The LENsemble Vilnius, conducted by Vykintas Baltakas, won my attention because of their astounding interpretation of their interpretation of Osvaldas Balakauskas‘ composition Rain for Cracow (1991) for violin and piano. A worthy release.
Tag: Lithuania
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Džiunglių Dvasios – Urban Jungle
Džiunglių Dvasios is, from what I understand, a drum & bass/downtempo project run by Evaldas Azbukauskas, who also records as Girių Dvasios. The beats are heavy and dubby with a bit of soul singing sampled into the tracks. Not quite easy listening, but pleasant in its own way.
The now-legendary Antonovka Records have done astounding work documenting music from Russia’s myriad of ethnic communities. This one is from the so-called “Polish” Old Believers in the Altai region. From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“The ancestors of the Altai “Polish” Old Believers were peasants of the Vetka-Starodub territory of the priestly Old Believers, who fled from the persecution of the authorities to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and to the bordering area of the Starodub regiment as part of the Russia. Upon her accession to the throne, Catherine II invited the Old Believers to return to Russia with a manifesto. However, they did not want to. Therefore, in 1764, at the behest of Ekaterina, Vetka was devastated by the troops of Major General Maslov — more than twenty thousand Old Believers were forcibly resettled to Altai and Transbaikalia. In Altai, along the rivers Uba, Ulba, Berezovka, Glubokaya and others, the Old Believers from Vetka and Starodub founded the first settlements in the 1760s, having received the nickname “Polish” in the new place. Now the territory of their residence is divided between Russia and Kazakhstan.”
No, this isn’t a prank. Lithuanian composer Mindaugas Piečaitis really did make a piece of orchestral music, and the cat, Nora, holds her own in comparison to more bloated practitioners of contemporary music. Not a bad effort, to be honest, and yes, it’s available through Apple Music, though there is no information on whether Nora is properly compensated for her performance.
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Giedrius Kuprevičius – Erotidijos
Giedrius Kuprevičius is a Lithuanian composer with roots in theater music. Erotidijos has a rather long history, originally being released on cassette in 1994, but the latest release adds around 30 minutes of music, and is available on vinyl as well as download.
From his Bandcamp site:
Erotidijos is a haunting yet hypnotic tableaux Kuprevičius originally created for a Stanislovas Rubinovas theatre play staged in 1994 in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Lithuanian composer was one of the founding members of the pioneering electronic pop outfit Argo and has written dozens of scores for stage and film over the past several decades, imbuing his soundwork with a multitude of artful moods and emotive depth.
This is really going to appeal to fans of the Belgian record label Crammed Discs‘ sub-label Made To Measure, especially those works (for theater) by Steven Brown and Blaine Reininger.
I have a deep love of Baltic culture which kind of makes sense since my maternal line has roots in what is today Kaliningrad, Russia, but was, for centuries, German and Baltic (Old Prussian) soil. The music in the region possesses a magical quality to it, quite unlike any other region in Europe.
ARTE.tv produced a nice documentary featuring Andris Nelsons, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Paavo Järvi, Gidon Kremer and Arvo Pärt talking about what makes the region of the music so special.
Special thanks to Chris Morley, whose wisdom and taste in music mirrors and surpasses my own. I am indebted to him for this find.