (drums)

One of the hottest new acts from Baltic states Neon Saturdays have returned this autumn with their new single “Phoenix”. The song is loaded with warm summer vibes and will definitely find favor with those who already dread the cold and windy days ahead. And yet there’s so much more to this new tune by the promising Latvian four-piece.

The single was released world-wide on September 25th.  “We had a lot of time to contemplate and discuss issues of human nature, social dynamics and above all – the importance of love, while going through the creative process,” commented the leader of the band Andris Evelis.

“All of this reminded us that our ambitions and actions are primarily guided by our need to be loved – to be safe in the knowledge that the missing piece of the puzzle is not really missing,” said Edvins Rakickis who wrote the lyrics for the song.

While the song speaks about struggle to find happiness in the modern world, plagued by social polarization, the music video takes us through a day in the lives of two girls who fall in love.

“Playing around the myth of the phoenix seemed appropriate here. Thus, we did a modern take on it in the music video. It was clear from the start that we needed actors who would play a couple to tell this story visually and I insisted that we portray a female couple because I felt that feminine energy had to dominate in this story,” said Rakickis.

“Since we chose to portray a same sex couple it was important for us to concentrate on the romantic aspects of this relationship in the video. I think that one of the central errors of homophobia is the perception that it is mainly sexual desire that drives people forward while in reality love and need to be valued and accepted is the reason all of us do most things in life,” added Martins Rudzitis.

The song was recorded and produced together with Scottish production genius Lewis Gardiner who has been working with the band for some time now.

Gardiner had previously made a name for himself working with Ellie Goulding and the winner of 2016 British X Factor Matt Terry.

Talented and well-known sound engineer Andy “Hippy” Baldwin from Metropolis studios was recruited to lay on some finishing touches. Baldwin has previously worked with acts like Oasis, Robbie Williams and The Who.

The band has also announced that the third single together with their second full-length album titled Freaks In The Ocean will be released in November 9th.

Their previous single “Get Up” was released back in April and found its way to numerous radio stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Baltics.

The band released their debut album in 2012. Since then a number of singles, made it to the TOP10 of the biggest Baltic radio stations after which Neon Saturdays toured the Baltic states as well as UK a couple of times.

In 2015 Neon Saturdays was one of the first Latvian acts to play The Great Escape in UK. In 2016 the band opened for the British rock band James.

In July 2018 the band opened for the American singer LP (Laura Pergolizzi) in Latvia, playing for 4000 people.

Band’s music has also received a well-deserved recognition by Tim Fraser, an internationally well-known songwriter (Tina Turner, Billie Myers), partner of Artists United and a member of BASCA’s Songwriters Executive Committee.

Janis Jacmenkins a.k.a JJ LUSH is a young Latvian producer who has just released his debut single “Head high” collaborating with well known Latvian musician Justs. Jānis not only produced music, but also wrote lyrics for this song.

“The main idea of the “Head High” is braking the self-imposed limits. Every one of us creates a thousand stories in our heads about what we could do, become and acheive, however the stories never come true as we are always afraid of failure. This song symbolises my own break-out as a producer not only as a piano player or session musician.”

The author of the single and musician Justs have collaborated before, when both of them stepped on the same stage as well as studied in the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music.

To build her International career further, Aminata now teamed up with a Scandinavian writer/producer team.

‘Don’t Talk About It’ captures the simmering-beneath-the-surface tention of not knowing where you stand in an evoking relationship. This infectious pop-banger was released via Hitmaker / The Orchard / Sony Music US.

Music producer and dj Makree has released a new song “Position in Here” featuring vocal from singer and songwriter Justs. The song has been signed by Eton Messy Records.

Radio version of the song has already been featured in Justs debut album “Here I Am”, Eton Messy also released the club and dub mixes of the song. You can also hear Latvian duo Dvines singing back vocals before the second chorus kicks in.

Earlier this year dj Makree signed a record deal with Sony Music UK for releasing 3 singles together with the British DJ Secondcity. Their first release “Never Been in Love” was released in march and since then it has been played out in BBC Radio1 multiple times, the song has reached over a million streams on Spotify and has gained support from big name artists such as Annie Mac,Oliver Heldens, Disclosure, Sam Feldt, Claptone, Danny Howard and others.

The new track, IKA  is inspired by Greek mythology, the story of Icarus, as  Elizabete  portrays a luminous perspective amongst an experiential electronic backdrop of ideas.  Elizabete is reminiscent in places of  Efterklang, Bjork or Aphex Twin.  Delicate  harmonies intertwine, as sounds merge with moments of pure industrial experimentation. Elizabete  seeks out the world of Icarus as she soars metaphorically reaching for the sun, demonstrating a courageous and experimental soul, as she cautiously searches for new worlds. The video has borne in collaboration with new media artist Zane Zelmene, exploring the intersection between technology and nature. Elizabete  Balčus creates a musical cosmos, looping flute and voice, clicking electro pop beats, synthesizers and veg plot, taking you to a blissed-out state.  Live performances engage the audience with a psychedelic and theatrical performance, both bewildering and mesmerising demonstrating  Elizabete’s personal drive to create and to dream more. 

A Latvian musician and performance artist  Elizabete  Balčus  creates neo-psychedelic dream pop from collaged, genre juxtapositions that are simultaneously melodic and experimental working with a strong visual aesthetic that draws upon modern surrealism, contemporary fashion and geometric imagery. Elizabete  attended The Latvian Academy of Music in order to study classical and jazz flute, plus opera vocal in Rome’s Santa Cecilia Academy.  Having released her debut album  ‘Conarium’  under the UK label ‘Liminal Noise’, was nominated  for Latvian Music Recording Award  ‘Zelta Mikronfons’  2017 for best alternative / indie pop album of the year and was nominated for the Latvian ‘Mercury Prize’– ‘Austras Balva’, for best album of 2017. Elzabete has been busy of the last year performing at live festivals including: Eurosonic Noorderslag, Tallinn Music Week, WestWay LAB, Scenica Festival, The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival Live Shows

Up-and-coming Latvian four-piece Neon Saturdays strike once again this Autumn by releasing their third single. The song titled “Gravity” was produced in UK along with the rest of the band’s second album and speaks about pitfalls of fanatical ambitiousness and idealism.

“Gravity should encourage people to take a good look at the dynamics of their own life – daily rhythms, patterns of behavior and numerous habits that slowly take us where they do,” explained the leader of the band Andris Evelis.

“This song tells the story of an ambitious person who is having a hard time accepting that the real world has limitations that can’t be suspended. A lot of effort is put in to try and break free of this down-force. The song ends with the protagonist reaching a deeper understanding that love and peace is what we as human beings truly need,” he continued.

Most of us aim to achieve these things by striving for material gains, overdoing and over delivering with hopes that somebody will notice and acknowledge that we are special, the singer added.

Sonically Gravity will probably remind you of those old, weird, lesser-known sci-fi movies with deep and obscure storylines. The music video takes a twisted turn showing the band as unhinged, malevolent and almost non-human beings that are trapped in their reality, upside-down.

It was shot in a specially modified location and will definitely be one of the most interesting and unnerving things you’ll see this Autumn.

The song was recorded and produced together with Scottish production genius Lewis Gardiner who has been working with the band for some time now.

Gardiner had previously made a name for himself working with Ellie Goulding and the winner of 2016 British X Factor Matt Terry.

Talented and well-known sound engineer Andy “Hippy” Baldwin from Metropolis studios was recruited to lay on some finishing touches. Baldwin has previously worked with acts like Oasis, Robbie Williams and The Who.

The band has also announced that the third single together with their second full-length album titled Freaks In The Ocean will be released in November 9th.

The first single of the album (Get Up) was released back in April and found its way to numerous radio stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Baltics. Same with the band’s second single Phoenix.

The band released their debut album in 2012. Since then a number of singles have made it to the TOP10 of the biggest Baltic radio stations after which Neon Saturdays toured the Baltic states as well as UK a couple of times.

In 2015 Neon Saturdays was one of the first Latvian acts to play The Great Escape in UK. In 2016 the band opened for the British rock band James.

In July 2018 the band opened for the American singer LP (Laura Pergolizzi) in Latvia, playing for 4000 people.

Band’s music has also received a well-deserved recognition by Tim Fraser, an internationally well-known songwriter (Tina Turner, Billie Myers), partner of Artists United and a member of BASCA’s Songwriters Executive Committee.

On November 1st, the most popular jazz-funk band from Latvia “Very Cool People” is starting their first Central Europe tour with a home concert in Riga, the tour will continue with one concert in Kaunas, Lithuania, two concerts in Hungary and 5 concert streak with the band FUNKorporation (garage funk, jazzy soul, Balkan pop) in Romania.

“We are very thrilled to go on our first tour around Hungary & Romania, we have always wanted to have a tour around Central Europe, because mentality & culturally wise in our opinion we are very similar, so we hope that communication with audiences & people in general will be as great as at home! Also we are very happy to go around Romania with a fantastic local funk band FUNKorporation. So, hell yeah, we are ready to funk & make very cool parties in the venues we will be playing on this tour!” Very Cool People about the upcoming tour.

The upcoming tour is financially supported by the special purpose programme for touring by State Culture Capital Foundation, concerts in Romania are organized by the agency “Stairway Booking” (Romania).

This August “Very Cool People” went on their first tour in South Korea, giving 7 concerts in festivals and clubs around the country. The band is also nominated for the biggest European showcase “Eurosonic Noorderslag 2019”, which will take place on January in Groningen, The Netherlands.

“Very Cool People” is a jazz-funk band originated in Riga, Latvia, by guitarist Elvijs Grafcovs. With a backbone in jazz, funk and soul, incorporating influences from surf, klezmer, rock and hip-hop, Very Cool People is creating modern, complicated and listenable music for a wide audience. The band using contemporary tools is trying to put jazz & funk back to dancefloor and make it more accessible to ordinary, nowadays persons. The band is an actively gigging band, in which all the members love & enjoy performing live shows more than anything. When they are on the stage they “blow the roof off” of the place & charge audience’s batteries with energy that is coming out from the guys when they are in act.

Two Latvian pop acts, that are well known not only in Latvia, just have released a brand-new duet called “Last Dance”. It is written by Markus Riva and produced by Kaspars Ansons who stands behind Aminata’s 2015 Eurovision anthem “Love Injected”.

Both musicians are friends for several years, they both were competing at Supernova 2015 (National competition of Eurovision Song Contest), where  Aminata won and Markus with “Take Me Down” ended up at second place.

“I had this idea about a duet with Aminata for a long time because I love what she is doing, I love her attitude and music. When I was working on my latest album “I can”, I wrote this song “Last Dance” but because of the bad timing, we did not manage to record this as a duet. But luckily, soon after the album release, song is out as a single and features Aminata”, says Markus.

“I was very happy when Markus offered me to do a collaboration because I knew that it is going to  be a well produced and exciting project like Markus is himself. I was in love with “Last Dance” from the very first second – I like melody, lyrics and production by Kaspars Ansons. I am super excited about this collaboration and hope everyone else as well.

Both artists have worked on several projects with Kaspars Ansons, he has produced few tracks in Markus Riva latest LP release “I Can”. This is a sad song about fading relationships and last dance, last night together before there is someone else who will come. This is their very first duet together.