Baltic band competition “NOVUS” in Vilnius, Lithuania is open for regsitrations

Novus competition for up and coming bands is seeking not only to discover, but also to encourage the most promising music talents. The project is searching for new talents, provides the opportunity to perform on a professional setting at Art Factory Loftas, to be heard by new audiences and music industry professionals.

Competition prizes for the bands-winners include a professional song recording and music video production provided by “Muzikinis Cechas” studio, an opportunity to play at a yearly “Loftas Fest” festival 2018, a live video production by “Square” studio, special prizes from “Converse” company, other performance opportunities and much more.

Last year top three places were taken by all three Baltic countries: Lithuanians “Timid Kooky” – first place, Estonians “VonKuusk” – second place, and Latvians “Ezeri” – third place. “It is quite simbolic that top tree places were taken by the representatives from each Baltic country. We are happy that NOVUS became an international platform for bands to be heard and that this competition is getting more and more interesting for our neighbours. Last year competitors from Latvia and Estonia were very strong, charismatic and musical. It was a great inspiration and push to Lithuanian bands to get to know their neigbours and to learn something new from each other. We hope that this year competition will be even stronger.” – said the owner of Art Factory Loftas Victor Diavara.

Song from the first session of the songwriting workshop “RIGaLIVE” – “(My Heart Beats) Staccato”

The song “(My Heart Beats) Staccato”, which was co-written by Kaspars Ansons, Kristīne Prauliņa and Valters Sprūdžs, is one of the songs which were created during the fall session of the songwriting workshop “RIGaLIVE”. The song is performed by Lithuanian singer Jurga and it was produced by Kaspars Ansons.

Jurga herself has this to say about the song: “It’s always a great opportunity to record a song, which was written by someone other than me, especially in this case, because it is so catchy. I hadn’t done that for quite a while, but I was waiting for such a challenge, and it came to me in the form of  Staccato. I really like the chorus – even if someone doesn’t know what do the terms stacatto or legato mean, it still is really easy to understand, because it reminds of the feeling when you’re in love.”

This song, performed in Lithuanian, will be made publicly available in Lithuania in May. The lyrics were composed by Jurga.

The first session of the “RIGaLIVE” songwriting workshop, which took place in September 2017, was highly praised by both local and international participants and experts. During the process, 16  demo versions of the songs were created in 2 days and they were recognized by local and international music experts to be potential radio hits of a high quality. There were 30 participants for the first “RIGaLIVE” session – artists such as Dons, Justs, Aminata, Kaspars Ansons, Kristīne Prauliņa, Arnis Račinskis, Jānis Aišpurs, Markus Riva, as well as participants from Estonia, Lithuania and Scotland.

The second session of “RIGaLIVE” ended on 11th of April, with 27 participants from Latvia, Lithuania and England. During this session, 16 new songs were created, a few of which will soon be released publicly.

The team of the songwriting workshop RIGaLIVE would like to thank all of the participants, as well as our sponsors for having faith in us and for the invaluable support you have given us in the process of organizing this event!

The team of the songwriting workshop RIGaLIVE would like to thank all of the participants, as well as our sponsors for having faith in us and for the invaluable support you have given us in the process of organizing this event!

With the support of the Latvian Performers’ and Producers’ Association (LaIPA), as well as the Ministry of Culture, for the second time an even was organized with the aim to encourage the cooperation, raise the level of professionalism and to exchange experiences between the members of the music industry – a songwriting workshop called RIGaLIVE.

Water for the participants was supplied by “Amrita”, “Rocket Bean Roastery” provided their cosy space for the listening sessions, as well as quenched the participants’ thirst for coffee, and “Riga Black Balsam” and “Red Bull”, as well as “Lāčplēsis alus” provided all that was necessary for a great after party.

The musicians worked in 8 studios that were set up with the help of “Mājlietu sala”, “Puķu Elvis” and “ER Grīdas”. All the technical equipment was provided by the store “Tava skaņa”. Musicians also used various pieces of equipment, which were provided by Latvian companies, such as “Sonarworks”, “Gamechanger Audio”, “JZ Microphones” and “Erica Synths”. A huge thank you goes out to Goran Gora, Anna Zankovska and Didzis Bardo for providing us with their studios, as well as thanks to “Ibis Hotel” for hosting our international guests.

As one of the supporters for this event, Red Bull offered a fully accommodated trip to Open’er Festival in Poland for the team with the best song in the workshop. The participants themselves will determine the winners.

The audio company “Sonarworks” recognized FEMME as the best producer in this session of the RIGaLIVE, and she was presented with a pair of individually calibrated pair of Sennheiser HD650 headphones.

The talented participants of RIGaLIVE were rewarded for their productive work with the products of the perfumery and cosmetics manufacturer “Dzintars”.

The 2nd Session of the songwriting workshop RIGaLIVE begins this week

For the second time by the initiative of “Latvian Music Development Association/Latvian Music Export Office” and with the support of LaIPA(Latvian Performers’ and Producers’ Association) an event is being organized for the members of the music industry with the aim to encourage cooperation, exchange experiences and increase their level of professionalism – a songwriting workshop called RIGaLIVE.

The first RIGaLIVE session, which took place in September of last year, which was praised highly by both local and international participants and music experts. In two days time, 16 songs were recorded, which were recognized as high quality potential radio hits. The 2nd session of RIGaLIVE is taking place this week, starting from Monday, and ending on Wednesday. Each day, a work group, which will consist of a performer, songwriter and a producer, will work for 8 hours straight in order to create new songs, which will be presented to experts of the music industry, and other teams, in the evening.

There were over a 100 submissions, and 24 participants were selected for this workshop – musicians such as Jānis Aišpurs, Aija Andrejeva, Ansis, Arnis Račinskis and Markus Riva.

As one of the cooperation partners of RIGaLIVE, Red Bull will offer a prize for the best team: a fully paid and accommodated trip to Open’er Festival this summer in Poland, as well as the audio software company Sonarworks will offer a pair of fully calibrated Sennheiser HD650’s as a prize for the best producer in the workshop.

RIGaLIVE FB page:https://www.facebook.com/rigalivefestival/

 

New single “Love Is the Answer” by Carnival Youth

Latvian indie rock band Carnival Youth have released a brand-new single called “Love Is the Answer” on 16th of March. Next week the ensemble will embark on a European tour.

“Phrase “love is the answer” came from subconsciousness while thinking vocal melodies in gibberish, mumbling. It seemed funny at first, but after a while we saw a challenge to justify it and after all – it is true. It was a joy of discovery, we tried to follow where it was going and experiment a bit, with choir of trumpets, for example,” says Emils Kaupers, member of the band.

This single marks the period between their latest release – an album with songs in their native Latvian called “Vienā vilcienā” – and their new, upcoming album, which will take them back to writing songs in English.

Song workshop “RIGaLIVE”/session#2.

For the second time by the initiative of “Latvian Music Development Association/Latvian Music Export Office” an event is being organized for the members of the music industry with the aim to encourage cooperation, exchange experiences and increase their level of professionalism – a festival of creative masterclasses and song workshops called “RIGaLIVE”.

Composers, performers and music producers are welcome to apply for the song workshop, which will take place from the 9th until the 11th of April of this year in Riga, Latvia.

We are announcing the beginning of application for the song workshop, where in 3 days time up to 10 work groups will be working on creating new songs. Each group will consist of 3 members – a composer, performer and a producer. Each day the groups will work for 8 hours in order to create a demo version of their songs, which will then be evaluated by a collective of experts, which will consist of representatives of both local and international professionals of the music industry.

Event order of the festival:

9th of April – introduction of the participants of masterclasses;

10th of April – songwriting workshop and listening;

11th of April – songwriting workshop and listening.

The goal of the participants is to create song that could be a hit of the Baltics in 2018 and 2019.

To apply, please fill in the application form and send it to info@musiclatvia.lv with the description Application to RIGaLIVE until the 19th of March 2018. After evaluating the submissions, the participants of the workshop will be announced by the end of March.

Application form:http://bit.ly/RIGaLIVEeng

Participation fee – 50 €.

For members of the “Latvian Music Development Association/Latvian Music Export Office” – 25 €.

Partners:LaIPA, Kultūras ministrija, “Mājlietu sala”, “Pica Lulū”, “Red Bull”, “Sonorworks”.

DJ Makree has signed a contract with Sony UK and releases the single “Never Been in Love”

Latvian DJ and music producer Makree in collaboration with the acclaimed British producer Secondcity has released the single “Never Been in Love”. This is the first out of three songs to be issued under the record label “Ministry of Sound” and BBC Radio1’s Danny Howard’s  label “Nothing Else Matters” . Both of these record labels are owned by Sony UK and are the world’s leading dance music publishers. The public premieres of “Never Been in Love” took place on March 2 at the BBC Radio 1 during the broadcast of the legendary dance music reviewer Annie Mac, but before its official release it was played already on the sets of such world-class DJs as Grammy-nominated Disclosure, Claptone, Danny Howard and Oliver Helden.

““Ministry of Sound” undeniably is the world’s largest dance music record label that works with various Grammy-nominated artists – being part of this giant dance music organizations is an indescribable feeling, especially since my music is played by DJs and music producers who’s music I’ve followed for years, “says Makree. “Cooperation with the Ministry of Sound at the moment is the most significant achievement of my career, but I consider it only as the beginning – with my work I want to bring Latvian dance music to a new level”.

Makree is a 22 year old electronic dance music DJ and producer, in Latvia he has worked with such artists as Dons, Dvīnes, Justs, Aminata and Pyor. Makree’s international debut was in 2014, when in collaboration with Swedish record label “Metron Music” the song “Clouds” was released. The song “Never Been in Love”  was created in collaboration with the British DJ Secondcity whose single “I Wanna Feel” in May 2014 ranked  as nr. 1 in the UK singles chart and also had the first place in the American Billboard Dance Music Top.

INTERNATIONAL POP-ACT MARKUS RIVA COLLABORATES WITH FAN ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM FANVESTORY WITH HIS NEW SINGLE

Latvian pop-act Markus Riva collaborates with the fan engagement platform Fanvestory to share his exclusive content, merchandise and a part of his future royalty earnings with his biggest fans and supporters.

Many artists are trying to find new ways to attract fans, but more importantly connect with them as streaming and digitalization has taken away one approach for artists to deeply engage with their biggest fans as they can just scroll through Spotify and find the next artist to listen to within 1 second. Exclusivity is disappearing and that is why Markus Riva has decided to take his fan engagement to the next level with Fanvestory.

“I have been attracted to music since the age of three. I am mostly inspired by my friends and the surrounding environment, but of course also by some heartbreaks and rough times I have gone through. I am lucky to be pursuing my dream in playing, performing and creating songs. There is nothing else I’d rather do and I would not be able to do it without my fanbase. I have decided to work with Fanvestory to show gratitude to my coolest fans and share part of my future earnings with them,” says the Latvian pop singer Markus Riva.

“We decided to work with Markus Riva, because there is no doubt he is a natural talent with big international fanbase and growth potential as he has fans from Russia, the Baltic States, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other countries. His creations includes many radio singles that have been #1 songs on the charts of iTunes and radio stations,” adds the CEO of Fanvestory Birgit Karus.

Markus Riva new single “Please don’t give up” , that is given out in collaboration with Fanvestory, was written in London but recorded in Riga with Kaspars Ansons – producer that stands behind previously released track “This Time”, also known as “Supernova 2018” entry. “The idea of the song came into my mind when I was in London last year. I woke up in the morning in Shoreditch district, took a shower, and I had this melody in my mind that I fixed with the guitar that was in a hotel room. I love that kind of moments when you give a birth to a song in those unexpected moments”, says Markus. You will hear a lot of “that kind of moments” in new music album by Markus Riva that is set to be released on 20th of September. It is going to be 5th album in Markus Riva’s career that consists of songs written and inspired by real life moments. The title of the new album is going to be “I CAN” because it symbolises the life of Markus Riva – “with this album I want to inspire people. The title song I wrote for my mother when she was struggling with cancer, unfortunately I lost her last year and it was a a hard time, but good to create and find myself again in music”.

Fanvestory is a fan-engagement technology platform, which allows music fans to support artists and receive exclusive content, merchandise and a small percentage of future royalties from their favourite artists in return. So far, Fanvestory has worked with popular artists like Tommy Cash, Justs and Tanel Padar and is now collaborating with Latvian pop singer and X factor host Markus Riva.

Cinema returns to Summer Sound festival

This years’ Summer Sound festival will offer a chance to watch local cinema to its attendees in just two weeks – 3rd and 4th of August.

The cinema tent has found its way back to Summer Sound festival. In it, during the whole of the festival, there will be screenings of classic and modern Latvian cinema pieces, as well as student films. The list of films includes Four white shirts, My friend – a quirky man, Thumbelin, Emīls’ mischiefs, Because of that crazy Paulīne, Soloist needed, Return of Sgt Lapiņš, Butter, short films from students of Latvian Academy of Culture and others.

Speaking of films chosen for cinema tent of Summer Sound is curator of the tent Agnese Logina:” We know well that people are not attending the festival purely for the cinema, but we wish to broaden the spectrum of experience for the attendees. This year the cinema tent will give a chance to get to know different generations of Latvian cinema. For some this might mean watching the Latvian classics for the first time, for some it might be a revisiting of those, but the cinema tent is going to be a place for rejuvenation, good mood, laughter and new findings. The cinema tent is going to screen the classics and also more recent films, especially suited for families with kids, but all of the films are going to be life-affirming pieces motivating contemplation through laughter.”

This year the festival also invites you to attend warm-up concerts for the festival that are going to take place in Liepaja the whole week through – in Petermarket, at Liepaja University and Julianna’s court in July 31st, August 1st and August 2nd. On the City stage 15 local musicians and DJs, including Liepaja inhabitants, will perform. The three stages will host The Coconuts, Mārtiņš Dambis & Co, NiklāvZ, Funky DJ Elegant, The Mary Jane and others. Entrance is free of charge.

The most recent news of Summer Sound festival and the City stage program can be checked out at the Summer Sound official app, downloaded within Google Play Store and Appstore.

Up until now these artists have been announced for this years’ Summer Sound festival – American rockband Goo Goo Dolls, the British rockband Coasts, German DJ Alle Farben, the local Musiqq, Aija Andrejeva, Labvēlīgais Tips, Dzelzs Vilks, Pienvedēja Piedzīvojumi, Rīgas Modes, Igo, Justs, Sudden Lights, Marta Ritova, Astra The 22’s, Rigga Reggae, Singapūras Satīns, rappers Ansis, Edavārdi and Fakts, DJs Toms Grēviņš and Makree, bands Čipsis un Dullais, Inokentijs Mārpls, Soundarcade, Židrūns, The Bongo Club, The Bad Tones, Múr, Buchares, PODRUGA, DJ Uldis Rudaks.

Lithuania-based musician Andis Grīva with his band – Andis Grīva is WWMM, Lithuanian Colours of Bubbles, Garbanotas Bosistas and Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio dantys.

In year 2018, Summer Sound will take place for the 8th time, and has undoubtedly become one of the most important music events of the Baltic summer. That is confirmed by the thousands of attendees that come each year to the wonderful beach of Liepāja to enjoy musical entertainment and relaxation by the seaside for two whole days. Each year, the festival offers more than 50 artists, as well as providing a menu of various entertaining activities.

Summer Sound is supported by Liepāja city, you are kindly invited by A/S Aldaris, and the festival is reccomended by the official radio of the festival – Radio SWH.

Latvian music is taking over the top spots in Lithuania’s radios

Good news – Latvian music is taking over the top spots in Lithuania’s radios! In the 1st place this week is K. Ansons’, V.Sprudzs’, K.Praulina’s and Jurga’s song “Be Žodžių” on FM99 in Alytas, English version of this song is  “(My Heart Beats) Staccato”, which was co-written by Kaspars Ansons, Kristīne Prauliņa and Valters Sprūdžs, this is one of the songs which were created during the fall session of the songwriting workshop “RIGaLIVE”. 

Don’t forget to catch Carnival Youth live this week in Lithuania – today at Loftas in Vilnius, and tomorrow in Alytas city festival.