Elizabete Balcus will present Latvia at The Great Escapes showcase in U.K.

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.

DJ [Ex] da Bass has created a remix for the TRIANA PARK Eurovision song LINE!

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.

Aminata presents her new single “Your Arms”

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.

“Triana Park” published a video for the song “Line”.

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.

New album “Heya Some Kind of Fish!” by Latvian jazzfunk band “Very Cool People”

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.

“Carnival Youth” releases new single “Youth Is Gold” and sets off to SXSW.

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.

Aminata releases title track from album Red Moon.

Latvian pop sensation Aminata releases title track from her sophomore album Red Moon that is available in all music streaming and digital distribution services. Song has been written by Aminata herself and is produced by Kaspars Ansons.

Red Moon is the third single from her upcoming album with the same name. It will be released shortly before Aminata’s biggest solo show yet that will take place in Palladium Riga on 13th of October.

“To me this is a very symbolic song that represents the saying that still waters run deep. Of course, Red Moon is about love and being in love. Love inspires and sets us free, even the coldest and meanest person gets emotional when he falls in love. The same thing could be said about the moon – to most it’s cold and distant, but to me – red, warm and tendr,” author herself reveals.

In cooperation with producer Kaspars Ansons, drummer Rūdolfs Dankfelds, guitarist Jānis Ruņģis, bass player Reinis Ozoliņš and keyboardist Matīss Repsis, Aminata is working hard on her Red Moon concert in Palladium Riga. It’s also worth noting that there will be special guests present at the show who will perform alongside Aminata, but their names have yet to be revealed.

Tickets to Red Moon concert are available in all Biļešu Serviss marketplaces and on the internet. Album Red Moon will be released shortly before the show and will be available in all music streaming services and in digital distribution marketplaces.

Relicseed on tour with Sirenia and Týr.

On November 9 with appearance in Arena Riga heavy metal band “Relicseed” will start the 4th chapter of their Serial Surgery Tour.

In 2017 Relicseed will release an EP “Ideology” which will be the first material in Latvian since their debut album in 2010.

Relicseed`s journey begun back in 2004 when four Latvian musicians started experimenting with different playing and singing styles. The debut album “60 minutes of a dream” was released only in 2010 (Relicseed). The album was the start of defining the band`s character which is brightly represented in their second studio release “Slaughterhouse”. Constantly remaining the only original member Edgars Rakovskis (guitars, vocals) has led Relicseed across his native Latvia`s borders entering various alternative music markets around the world and created the new international form of musicianship together with the great Nathan Mercado (drums).

Alise Joste presents new video and announces tour.

Latvian singer-songwriter Alise Joste is announcing forthcoming concerts by releasing a live video version of her single „Mirrors”.

The intimate video performance, featuring Karlis Josts and Janis Sipkevics, offers a glimpse of what to expect from Alise’s two October shows  in her hometown Riga at a spectacular manor house „K.K. fon Stricka villa” where all three musicians will be on stage.

Alises Joste’s autumn tour starts already this weekend with three performances in Vilnius, Lithuania, at Loftas Fest.

In November Alise Joste embarks on German solo tour and will be visiting Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and other cities.

Alise Joste debuted on Latvian singer-songwriters’ scene in 2008 and released her first album in 2011. It took several years for Alise to complete the next studio recording but it was well worth waiting. The album „Hardships are Ships” (2015) received two most prominent music prizes in Latvia – „Austra Award” for the best album of 2015 and „Golden Michrophone” in singer-songwriter category.

In the past few years Alise Joste has performed in the Baltics, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and other European countries,  including showcase festivals Tallinn Music Week, Lost in Music, Waves Vienna/Bratislava and The Great Escape.