{"id":4066,"date":"2025-11-23T21:50:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musiclatvia.lv\/2025\/11\/23\/latvian-artist-elizabete-balcus-unveils-new-album-hotel-universe\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T21:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:50:31","slug":"latvian-artist-elizabete-balcus-unveils-new-album-hotel-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musiclatvia.lv\/en\/latvian-artist-elizabete-balcus-unveils-new-album-hotel-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvian artist Elizabete Bal\u010dus unveils new album:  Hotel Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A new alternative: music crafted by a full-time artist, with a method actor-like devotion to discovering new musical possibilities. <\/strong><em><strong>Hotel Universe<\/strong><\/em> (<strong>September 16th, 2022<\/strong> <strong>via Mothland) is the second album by multi-instrumentalist, singer and psychedelia artist Elizabete Bal\u010dus.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From layered flute solos and synthesizers, to baritone sax romps and biorhythms,\u00a0the album offers immersion in a richly-imaginative parallel reality. It\u2019s perhaps the emphasis on musical arrangement, and the ability to transfix the listener, through not knowing where the music is going to go next, that sets Elizabete Bal\u010dus apart.<\/p>\n<p>The artist\u2019s ear is one of Latvia\u2019s great treasures. After spending years training in classical and jazz music, she turned away from a traditional approach, instead\u00a0assembling a self-styled future, where performing live with fruits and vegetables as a synthesizer and wearing surreal DIY costumes, with nods to the avant-garde, would become the norm.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Despite being predominantly a one-woman powerhouse \u2013 producing everything herself\u00a0 \u2013 the few moments of collaboration on\u00a0her second album do stand out.\u00a0&#8220;Narcissism Purgatory&#8221; features an inspired percussive contribution from English comedian James Acaster. While,\u00a0Simonas \u0160ipavi\u010dius from Sheep Got Waxed plays sax on &#8220;Get Naked&#8221; and &#8220;Asparagus or Brussel Sprouts?&#8221; \u2013 resulting in one of the Baltic States\u2019 most potent coming together of woodwind instrumentalists in an age.<\/p>\n<p>Yet to focus solely on virtuosity and innovation musically would be a disservice. As alluded to in the introduction, she is a psychedelic artist and <em>Hotel Universe<\/em> is crafted in a way that offers access to her worldview \u2013 one which posits collective consciousness over the idea of the individu.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The microcosm\/macrocosm analogy \u2013 where the human body is thought to contain all the entities and elements of the universe \u2013 is hugely influential to her.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most overt reference to this idea comes through the aforementioned biorhythms. Elizabete reached for a stethoscope and recorded her heart as part of the percussion as a way to laden in the cosmos. And, in turn, offering a portal to something deeper than we usually come across going about our day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=565922610\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/elizabetebalcus.bandcamp.com\/album\/hotel-universe\">Hotel Universe by ELIZABETE BAL\u010cUS<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"position: static !important;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new alternative: music crafted by a full-time artist, with a method actor-like devotion to discovering new musical possibilities. Hotel Universe (September 16th, 2022 via Mothland) is the second album by multi-instrumentalist, singer and psychedelia artist Elizabete Bal\u010dus. From layered flute solos and synthesizers, to baritone sax romps and biorhythms,\u00a0the album offers immersion in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Latvian artist Elizabete Bal\u010dus unveils new album: Hotel Universe - ML<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/musiclatvia.lv\/en\/latvian-artist-elizabete-balcus-unveils-new-album-hotel-universe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Latvian artist Elizabete Bal\u010dus unveils new album: Hotel Universe - ML\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new alternative: music crafted by a full-time artist, with a method actor-like devotion to discovering new musical possibilities. 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