Category: News

On the 24. March 20:00 after performing a livestream concert “Rihards Lībietis Orchestra” will begin a crowdfunding campaign for the upcoming album “Willful Blindness” that is set to release at the end of May. The campaign is being hosted by the crowdfunding site “Projektu banka”.

“This album has been in production for the majority of last year and was recorded in autumn of 2020. We have poured a lot of time, care and love into it. Coincidentally, the making of this album coincided with the epidemic and all of its consequences. Somehow this album has been constantly plagued by hardships and financial troubles. Musically, this album definitely has the most layers out of all the other albums which we have released so far. Contrasting themes and powerful soundscapes, this album is meant to touch on complicated themes. We believe that it is very important to finally finish this album so we can present it to our listeners and so we can move on.” Revealed the leader of the band and the author of the music Rihards Lībietis. “We decided to make the crowdfunding campaign on “Projektu banka” because it is a wonderful way to support good and creative ideas which need finances to achieve.”

The band’s cello player Erna Daugaviete also added: “It’s plain to see that in recent days many artists of different types deeply miss the opportunities to present their art to a wider audience.  Especially musicians and dancers. During the last year we all have experienced a huge spectrum of emotions, that it’s hard not to express it through our art. We long for listeners we could tell at least a fraction of the stories that comes from the language of our souls. Through music one can say many things. Music has the power to heal both the player and the listener. Obviously, a livestream concert doesn’t have the same energy exchange as a live concert but for now this is the only way we can contact our listeners with our music. It’s also a great opportunity for us to have a heart to heart with our listeners.”

The livestream concert will feature songs from the upcoming album “Willful Blindness” some of which will be performed for the first time. The concert will be broadcasted on Rihards Lībiets YouTube channel:

The crowdfunding project will be available to supporters on “Projektu banka” platform for one month – until 22nd of April. More information about the album’s release and ways to support it can be found here: https://projektubanka.lv/projects/albums-willful-blindness. It is informatively supported by “Valmiermuižas” beer brewery and Rocket Bean Cafe.

The name of the album “Willful Blindness” refers to the desire of individuals refusing to acknowledge alarming things happening to oneself and everywhere else on the planet. The themes of the album are about each person’s responsibility to oneself, accepting one’s light and dark side, which creates a desire to learn and experience new things, strive to be responsible and believe in oneself.

The album will include 12 instrumental compositions the author of which is Rihards Lībietis and in collaboration with the other band members. Aside from Rihards Lībietis (acoustic and electric guitar), Erna Daugaviete (cello), Gints Smukais (acoustic guitar), Matīss Repsis (percussion) and Jānis Polis (bass) the album also features Mārtiņš Miļevskis (percussion), Laura Rozenberga (trombone), Valters Šmits (saxophone) and Reinis Klatenbergs (french horn). Album was recorded at “AMFO Music” studio in Rīga. Sound production was managed by Toms Lisments.

The two prior released singles from the album  “Night Follow Me” and “Driftwood Island” are available on all streaming platforms including Spotify.

“Rihards Lībietis Orchestra” is a quintet performing dynamic instrumental world music. The band fuses together African, Middle-Eastern and Lavian folk music while taking inspiration from blues and jazz music.

On April 30, the local group “Dagamba” and the new singer Dārta Stepanova released a new collaboration – the song “I must go further”.

The title of the song is especially significant for Dārta Stepanova, as this is her debut in the world of Latvian popular music. The author of the single’s music is a member of “Dagamba”, cellist Valters Pūce, while the author of the words – singer Patrisha, the representatives of the musicians informed.

Local Latvian rock band Cacophonics presents their newest song We Did Not Use It All and an accompanying video.

The song’s author Ingus Sala comments: “Just like for many other bands, last year has been a big challenge for us. We greatly missed spending time together, rehearsing, also gigging and visiting shows of other musicians. At the same time, it has been a good opportunity to slow down and evaluate past events and decisions so as to more effectively use the chances that live presents and appreciate things that seemed self-evident in the past”.

The song was recorded at No Fuss Audio studio in Tukums, it was mixed by the drummer of Cacophonics Valērijs Černejs. The song’s music and lyrics were written by the band’s singer and guitar player Ingus Sala. The video for the song was filmed at Tukums city Culture Center, it was shot and edited by Gints Sprēdis in collaboration with the band’s bass player Aivars Daugavietis.

Cacophonics was formed in 2002 in Cēsis, up until now the band had released 1 full-length LP, 2 Eps and 7 singles, has played shows in all Baltic states, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Russia.

Spotify

Press release photo by Laura Grūbe.

Electronic music producers MICKEEN (Miks Pinzulis), and DESTRO (Voldemārs Pauls Dzenis), in collaboration with Jasmine Green Tea (Jasmīne Zavele)  on march 26, release the single “We Lost Us”.

Jasmine Green Tea about the song: It’s hard to put the idea of the song to words, and just as hard to understand what the people around are dealing with emotionally. The words “We Lost Us” resemble a lot of things. Everyone has their own demons to deal with. They can be stored deep within, they can appear in the form of another person. We can’t grasp how simple it is to bestrange ourselves, while fighting mazes placed by others. That’s what the lyrics are all about – not losing yourself trying not to lose someone else.

MICKEEN about the song: I’ve been working together with DESTRO for over a year now, but just now are we actually showing the results to the listeners. As the first original collaboration we decided to release “We Lost Us”, because that’s one of the first songs we worked together on. There were many versions. At the end we decided to go with this one.

Latvian indie rock band Carnival Youth have released another remix from their upcoming “Good Luck” remix EP – this time it’s Kasetes remake of “Boys Do Cry”. This follows the “Only the Moon Can See the Sun” remix by Bel Tempo released in February.

Kasetes, who’s latest album “Dialogue” was named Best Electronic Music Album at the 2021 Latvian Music Awards “Zelta Mikrofons”, have given “Boys Do Cry” a fresh 80s synthpop vibe. The remix comes with a reconstructed original music video, that emphasises the new ambience of the track.

Since Kasetes have already done a dazzling remix of Carnival Youth’s “Underneath the Water” a few years ago, they were one of the first ones Carnival Youth thought of when deciding which creators to give “Good Luck” songs to remix. “Cool people and a cool band with a distinct style and their own signature sound within the local music scene,” describes Emils Kaupers from Carnival Youth. “I sent Rudolfs the song tracks almost a year ago and he replied very quickly with an almost finished version of the remix. It’s essentially a Kasetes song with a “Boys Do Cry” vocal tracks since it feels like almost all instruments are added from scratch. And that’s the beauty of this project – each artist can do whatever they want with the song. We love to be surprised!”

Rudolfs Zagorskis of Kasetes explains that it was difficult to choose which song to remix: “After experimenting with three songs, that I thought would work well as remixes, “Boys Do Cry” vocal track brought the most interesting vibe. I began with putting together interesting synth chords that further created the mood of the track and from there it was pretty easy to amplify it with different elements. Since 80s music is close to my heart, I chose to make the whole song with the mood of that time – electric drums and analogue synthesizers. When the remix was almost done, bass player Jurgis Prieditis joined and played bass in the “slap” technique, which added a good atmosphere to the remix.”

The Latvian indie band Carnival Youth is one of the most successful new generation bands from the Baltic region. Carnival Youth fuse neat melodic lines with the energy of alternative rock and indie music, while their emotion range varies from youthful melancholia to pure, bright joy. Since the formation of the band, Carnival Youth have released five records, from which the latest one – “Good Luck” came out in August 2019.

On March 26, 2021, rock band JAUDA released a music video from the second studio album with the same title “UNDER WATER”. It’s been more than a year, since we began to form relationships, beliefs, comprehensions and attitudes that contradicts our nature.

Double standards, money, control and propaganda are the tools by which politicians sit in their baths trying to wash off the dirt of responsibility. The water gets dirty and starts to draw in the mouth – disgusting taste, but there is no escape … and panic begins!

The show goes on and has reached its climax, digital fatigue and the public can no longer hold the pressure pumped by the media throughout the year.  We supervise everything, we control everything, the direction is clear, but the human essence, value, intentions, relationships, dreams and daily life remains behind.

We are patients of our government, imprisoned in restrictions and we see how we destroy ourselves and one other. What mind cannot comprehend, the body cannot accept. In the end – someone will fall.

This year, the rock band JAUDA has released several singles like “EYES”, “APART”, “LOVE AND SUNSHINE”, “DEEP INSIDE” and latest single “UNDER WATER”, that also introduces the release of the new album. There are 11 songs in the album that have been created within the last two years. The album includes songs that haven’t been released before, but the overall mood of the album leads through an electronically deep

rock wave that retains its energy and propulsion. The band members say that this album is very different from the first album and more reflects the direction in which the band sees itself in the future in terms of sound. Album is currently available digitally, but band members revealed that the album will also be available on vinyl.

The album is available on major streaming platforms and digitally available on the band’s BANDCAMP profile.