Category: News

Musical hooligans “Very Cool People” release the second single from the autumn album “50 Years of Influence + 30 Years of Cool Equals 13 Years of Music Hooliganism”. It’s called Renegade and is released along with the band’s most engaging video to date.

The song is recorded in the studio at once by an 8-piece band featuring four horns & rhythm section. This is an instrumental tune. The composition also has a vocal part in the middle with the lyrics “Baaa, baa, ba, ba, ba, ba, baaa”. This song has a slight Soviet estrada touch as well.  The new single is based on the aesthetics of vocal-instrumental music of Latvia of the seventies, written in the best retro soul-jazz tradition, mixed with ska and Latin rhythms. The composition has a vocal part in the middle with the lyrics “Bā, bā, bā, bā, bā / Bā, bā, bā, bā, ba, ba, bā…” that are easily understandable by all the nations of the world. Scatting syllables and sounds “ba, ba, bā…” could also be called unique, new scat phrases with the claim to become archived in the consciousness of the world music industry as a Latvian scat.

“We dedicate this tune and clip to all Latvian music renegades who resisted the general requirements and listened, as well as played, jazz, rock, funk and instrumental non-academic music, keeping it alive from the sixties to the nineties,” explains Very Cool People’s leader Elvijs Grafcovs. “We want to say:” Thank you to all the renegades of the past, you helped to create the next generation of musicians and in the end you have paved the way for us in the off-road conditions of Latvia’s past! ” The clip was filmed at the legendary VEF Culture Palace, where in the past 40 to 80 different amateur and professional ensembles, choirs and dance groups have rehearsed and countless musical acts have been performed.

“We dedicate this tune and clip to all Latvian music renegades who resisted the general requirements and listened, as well as played, jazz, rock, funk and instrumental non-academic music, keeping it alive from the sixties to the nineties,” explains Very Cool People’s leader Elvijs Grafcovs. “We want to say:” Thank you to all the renegades of the past, you helped to create the next generation of musicians and in the end you have paved the way for us in the off-road conditions of Latvia’s past! ” The clip was filmed at the legendary VEF Culture Palace, where in the past 40 to 80 different amateur and professional ensembles, choirs and dance groups have rehearsed and countless musical acts have been performed.

“Never thought we’d compose a track for Japanese animation? Neither did we J watch the new video and try to identify each of us in it”

Today, April 21st, Brainstorm releases their new music video “Feels”. This unique video is made by animation studio “HonkFu”. Animators across the world were working for eight months to create the video in the Japanese manga format. In addition to the main characters in the story, members of Brainstorm are brought to life as superheroes.

The idea for the song came from Swedish musician and producer Magnus Nilsson with whom the band has worked with for several years. This is a very contemporary song, particularly the chorus that gives a sense of total freedom and freefall – a soaring new musical experiment by the band.

“The idea came from my daily life. One day, between my daughter’s Lea toys, I saw a doll who was sitting in the wheelchair. My first impression was: “My God, who she is playing with!?”, but immediately I realized how narrow-minded and stereotypical was my thinking. I truly was ashamed. The main character in the video is a girl in a wheelchair who is scared from life and other people. She is scared, just because she is different. I want to inspire people to leave aside judgments and accept the world as it is, with each one of us in it.”

The music video for “Feels” was premiered worldwide during a special online presentation on brainstormfeels.com platform April 21st 16.oo (GMT +3). During the premiere, the audience had a chance to ask their questions to the Brainstorm members who joined live from a studio in Riga.

The website brainstormfeels.com will continue to live on after the premiere and everyone will have a chance to take a quiz related to the music video, win exclusive prizes, find out which countries have the most Brainstorm listeners, purchase new merchandise and most importantly buy discounted tickets for the new album cinematic experience this fall.

Brainstorm upcoming shows: St. Petersburg (13th May) and Moscow (14th and 16th May). More info: www.pratavetra.lv.

Reinis Jaunais recently released new animated music video for his song “Depths”. The song features several guest artists, including Regan Awale from Nepal, Ivars Štubis from Australia, Erna Daugaviete and Ernests Mediņš from Latvia.

The video was made by Reinis Jaunais’s wife Laima Jaunā. She made this video inspired by a dream she once had. She describes the idea behind this surreal video: “Imagine yourself waking up in the middle of a night because of a mosquito buzzing around you. You get up desperately trying to catch it! Afterwards, you can’t get back to sleep anymore because you are stuck in a weird place between your dreams and reality.”

Nepalese musician Regan Awale recorded sarod tracks for this song. Sarod is a string instrument, common in Nepal, as well as in India and other nearby countries. It has broad fretless fingerboard covered in metal. The strings of the sarod are plucked with a plectrum held in the right hand, while the fingernails of the left hand press and slide the strings. The plectrum often is made out of a coconut bark. Sarod has up to 25 strings, most are tuned up in a particular scale for resonant, reverberant sound.

Another featuring artist in this composition is Ivars Štubis. Ivars Štubis was born and raised in Australia but he moved back to Latvia year ago. Ivars added bass guitar lines to this song. Latvian musician Erna Daugaviete added cello tracks to this composition. At the very beginning and end of this song you can hear some vibraphone melodies played by Ernests Mediņš, known as member of Perpetuum Ritmico band. Audio was mixed by sound designer Arvis Ahuns.

The song is included in Reinis Jaunais latest music album “Zeme”, released with the support of VKKF fund and AKKA / LAA author scholarship. The album also raised necessary funds on the crowd-funding platform “Projektu banka” in less than 24 hours.

American record label Prima Classic has released Andrejs Osokins’ new album “Two Worlds”, dedicated to two outstanding composers – George Gershwin and Claude Debussy. It depicts both composers as creators of a new style piano music and the beginning of the 20th century as a time of pursuit and experimentation in music.

Andrejs Osokins’ new album is a glance at a unique moment in the 20th century’s musical scene, on both sides of the Atlantic, through a personal selection of piano pieces by George Gershwin and Claude Debussy.

“I was very thrilled when the founders of “Prima Classic” – our great opera singer Marina Rebeka and the wonderful sound director Edgardo Vertanessian – reached out to me to record a solo album. This idea, despite the limitations of the pandemic, was realized with tremendous inspiration and energy, and I am extremely glad that it is appreciated by listeners all over the world,” reveals Andrejs Osokins.

Even before the album was released several tracks from it had been noticed and appreciated around the world. Three singles that were released – George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Claude Debussy’s “Clair de lune” and “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” from the suite “Children’s Corner” – were included in prominent classical music playlist on Spotify. This playlist highlights outstanding classical recordings from around the world. Several tracks have also garnered praise from music experts from Apple Music and Amazon Music.

he layout of all 24 tracks on the album was purposefully and conceptually curated. The album demonstrates the search for musical means of expression by both composers while vividly revealing the mood that prevailed in Europe and the US in the early 20th century.

The video for George Gershwin’s piece “The Man I Love”, which Andrejs Osokins performs in his transcription for the left hand..

The layout of all 24 tracks on the album was purposefully and conceptually curated. The album demonstrates the search for musical means of expression by both composers while vividly revealing the mood that prevailed in Europe and the US in the early 20th century.

The record is directed and produced by Edgardo Vertanessian who over the years has collaborated with countless world-renowned classical and non-classical musicians and bands, including Marina Rebeka, Luciano Pavarotti, Anders Miolin, Taylor Swift, The Who, Rihanna, Jay Z, Kayne West and many more.

Edgardo Vertanessian says about the creation of the album: “At Prima, we knew Andrejs for a long time and we have been following his career, he is such an amazing pianist! We wanted to show his art to our audience through a studio recording, and we discussed the project with him, and this great album came out as the result. We dedicated a good number of long recording sessions so he could experiment with different interpretations and then he took the time to listen and to decide which were the versions that he liked the most. This is a luxury these days when usually artists go to the studio and record a lot of music in a relatively short time, and this is also something that cannot be achieved on a live recording because an artist can only play a piece once! We are very happy we did it this way.”

The recording was made in Latvian Radio Studio 1. The album is published by “Prima Classic” label whose founders are Marina Rebeka and Edgardo Vertanessian.

Song “Stop” is dedicated for all those who didn’t know or care that for some people they are a hero. An inspiration for this one came from famous photo “Tank man”. Latvian version “Divatā” is a story about desire, fear and indecision. Both versions of the song are available on all biggest music streaming platforms.

Song was recorded in bands own studio “Laimes Telpa” with bands guitarist Mārcis as sound engineer, and some parts with Mārcis Kalniņš in “Siguldas skaņu studija”. Song was mixed by Krišjānis Geidāns, mastered by Minerva Pappi from Waudio Mastering. Artwork by Miķelis Vīte.

Song was funded with the help of LaiPa (Latvian Performers’ and Producers’ Association).

The Latvian rock phenom “Laime Pilniga” embodies a rock`n`roll dream by combining elements of unique vocals, groovy rhythm section and virtuoso electric guitars. Fueled by true passion and outstanding musicianship band is a one of must see live acts from Baltic rock scene.

Laime Pilniga have released four studio albums – Dual (2011), LP (2015) Synergy and Waterlilies (2018) and “Atoms”(2019). All albums have been nominated as “Best rock/ metal album” in annual Latvian music awards “Zelta mikrofons”.

The band have toured a lot in Europe and shared stage with artists like: Three Days Grace, Anathema, Sinead o’Connor, Jake’s Lee Red Dragon Cartel, Mummiy Troll, Frank Turner, Skyforger and many others.

Ervīns Ramiņš (Vocals), Mārcis Vasiļevskis (Guitars), Jānis Olekšs (Bass) and Elvijs Mamedovs (Drums & Percussion).

From home to home: this could be a motto of a project, created in 2020 by a Latvian composer and pianist Edgars Cīrulis, which resulted in an altruistic collaboration of many people and a composition called «silence». The composition for voice and orchestra, composed by Edgars last spring upon his return to his Latvian home, is based on a poem by Aleksandra Line. The music is recorded by 19 professional musicians from Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark, sound production done by Toms Lisments, video art — by Patrīcija Vilsone. This way the composer has united different worlds which couldn’t have normally met, especially in 2020.

«Last spring I returned to the safety of my childhood home, and I had time. I’ve finished this new piece for voice and orchestra and was very excited to premiere it, but then last year changed things and I had no idea when I’d be able to hear it played by real people instead of my notation software. So I reached out to my friends and colleagues and invited them to lend their voice to this piece — to my great surprise, so many of them decided to participate in the project. This way, we could unite different parts of the world in one place», — says Edgars Cīrulis about his composition.

This piece was specially composed for a Latvian singer Beāte Zviedre — as Edgars says, the voice that speaks volumes. Cīrulis has collaborated with Beāte many times and greatly appreciates her musical potential. This also isn’t the first collaboration with Patrīcija Vilsone, a young Latvian artist and student of Latvian Academy of Art, which has dedicated many months to original illustrations which evolved into the music video.

The lyrics are written by a poet Aleksandra Line who explains her choice of the topic: ««silence» isn’t necessarily the time after everything has ended — quite often that’s a moment before. Last year has been too silent for all of us, especially the music industry, but it’s really important to remember that silence isn’t boring or empty at all — it can contain lots of colorful things. For example, a precious word or sound can be born in silence».

«silence» was created by:

Composition — Edgars Cīrulis

Lyrics — Aleksandra Line

Art and video — Patrīcija Vilsone

Mix and master — Toms Lisments

And recorded by:

Voice — Beāte Zviedre (Latvia)
Piano — Edgars Cīrulis (Latvia)
Violins — Dita Celitāne (Latvia), Ivars Brīnums (Latvia)

Viola — Marius Ungureanu (Romania), Ivars Brīnums (Latvia)

Cello — Sarma Gabrēna (Latvia)

Double bass — Jānis Rubiks (Latvia)

Flute — Alise Golovacka (Latvia), Rūta Sīpola (Latvia)

Oboe — Eva Vrtacnik (Slovenia)

Clarinets — Anna Gāgane (Latvia), Ciprian Dancu (Romania)

Bassoon — Katrīne Kuģe (Latvia)

Bass clarinet — Kristaps Lubovs (Latvia)

Trumpet — Dāvis Sedols (Latvia)

French horn — Erik Sandberg (Sweden)

Trombones — Krists Liepa (Latvia), Jonas Lindh (Denmark)

Percussion — Ēriks Miezis (Latvia)

 

In celebration of their song’s Find My Way 50k streaming mark on Spotify within a less than a month, DJ’s and music producers [Ex] da Bass and REZarin are inviting all interesents to participate in a Find My Way remix contest. The highest rated remix, as well as 5 other best remixes will be released by the Day Dose Of House label.

“Find My Way is dedicated to the “challenging times”, in other words – the life stage period in 2020 when the world has lost it’s control and we’re all on our own. For the representatives of the entertainment and music industries, this year will always be remembered as very tough, when every person had to “find his way”. We found our way by creating a joint song which we’re submitting for your evaluation. While our mouths and noses are blocked, listen to our track. Our ears are still free and they’re what the song was made for. Besides, if you’ll also dance, then it will be a great combination, because physical activities strenghten health and eases the mind”, as been said by [Ex] da Bass and REZarin.

On Friday, 15th of January, Latvian indie-pop band Blue Jean Serenade release their newest song Your Heart.

The single is the very first song published after the debut album that was presented back in March 2020, just before the pandemic hit Latvia. The new single marks a new chapter in the band’s musical life.

The song Your Heart is about the feelings each of us hold inside. The feelings of love. The lead singer Jānis Niedra explains: “We are scared of revealing our love in fear of getting hurt and not receiving it back. We are afraid to ruin the relationships we already have, so we don’t go all in. Then we play out the confession of the other person and how it would feel. How wonderful it would be. This idea warms the heart, even if it is not meant to be. In the end, we mostly regret the things we haven’t done.”

The song first came to be in a song-writing camp held in Riga. It was further developed in the creative camp Blue Jean Serenade had in the July 2020 in the countryside of Latvia. The record is made together with the Latvian producer and musician Aleksis Luriņš. Mix and master is made by Andis Ansons.

Blue Jean Serenade dates back to 2016 when the lead singer Janis and the drummer Tomass started playing together. The team has changed over the years, and now they play and write as a five-person band. In 2016 the band released an EP in English called All My Friends Care About Celebrities, Well, I Don’t and then turned to writing in their native language as well. The band has held concerts all around the country and participated in Reeperbahn Festival 2018 in Hamburg. In March 2020 Blue Jean Serenade released their debut album Prieks, no kura neizaug. Laiks, kuru neaizmirst. (Latvian for for Happiness that can’t be outgrown. Time that can’t be forgotten.)

After three weeks in Radio SWH competition for new artists called “Priekšnams” “Taurud” is the 3rd best.

“I’ve Been Carrying My Past Lives With Me” is about becoming free from our past. “Taurud” said: The only thing ever messing with our heads is either our memories we are collecting like souvenirs or projections of the future. One is programming how we react and deal with things, and the other causes discomfort, cos we’re afraid of all the unknown. The song is about breaking free, being in the moment. It’s like a friendly tap on the shoulder saying You got this, it’s all in our head, and I am convinced that anyone can overcome anything. Be inspired.

This year has started with new aspirations. The musician is hoping to be in Latvia for spring to present his double single – Latvian and English version. Like many artists, I am not making any income during this time, but I am still looking forward to getting ready for April to go home and bring everyone present – new music. My birthday is in April. This time around I’d want to offer a song in Latvian as well, to get closer to my Latvian listeners. Fingers crossed, we will see each other soon, and I will be able to play live. We’re working on some live streams right now: says “Taurud”.

“Taurud” and his team would love to release the album this year, but there is no chance to continue the recording process because the situation is the way it is in the UK. The songwriter is ready to get back to work as soon as he will be allowed. The song for the spring release was recorded early last year and finished remotely. “Taurud” says: Nothing will stop me, man. I’m pushing forward!