"Does the Electronic Scene in Riga differ from other Scenes in Europe?"
Austrian music and culture journalist Ursula Maria Probst spoke in Vienna to producer Rostislav Rekuta, electronic musician Evgeniy Droomoff and singer Tonya Pilugina about the cultural scene in Riga.
After a two week stay in Paris for a new sound project, Sound Meccano from Riga made a refuelling stop at the "Radius Festival" for non-conformist electronic music sponsored by Erste Bank, which was held at the end of last year in CAT (MAK, Depot for Contemporary Art) in Vienna.
Ursula Maria Probst: What effects have the socio-political changes and the transition from communism to a capitalist system had on the production of music and on the electronic scene in Riga?
Rostislav Rekuta: music is a part of life into which socio-political changes flow. In that sense these changes are naturally reflected in the production of art in Latvia. During the post-Soviet era of the past ten years it was revealed that there is great interest on the part of Latvian musicians and artists in what is going on in Europe in cultural terms and it was also shown how much they are regularly involved in international festivals.
In what sense are social issues reflected in Latvian music?
Evgeniy Droomoff: there is once again a clear trend towards postindustrial sounds and hard techno, what ever that may mean. At the beginning of the 1990s people started to produce using cheap Soviet sound synthesizers, but today acoustic sounds are transformed using a laptop. However, if there exists a sufficient amount of ideas, today one can still produce excellent sounds using cheap synthesizers. In the meantime the global world has reached Latvia. The boundaries between pop and underground, between commercial and non-commercial sounds no longer really exist in Latvia. What counts today is to show one's immunity to bad taste.
Nevertheless, does the electronic scene in Riga differ from other scenes in Europe?
Rostislav Rekuta: there is a broad spectrum and we are open to everything, as long as the quality is right. We have a music scene in Riga with young people who are interested in electronic and experimental sounds, but also in hip-hop, trip-hop and reggae and who download information from the Internet or are involved in exchange with international artists from Europe, Canada or Japan.
When the borders were opened up a lot of techno parties were held – some of them illegally in factories. During the last ten years many artists began to develop an interest in electronic, electro-acoustic and experimental sounds.
In the clubs in Riga such as Depo, Pulse and Collonel different kinds of sounds are played, ranging from ambient music to dancefloor or techno. It is difficult for Latvian artists to invent something completely new. In our current project we have recorded background sounds from Paris such as street noise or the noise made by lifts.
You make a music programme for radio "NABA" 96. 2fm in Riga?
Rostislav Rekuta: I look after the translations for the "Deutsche Welle" in Latvia and put together a programme of international sounds and new music. My programme has featured the electronic scene in Japan, for example. But unfortunately in Riga there is no centre for electronic music; hence discussions on this theme tend to take place in peoples' living rooms.
What is the state of the economy since Latvia joined the EU? What effect does this have on your work?
Rostislav Rekuta: at the moment the various restructurings caused by EU membership are not yet visible, but despite financial shortages work on the basis for music festivals is going ahead. The scene in Riga is small and everyone knows everyone else. But communication and collaboration is overshadowed by the fact that there is too little financial support and too few subventions. A number of the projects are more popular in the rest of Europe than in Riga.
What is the infrastructure for electronic musicians like in Riga?
Evgeniy Droomoff: the festival "Sound Forest" for experimental and electro-acoustic sounds has been in existence for the last three years and is very well attended.
Are there any potential sponsors for music in Riga?
Tonya Pilugina: there are certainly sponsors for the Eurovision Song Contest and for popular folk music, but hardly any for experimental and electronic music. Nevertheless the musicians still carry out their projects. They more independent they are, the better. We are going to make our art whether we receive financial support for it or not.
What other jobs do you have to do in order to survive?
Rostislav Rekuta: I organize projects relating with my radio show and I also do marketing jobs.
Tonya Pilugina: I work as a fashion designer.
What do you think of relicts of the Second World War such as the Flakturm (anti-aircraft defence tower) in Vienna being used as locations for electronic music?
Evgeniy Droomoff: I don't see the Radius Festival, in which many musicians and artists from Georgia, Ukraine or Siberia take part, as a political festival but it is a good thing when places of this kind are regularly occupied anew and thus changed. After all the political stress people are subjected to through the various instruments of power we need to develop the creative and cultural potential to shape history ourselves.
Evgeniy Droomoff collaborated between 2001 und 2003 with the Latvian experimental label "Kolka" and was involved in 2002 in the music project "Kriipis Tulo".. In 2003 he released two Samizdat albums: "J-pitch" and "EmDA". He issued his first release with Rostislav Rekuta (aka "Sound Meccano“), entitled "Volokno", in 2004.
Rostislav Rekuta is responsible for publications such as "Neuron Communication" (1999-2000) or the "Digits Throw" album (2000). Since 2001 he has worked under the name "Sound Meccano" and experiments with electronic music. Among other activities "Sound Meccano" broadcasts a weekly radio programme for new music on NABA 96.2 FM (in collaboration with Deutsche Welle).
Tonya Pilugina works as a singer and flautist on specific projects with "Sound Meccano" and also works a fashion designer in Riga.
Ursula Maria Probst is based in Vienna, where she works as a cultural critic and curator.
Atrasts te:
http://www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net/r ... Meccano/en
Register
Login
FAQ
Search
It's a very funny to heard about national level acts and scene status from "nooneknows" persons 
Maybe I miss something?! Which of them is a key figure in Latvian scene?
es jau shito nerakstīju...just copy paste
