Category: News

“Wow, you are really looking quite fabulous” – conveys Franco Franco’s newest song and video “You Look So Good”, which is the first single from the upcoming full-length album.

Band leader Elizabete Vētra explains: “The aim of the song is to encourage people to be brave. It is about freedom of choice, daring to look in the mirror and believing that you’re awesome – with all your quirks and peculiarities. Even if you don’t fit into the stereotypes dictated by society.”

“At the end of the long road that we call life, we’re all equal regardless of our skin color, looks, or the people we love,” Vētra adds.

The new single is the forerunner of the band’s first full-length album, which is to be released at the end of the year. “Does this song characterize the sound of the album? Possibly. And yet we do not believe in boundaries. That’s why the new album will be quite eclectic — featuring sounds characteristic to different genres like pop, electronic music, even post-rock,” says Reinis Kārkliņš, guitarist and producer of the song.

Franco Franco’s previous single “Vadugunis”, written in their native Latvian and created together with rapper Ipstens Kūns and producer Arstarulsmirus, received positive reviews from the public and Latvian radio stations.

“Franco Franco” has performed in some of the most popular local festivals – “Summer Sound”, ”Positivus”, “Fono Cēsis” etc., as well as opened for Tom Odell and Jessie Ware. The band has recorded two EPs — “Color Me” (2013) and “Moon + Light” (2016), produced by Reinis Sējāns (“Instrumenti”) and named among the best alternative or indie-pop music albums in Latvia in 2016.

This summer “Franco Franco” will perform at “Playground Festival” (July 14), as well as other concerts throughout Latvia.

A rockband from Latvia “CanZone” – after recently releasing their first LP “High Time” in CD format – offers now a video for one of the album’s songs “Kliedz bez skanas”. It’s a quite unusual and surprising visual material!

 A song video, that might be called also a short film, is fully handmade – in a technique apparently absent in nowadays music videos. This was accomplished thanks to two creative people from “machinaLID”. The music video is a filmed shadow play, insipred by Hans Christian Andersen’s immortal tale of the steadfast tin soldier, the fragile paper dancer and their ardent unspoken love. Andersen’s lesser-known passion for paper cutting is another source of inspiration.

“High Time” is a music album representing creative expressions from several passionate people, who dare to believe – it’s what the world needs to hear. Coming straight out from the underground rock scene, “CanZone” debut album contains ten original songs – half of them sung in band’s native language and the other half in world’s rockmusic language.

Rockband “CanZone” creates and performs music (fusion of rock, pop and folk) by focusing on the epic synthesis of electric guitar and accordion. Most of the songs were recorded, mixed and mastered in studio “Lauska” (in Riga, Latvia) under the supervision of sound engineer Kaspars Barbals. Though a couple of songs were recorded working with studio “GEM” and studio Reinis Brigis.

“Very Cool People” is an instrumental jazz-funk band originated in Riga, Latvia. With a backbone in jazz and funk, incorporating influences from rock and hip-hop, “Very Cool People” is creating modern and listenable music for a wide audience. While using contemporary tools, the band is trying to bring jazz & funk back to the dance floor and make it more accessible to ordinary, nowadays people. “Very Cool People” is an active-gigging band in which all the members love & enjoy performing live shows more than anything.

“Very Cool People” starting from June, each month, will release a new live video with tunes from band’s latest album “Heya Some Kind Of Fish …” – Camel’s Desert Party, Cats Do not Speak, Squash Express and Conde De Pimientos.

The video was created in cooperation with director Valdis Krumins and one of the hip Riga venue “One One”. “These videos have captured the essence of the album” emphasizes VCP’s leader and guitarist Elvijs Grafcovs. “These are our favourite four tunes from the album & they perfectly represents spirit of the album.”

“Heya Some Kind of Fish! We Don’t Know The Name Of This Fish In English, But In Latvian It Is Vimbas” released in 2017 is VCP’s fourth album so far represents pieces of a symbiosis between the different allied music styles – funk, soul, jazz, klezmer, Balkan & Latvian folk music. In 2015 they released their third album “Funkology” which also features guest artists – fantastic soul & jazz singers from Latvia. In 2012 the group released their second instrumental album “Cruising In The Trolley”. In June 2009 the band released their self-titled debut album. All of the band’s albums have been nominated in different Latvian Music Awards categories such as Best Jazz, Jazz & Blues, Instrumental, Best Debut, and the band’s stop-motion video for the song Hugo was nominated as best Latvian Music video of 2010.

After an almost a decade-long break we are excited and proud to release our new single “Rust and Gold” from the album with the same name coming up in September 2018. It is going to be our fourth studio record following the double “Recipe of the Golden Dream” (2008). A live release show is going to be announced soon.

After several kids born, books read, beards grown and hair cut, we have finally reunited and are currently actively working in the studio, awake and inspired as ever. We are lucky to have the great producer Adam Cooper working with us on this album. Adam has worked on one of our favorite and most influential shoegaze records of all time – Crash by Astrobrite (2001), he is also the founder of Alison’s Halo.

Latvian musician Justs has released a new single from his upcoming album, which is going to be available in Spring. New song “Are you there” is a work of musician and one of most promising new music producers in Latvia DJ Makree. Music video was developed by Ritvars Bluka.

“New single opens a question, which might seem easy to answer, but makes you really think, what makes you alive. I think that it is a question you can ask yourself every day. It is important to understand, what is your story and what is your path. You do not have to be afraid of it,” Justs explains message behind the lyrics.

With the song artist announces his debut album. “This albums content will slightly differ from what you have heard before. A lot of things have changed since the Eurovsion, impressions have turned into experiences, emotions have turned into skills. I want this album to represent more of my character.”

Music video perfectly represents the essence of the songs message and was captured by videographer Ritvars Bluka. Justs claims: “With this video my team and I wanted to show that every story is unique, and so is our characters. Sometimes it is hard to embrace who you are, but you have to be strong and resist the oppression.”

Justs Sirmais is a Latvian artist, singer and songwriter, who also was a Eurovision 2016 finalist. Now teamed up with perspective producer DJ Makree, he is exploring his capabilities through Pop, House and EDM genres.

Song “Are you there” is available on Soundcloud,  Spotify and Deezer. You can download song on iTunes.

Latvian four-piece Neon Saturdays released their new single titled Get Up on April 20th. This was a long-awaited comeback after two-year silence and took the local music scene as well as social networks by surprise because of the unconventional yet visually stunning music video that was shot during a spontaneous trip across Turkey.

“Each time we do something, we make sure we’ve raised the bar for ourselves. A new perspective, new sound or previously unexplored approach to music-making process – anything that pulls us out of our comfort zone and makes us focus during our creative process,” said the leader of the band Andris Evelis, explaining band’s silence during last couple of years.

The band teamed-up with the talented Scottish producer Lewis Gardiner to record and produce the new single.

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

Multiple Grammy recipient, sound engineer Randy Merrill (USA) was recruited to put on some finishing touches.

“I think I speak for everyone in our band when I say that our music comes from our childhood and teenage years. We’re driven by emotions and impressions we had back then – both positive and negative. The games we played, the music we listened to… Nowadays we talk about our thoughts and feelings a lot, the four of us – at times we spend a whole rehearsal just falling deeper into a conversation that should’ve lasted no more than 5 minutes. It was hard for us to grow up and now it is hard for us to commit to the daily life because it eats away at our creativity. I guess this song is about us, desperately searching for that wisdom we all had when we were children. I think we can all agree that childhood – no matter how tough or carefree – is not just a string of trivial and ultimately meaningless events. It shapes our personalities and inspires us to take certain paths in life,” commented Evelis, explaining the meaning of the song.

To celebrate the comeback, Neon Saturdays played an acoustic gig which was streamed live on Facebook:

There’s also a word that the band is preparing to release a second single this summer. A third release is planned for autumn and not long after that – a second album by the locally acclaimed four-piece should finally surface.

Neon Saturdays was formed in 2012. Since then the band has released its debut album, a number of singles, made it to the TOP10 of the biggest Latvian radio stations and 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.

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.

At the end of this summer Madara (Múr) introduced everyone with a nostalgic preview of the album – first single “Confirmations”, but today Múr is releasing a song with a completely different vibe – “One weak breath away”.

Both songs let listeners understand that the upcoming album “Under allure”, which is coming out soon, is filled with different sounds and emotions. 

A bit more than one year has passed since the moment Renars Kaupers (“BrainStorm”) and Evert Sundja (“Ewert and the Two Dragons”) locked themselves in Renars’ home kitchen and started to work on a new song. By now, seven co-authors have joined the two “kitchen members” and as a result of this, a collaboration between the two bands has born – “Ewert and The Two Dragons” and “BrainStorm”  – present a new, sunny song “We wait for the light”.

Once the demo was ready, the first recordings of the song took place in Tallinn, where the song got new melodic lines, but after the work with the song got stock for a while. Swedish friends of “BrainStorm” –  Povel Olsson and David Larson, came to the rescue and gave the song its final touches.

Ewert himself comments on the collaboration: “A little more than a year ago I got a call from an unidentified number.  Well, it turned out to be Renars Kaupers from “Brainstorm” who had a plan. And the plan was to write a song together. So that was exactly what we did, got together and started jamming. The result is here now – nice upbeat, kind of easygoing pop song with a summer-vibe.”

“We wait for the light” has been made with the power of three countries – Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. And with great happiness, we are sharing the song with you!

Every year „Reeperbahn” – one of the biggest showcase festivals in Europe – selects from the strongest and brightest new musicians who will be given a chance to perform in Hamburg at the end of September. This year this opportunity is given to two Latvian musicians – Elizabete Balčus and Chris Noah. They will be enjoying the exclusive attention of the world music industry.

„I’m very happy to be part of a festival where it’s possible to behold the newest and most interesting in the world of music and art. I’ll be taking part in the festival with my electro-acoustic performance where I synthesize electronic and academic music. An important role is given to free-jazz flute improvisations and soniferous vegetables which I use as a synthesizer. This spring I had a chance to perform at „The Great Escape” festival in Brighton that brought forth a lot of new turning points and useful contacts for my future creative work. I hope to show myself from the best side in the „Reeperbahn” festival, widen my audience and find new opportunities and contacts,” – Elizabete Balčus shared her thoughts.

Chris Noah also feels honoured: „I’m glad I can be part of this festival and share the stage with musicians that I highly appreciate because of their music. I wish to prove myself outside of Latvia and I’m especially happy that one of my first foreign stage performances happens to be the „Reeperbahn” festival.”

The festival will be held for the 12th time and will offer 800 various experiences: new musicians, musical shows, newest films and literature, presentations and conferences.

Latvian Music Development Association / Latvian Music Export Office with collaboration with their Lithuanian colleagues are organising a presentation event of both countries „Meet Music Latvia and Lithuania” that will take place on the 22nd of September in the club „Nochtwashe”. On the 21st of September Latvian Music Development Association / Latvian Music Export Office will collaborate with colleagues from Hungary, Check Republic, Russia and Lithuania to organise a Central-Eastern Europe music industry event „CEEntral Party” that will take place at „The Mad Hatter”.

The band RYGA, which recently released its debut album “Catch Her Groove”, as well as took part in festivals “Saldus saule”, “Laba daba” and “LĪVIfest” and has already become known for its confrontational videos, is now releasing a new and thought-provoking video of the record “Give Me Your Love”.

The song is included in the soundtrack of the Daile Theatre performance directed by Dž. Dž. Džilindžers “The death of Banny Manro” (“Bannija Manro nāve”). The performance will return to the stage in late September. This year, the band leader Mārcis Judzis was nominated for this record in the annual theatre award “Spēlmaņu nakts” and received outstanding reviews and critical acclaim of music professionals. Actors of the Daile Theatre Ģirts Ķesteris, Ieva Segliņa and Kaspars Zāle (the Devil) take part in this video.

Mārcis Judzis: “The protagonist of the story is the Devil. He is exceptional in what he does, and now he has chosen two candidates. The evil one, in fact, has a good sense of humour and can dance very well, which is probably why the “clients” are easily caught on his prongs. He also has his magic potions that cause hallucinations so intense that even giraffes start to prance. This is not one of those love stories that end with a white dove set free in a wedding ceremony, but rather with a guitar solo on devil’s prongs as performed by the devil himself, because he is pleased with his achievements and, feeling satisfied, he moves on to new, vulnerable, weak, tired, self-depleted, burnt-out candidates, who have been spat on by oligarchs, because they are the easy targets. Perhaps he is, in fact, a purifier who does not allow the seed of tired and tortured men spread any further?”

The author of the video is Artis Dzērve, who also created the previous video of the band RYGA for the record “Bunny Munro Waltz”, which only recently was broadcast by the German TV channel 3sat. And it was not by accident. At the end of the year, in co-operation with the company “Rough Trade”, the album of the band will be released and distributed also in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Negotiations are under way regarding a tour of the band in clubs of Germany at the time the album is released.