Category: News

Colorful Latvian indie pop band “Franco Franco” reveals third single and music video “Moonlight” from their latest EP “Moon + Light”. The band will perform “Moonlight” and other songs, not yet released, in summer concerts across Latvia, including “Summer Sound” festival.

 “The story of “Moonlight” is encapsulating moments that are very dear to us – they are too beautiful to let go of,” explains lead vocalist Elizabete Vetra. “That’s why we decided to make the video as a collage of snapshots, collecting the most colorful moments from making of the album. It has been a magical ride for us.”

The video captures shots from recording the album in “TRU Music Studio” (Riga) together with producer Reinis Sejans (“Instrumenti”) and sound engineer Gatis Zakis, unique footage from making of the previos videos (“By the Lake”, “Up”), performing in festivals and the album presentation in K.K. fon Stricka Villa (Riga). 

“Moonlight” is available on Spotify, iTunes and other digital music platforms. The band will perform “Moonlight” and other songs, not yet released, in festivals and concerts in Latvia – Riga, Valmiera, Jurmala, Jelgava, Cesis. “Franco Franco” will also perform in “Summer Sound” festival in Liepaja on 28 July (more on summer tour).

“Franco Franco” is one of the most renowned and active indie pop bands in Latvia. The band’s latest album „Moon + Light” (2016) was critically acclaimed and nominated among the best Latvian alternative, indie-pop records of the year. The second single of the album – “Up” – was one of the semifinalists of Supernova 2017 (Latvian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest). It reached Latvia Top 50 on Spotify, as well as #10 in Trending on Youtube (watch video).

Singer Aminata has released new music video for her latest single – “Your Arms”. The song comes from the album “Red Moon” launched in 2016.

After being a “Fighter” who never gives up and follows her goals, in the new music video Aminata wanted to show her sensual,  romantic and feminine side.

“Song “Your Arms” is very sensual, inhibited within a spring-like spirit. We wanted to keep that vibe in the music video as well!” tells Aminata herself. “It is about the feeling you have when secretly fallen in love with someone and cannot stop thinking about him. The feeling when you miss that person so much you feel like a prisoner who desperately longs after freedom. However, you cannot say it out loud because you are afraid and don’t know what the other person thinks of you. Therefore, all the emotional experience portrayed in the song is deeply personal, it burns you from the inside and is not visible to the outer world…”

Music video operator is Reinis Aristovs, gaffer: Uldis Tripans, stylist – Elga Homitska, make up artist – Lara Pudovska, hair stylist – Svetlana Dubatova and set designer – Katrina Virzina. Production was made by AminataMusic. Filming process would not be possible without support of “Nike Latvia” and the Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia, where the music video was filmed!

Lyrics and music are written by Aminata Savadogo, and arrangement – by Kaspars Ansons. Remix of the song is produced by Krišjānis Geidāns and mastered in “Hodila Studio”.

Launch of the new single occurs only this spring, as after participating in the Russian TV show “Golos” (“Voice”), Aminata actively indulged herself into writing new songs. Currently they are being produced in cooperation with several international producers, and soon enough the results will be revealed.

The eccentric Latvian singer-songwriter Elizabete Balcus will be the only artist from the Baltic States that’s set to perform at The Great Escape showcase and music festival. It will take place from 18th till 20th of May in Brighton, England.

Balcus will do two performances in Brighton. It marks an important part of her ongoing tour in Netherlands, Germany and United Kingdom. 

The Great Escape festival annually gathers the most important new artists from all over the world. Happening in 30 venues, it attracts about 3500 professionals from music industry and more than 15 000 spectators each year. These stats prove the fact that The Great Escape is one of the biggest and most important showcase festivals existing.

Elizabete Balcus has already been spotted in the U.K – last year she released her new album “Conarium” and it was recognized as the third best alternative album by the “Cambridge 105” radio.  Several critics have acclaimed her as well.

At The Great Escape festival Balcus will showcase her unique avantpop style which is made colliding elements from both academic and electronic music. She is recognizable by her virtuoso flute skills and also some untraditional performance elements – Balcus plays vegetables linked with synthesizers, for instance.

The purpose of the event is to discover new talents, encourage collaboration between the professionals of the industry and also – to promote Latvia as a place where creativity and professionalism allows a lot of contemporary music to be born.

Balcus is currently on her tour along with the multidisciplinary artist Sabine Moore. They are performing in London, Cambridge, Amsterdam and other cities, visiting several radio stations as well.

The international song competition Eurovision will take place in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in 9–13 May. Following the “Supernova” song competition, Latvia will be represented at Eurovision by the band “Triana Park” with their piece “Line”.

The official remix of the song was produced by DJ [Ex] da Bass: “It has turned into a tradition for me to create a remix of the Eurovision national selection winner. This is the third year running. Both previous remixes for the hit songs of Aminata and Justs earned critical acclaim at radio stations in Europe and across the globe, as they were played by countless deejays in clubs the world over, and remixes of Aminata’s songs, including mine, were issued in the USA.”

This Sunday, 2nd of April, the band will be playing at the special Eurovision fan event in London. Possibly, the new remix will be played at the party before and after the concert.

After a longer time off, singer Aminata has released a brand new single – “Your Arms”. The song comes from the album “Red Moon” launched in 2016.

Lyrics and music are written by Aminata Savadogo, arrangement by Kaspars Ansons. Remix of the song is produced by Krišjānis Geidāns and mastered in “Hodila Studio”.

“Song “Your Arms” is very sensual, inhibited within a spring-like spirit,” tells Aminata herself. “It is about the feeling you have when secretly fallen in love with someone and cannot stop thinking about him. The feeling when you miss that person so much you feel like a prisoner who desperately longs after freedom. However, you cannot say it out loud because you are afraid and don’t know what the other person thinks of you. Therefore, all the emotional experience portrayed in the song is deeply personal, it burns you from the inside and is not visible to the outer world…”

Launch of the new single occurs only this spring, as after participating in the Russian TV show “Golos” (“Voice”), Aminata actively indulged herself into writing new songs. Currently they are being produced in cooperation with several international producers, and soon enough the results will be revealed.

On Monday, March 13th, “Triana Park” published a video for the song “Line”. With this song they will soon go to Kiev to represent Latvia in the “Eurovision Song Contest”.

The idea of ​​the video for “Line” was ready even before the band desided to participate in the national competition “Supernova” and the victory only speeded up the process of making it happen. As they had to react pretty quickly, the video was made in a very short period of time.

“This was the first time that we worked with the director Karlis Stigis and we are very happy and satisfied about the result . With this video we tried to go in a new direction for us. This was as an experiment and we are grateful for the outcome and the work that the group Hypnozis have done” coments the band “Triana Park”.

In the video we can see that the idea is about different lines that we draw in our lifes, both real and  fictional. “Triana Park” wanted to make a video that would be visually interesting with different details, as well as pay attention to the ethnic diversity and unity.

Very Cool People, one of the best Latvian jazzfunk bands, releases their new album Heya Some Kind of Fish! We Don’t Know The Name Of This Fish In English, But In Latvian It Is Vimbas on the 30th of April.

Heya Some Kind Of Fish… represents pieces of a symbiosis between the different allied music styles – funk, soul, jazz, klezmer, Balkan & Latvian folk music. The album includes eight new tracks and a re-arranged version of the already well-known tune Hugo which had remained outside the group’s albums until now. “This to ourselves is a very interesting album where we mixed a wide range of musical influences. Just as Latvian geographic location is between Eastern and Western Europe, this album’s music is located in the middle of the different impacts”, say the members of the band. Heya Some Kind Of Fish… was recorded from the 25th to the 27th of July and from the 23rd to the 25th of October 2016 by Ivars Ozols at Sound Division Studio, Riga, Latvia. Mixed by Jon Evans at Brick Hill Studio, Orleans, MA, USA, and mastered by Don Grossinger at Don Grossinger Mastering, New York, NY, USA

This is VCP’s fourth album so far. In June 2009 the band released their self-titled debut album. In 2012 the group released their second instrumental album Cruising In The Trolley and in September 2015 they released their third album Funkology which also features guest artists – fantastic soul & jazz singers from Latvia.

One of the most successful bands from Latvia – Carnival Youth –have unveiled 4th and final single from their latest album “Propeller” called “Youth Is Gold”. It comes with a freshly recorded b-side “Lots Of Nobodies”.

The director of the video is Steve Spencer, camera – Kritaps Dzenis, producer – Ieva Karpoviča. The main character of the video is played by Eva Bērziņa.

In February the second album of Carnival Youth – “Propeller” – was awarded both as the best alternative/indie-pop album and album of the year at the annual Latvian Music awards ceremony.

The release of this single marks one of the most important steps of their career so far – partition in the world’s biggest music conference South by Southwest a.k.a. SXSW. Latvian four-piece will play the official showcase, Hotel Second Play and also the Balcony TV sessions in Austin, TX.

Later this March the bend will play several shows in Germany (Munich, Hanover, Berlin) and there are a few festival appearances planned for this year as well.

Last year their latest album “Propeller” was presented with more than 50 concerts in Europe and USA.  It also made the TOP 80 at the USA and Canada CMJ Music Chart.

Latvian indie rockers “Boys Will Be Boys” release their debut EP “Love Life”.


The album was recorded at “Frida Records” studio and mixed by Peteris Ozols.
Band members describe the theme of the album as “songs about simple things and hard times”.

Listeners can…

 IMPALA has now revealed its shortlist of nominees for the seventh edition of the IMPALA Album of the Year Award. Once again the selection underlines the diversity and quality of independent labels from all over Europe. 25 albums are nominated and nineteen countries are represented this year.

Artists from every genre and generation are featured, from legendary UK act Radiohead to Swiss krautpop band One Sentence. Supervisor, Swedish progressive metal pioneers Meshuggah, Dutch rapper Boef and the new face of Italian disco Jolly Mare.

The voting is currently taking place to decide who will succeed to Jose Gonzalez’s acclaimed album Vestiges & Claws. The winner will be announced at the end of February.

Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool and Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound have been cited two times and Agnes Obel’s Citizen of Glass three times. Brussels-based label [PIAS] has two nominees: Dubioza Kolektiv and Agnes Obel. 

Helen Smith, Executive Chair, IMPALA commented: “The essence of this prize is to put the spotlight on the most exceptional album of the year. It’s a great shortlist again with both new faces and well-established independent artists. The jury will now decide which album they believe was the best in 2016”.

A full album playlist – IMPALA Album of the Year Award nominees 2016 (albums) – as well as a short playlist – IMPALA Album of the Year Award nominees 2016 (singles) – are available on Spotify to allow you to judge for yourself in advance of the winner’s announcement.

The “European Independent Album of The Year” award was launched in 2011, together with the annual “Outstanding Contribution to European Music” award, to mark the 10th anniversary of IMPALA. This award showcases the breadth and diversity of independent talent across Europe. The winner is selected on the basis of completely open criteria from a shortlist compiling national and non-national album nominations from territories across Europe put forward for their musical, artistic or other exceptional quality. Nominated albums were required to have been released on a European independent label between January and December 2014. Previous winners of the Award are Efterklang, Adele, The xx and Guadalupe Plata.