Author: macha

Lithuanian producer GeraiGerai has just released a new remix of Latvian singer’s Aminata single Fighter.

Thanks to the ReZarin and Matthew Nagle remixes of the track “Heartbeat” by Justs, that have been released by MicRec and are often included in the sets of DJs from the United Kingdom, the track has made it into the official Upfront Club Chart Top 40. Currently the track is a newcomer and is on the 14th place. We will continue to analyse the developments during next week. The remix by Rūdolfs Zariņš (ReZarin) has been played more than 250 000 on his SoundCloud profile already!

All 11 remixes of the track released by MicRec so far are available on Doremi.lv, iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music. 

This song was included in band’s latest album Space Synesthia that was released in late 2015 and features vocals from Anita Intaite.

Author notes that the video for Winters End was specially designed to be released in late June as it is devoted to Midsummer’s festival. It was created by the director Jānis Vīksne, 7 Synths founder Kaspars Tobis, Aero Vision’s Agris Tabaks and Eva Kronberga from contemporary dance studio Ārā.

7 Synths is an electronic, synth pop and ambient music project created by Kaspars Tobis, the keyboard player of the popular Latvian rock band Dzelzs Vilks. Often called the Latvian Jean Michel Jarre, Tobis has so far released 3 albums produced mainly on analogue synthesizers.

Latvian singer Evija and Serbian “beast on drums” Lav recorded their new single in Serbia, right after performing in the prestigious “The Great Escape” and “Liverpool Sound City” music showcases.

The notorious duet will start their summer concert series in “Positivus” festival on the “I Love You” stage on 16th of July at 18:45. Followed by the release concert of their new single “Tic Tac” in concert venue “Autentika”, Bruņinieku 2, Rīga, on 18th of July, where they will share the night with the Polish duet “Coal”. This event is made special with the premier of several new songs.

You can hear more of the duet in festivals like ’’Summer sound’’, “Galapagai”, “Lab Daba”, “Piena Svētki” and “Fontaine Festival’’. 

Latvian alternative rock four-piece band Neon Saturdays has released their new single titled In My Eyes. The song came to be after a long and close collaboration with the upcoming british producer Dan Weller.

While talking about the band’s most recent accomplishment singer Andris Evelis admits that working tohether with the british professional was a worthy challenge for the band. „We started working on this song last Summer. A lot of time and resources went into perfecting the sound because we felt that this record should convey maturity – a new level we’ve achieved as a band. The results satisfied us completely and we really did learn a lot,” says Evelis. While recording the band also received a huge support from their hometown – the municipality of Sigulda.

Before getting into studio in the Summer of 2015 Neon Saturdays had a chance to play a couple of shows at The Great Escape – leading festival for new music in UK. The band also played most of the big festivals at home in Latvia and has already accepted the support slot for James (UK). The british rockers will hit the stage of Sunset Festival at Sigulda on July 6th.

Rihards Fedotovs is presenting his music video and recording studio. Musician and music producer Rick Feds aka Richards Fedotovs is sharing the music video of his song “Forever”, the first witness of “Rick Feds Society” upcoming album. He is also inviting folks to discover his new recording studio “Creative Society Studios”.

The idea of “Rick Feds Society” was polished during the “Creative Music Workshops” (“Riharda Fedotova radošās darbnīcas”) which during the time from 2013 till 2015 were held in music clubs in Riga, improvisational music sessions with the top latvian soloists and instrumentalists.

However, “Rick Feds Society” is an electronic music synthesis which will feature soloists as: Aigars Gravers, Ralfs Eilands, Kristine Praulina, as well as Taphy Spencer (USA), Rachel Claudio (FRA). “Forever” is the first single and first music video of the upcoming album.

The song is a collaboration with the American singer Taphy Spencer and the music video has been made by Janis Abele (director), Aleksandr Grebnev (main camera) and Martins Dabolins (visual effects). The video has been shot in four different cities: Philadelphia, New York, Riga and Saldus (a little town in Latvia where Richards was born).

Alongside the video Rick Feds is also presenting his newly done recording studio in the very centre of Riga, “Creative Music Studios” . The large environment of the studio makes it possible to capture very different characters of music starting from song production to larger ensemble recordings. Inside of the studio is an impressive collection of Richards analogue synthesisers, drums and various oriental instruments.

If “Rick Feds Society” involves a larger group of musicians and soloists, “Rick Feds” stands for Rihards solo performance beats on the AbletonPUSH controller and is starting to get international recognition. Last weeks performance at the Baltic Art Forum in London has left a promising resonance and future performance possibilities. Furthermore, his summer awaits a few mini tours in Latvia, Germany, Sweden and The United States. 

DAGAMA gave 6 concerts at the Festival Artisti in Piazza, Pennabilli that has been held already for 20 years. The musicians were amused by the genuine public’s ovation and enthusiasm, received after each concert. Italy is the cradle of classical music, that’s why DAGAMBA concerts were most willingly attended, as the guys play classical music in an unusual and modern manner. Italian public has come across such a musical performance for the first time. The Festival draws about 40 000 visitors every year. The special attention gained the group’s variation on the Italian composer A.Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, which will be possible to hear in Latvia during the autumn concert tour “Vivaldi Rocks”. As the result of successful performances band is already invited to participate in most popular show “Italia’s Got Talent”.

“Four Seasons” is the most famous Vivaldi’s piece of work he had composed ever. We perform it in the manner it never sounded before. This will be challenging, as the original “Four Seasons” were composed for the violin, – tells Valters Puce, who has enjoyed Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” since early years.

From 31 May the concert tour tickets are available for purchase. At the final concert of the tour, held at the venue “Palladium” in Riga, the first 300 tickets are available for purchase only for 10 EUR. The tickets are distributed by “Biļešu paradīze” ticket service network.

It is planned that this year the group will give seven concerts at the best Latvian concert venues – Dzintari concert venue, in Jurmala, on 2 September; at the concert venue “Gors”, in Rezekne, on 18 September; at the Vidzeme concert venue, in Cesis, on 1 October; at the concert venue “Jūras vārti”, in Ventspils, on 15 October; at the Jelgava Cultural Centre, on 28 October; at the concert venue “Lielais Dzintars”, in Liepaja, on 5 November; and at the concert venue “Palladium”, in Riga, on 12 November.

Latvian indie rock band Carnival Youth have recently returned from a month long tour in Europe, promoting their second album Propeller. 

During the month long tour they performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, England, Poland and Hungary. Carnival Youth also performed as a warm-up act for Andrew Bird in Brussels – in what was their first show in Belgium.

“It seems almost unbelievable that we are so lucky to have this amazing opportunity to travel, see different cultures, and play our music in many countries, cities and venues,“ says Carnival Youth. 

This summer Carnival Youth will perform in France (Europavox festival), Estonia (Kaparock festival), Lithuania (Karklė Live Music Beach), Austria (Szene Open Air), Poland (Different Sounds Art’n’Music Festival) and Latvia where the band will play at the Positivus Festival, Holi Festival of Colours, Summersound Festival and elsewhere. 

In November 2016 Carnival Youth will set off for the second part of Propeller tour, playing the best venues in Latvia, their home country. 

This weekend, from 27th to 29th of May Liverpool will host its annual music festival and international music & digital business conference Liverpool Sound City where Latvia will be represented by the perspective avant-pop band Howling Owl.

Howling Owl is a Latvian-Serbian duo that consists of Latvian singer and keyboardist Evija Vebere and Serbian drummer and keyboardist Lav Kovac. The band will perform twice at the Liverpool Sound City and on Saturday they’ll have a headline show at the legendary The Cavern Club where The Beatles started their career. Although Howling Owl was formed just a year ago, it already has established itself as one of the most unique and promising new acts in Europe that proved it once again last weekend during The Great Escape festival in Brighton. 

Latvia was also represented there by the EBBA Award winners Carnival Youth, singer-songwriter Alise Joste and Music Export Latvia. The latter was nominated as the Best Export Office in the Yearly Music Convention Awards for the second time in three years. YMCAs also honored Carnival Youth manager and the CEO of music management company Every Little Thing Guna Zucika by naming her one of the candidates for the Convention Junkie award.

The new latvian band “The Citizens LV” releases their first single “Happy Family” and a music video from their upcoming debut album “Concrete Dreams” which comes out on October 5th.

“Happy Family” is the newest piece from bands’ written work which a week before recording it in studio was just an idea with some basic guidelines written out.  “Happy Family” is filled with synthesizer riffs, which are complemented by R&B, hip hop and dance music rhythms, but still retains rock&roll taste added from the riffs of electric guitar.

The song’s lyrics are about unfulfilled hopes, pain and disappointment of failed relationships and difficulties, that have to be overcome in order to preserve what is important for oneself.

“”Happy Family” is gloomy but energetic at the same time, and it is hard to stand still and not dance along when the song comes on,” the band says about their new single.

The music video complements  the song’s lyrical message by proceeding the theme of trust, relationships, fear and ignorance. The main character goes through a lot of stormy events and in the end has to face the consequences. The video gives you food for thought – are you happy and whether you know what happiness means to you.

On October 5th, 2015 the band “The Citizens LV” releases their debut album “Concrete Dreams” and its’ presentation concert will be held on October 8th at the club/night venue “Piens”. More information will be published at the end of September.

“The Citizens LV” was formed in 2009 by four friends, at that time schoolmates – Jānis (lead vocals), Reinis (keyboards), Roberts (bass) and Krišjānis (drums). After a while Rihards (lead guitar) joined in. The band throughout its’ existence has experimented with different music genres until they finally found their sound in something that is a mix of everything they admire in music and the band describes it as synth rock. The biggest events they have participated in are Positivus 2014, Kuldīga LiveFest and Eurobasket 2015 as musical performers at the biggest event hall in Latvia – Arena Riga.