Lietuviška Muzika
Lithuania ! What a nice country. We didn't stay that long, though, about 2 weeks. It's probably not enough to really get to know anything, really. Didn't stop us from trying !
Also, people were super friendly there, and super keen on sharing a bit of their culture. So, let's see !
Where to start ? Well, some recommendations !
As often, Folk music being a big interest of ours, a friend recommended Giriu Dvasios, an Electronic artist that gets most of his inspiration in Folk & Traditional Lithuanian music. Nice. He collaborated notably with a young Folk women-only band called Obelija. They apparently travelled through Lithuania, collecting forgotten traditional Folk songs from elders to re-introduced them today by their performances. Great stuff.
Speaking about that, we discovered here some other Folk bands, there seems to be quite a few, like for example the Folkloro Ansamblis Gilė, or the Vilnius-based band Kūlgrinda - this one is linked to the Romuva Neo-Pagan movement, which attempts to continue Lithuanian Baltic traditions & pre-christian culture, and performs to events inside this community.
They seem to have a strong Folk scene there in Lietuva, especially at events and on location.
Our friend also recommended a very unique singer named Alina Orlova, in a style that reminds us of Lhasa de Sela, she writes in English as well as Russian and Lithuanian. Check it out.
She also recommended an amazing Psychedelic Rock band called Garbanotas, the Indie-Folk band Kamanių Šilesis, and the Punk band NetvarkOi!
Hey Emilija your music is great !! Ačiû !
Another friend recommended Electronic band Solo Ansamblis, and another quite atmospheric artist named Free Finga.
Asking around, people would recommend some popular artists like Marijonas Mikutavičius, Jessica Shy, or Justinas Jarutis.
But one of the bands that was the most recommended is a Rock band called Hiperbolė. They started their career in the mid-70's, under Soviet occupation. Apparently, from what people here told us, the band is remarkable for a few reasons. Firstly, they would from the beginning write their songs in Lithuanian - not Russian - and therefore contribute to keep Lithuanian identity and language alive despite the Soviet regime.
Also, they would simultaneously avoid Soviet censorship all the while writing their original material, and avoid becoming copycats of popular Western superstars like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Seems interesting.
A younger person we met, as well as Hiperbolė, recommended a super young but apparently quite famous artist called DJ nevykele - quite an absurd name meaning "don't go ; don't listen".
As well as asking around, we have another tool to help us in our quest for music. Shazam !
By Shazaming everything in bars (and everywhere), we discovered Vilnius-based DJ and Electronic artist Manfredas, as well as the actually difficult to describe band punktò. But it's good !
We also discovered the Laimio Vilkončiaus Vokalinis Kvartetas this way. Sounds like Electro with some Choir mixed into it. And an old school Mish-Mash band called Saulės Laikrodis. Sometimes sounds like Pink Floyd, sometimes like Joy Division, sometimes we don't know. Try it at home !
By complete coincidence, we happened to be in Klaipeda, city on the coast, during their Silkė - herring - festival. And were treated by a concert ! Wooo !
So we had the chance to see the Pop singer Andrius Rimiškis "Live" (totally Lip-sync, 100% not Live). As we've heard there, he used to be quite famous in the 2000's, and it was quite funny and cute seeing both teenagers and grandparents sing along and dance these quite cheesy-sounding songs. Oh also he sang the same song twice !! First time we see this, the public asked for the last song again, and he sang it again. Wtf.
It was actually nice.
The second band we saw that evening was Biplan, a bit more Alt-Rock in style, and pretty good to see live, actually ! They seemed to be really popular, anyway everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy them a lot. Nice evening.
Aaaaand that's it for Lithuania ! As we said, we unfortunately didn't stay that long.
But that's something, and there was definitely a lot of good things to discover there !
Maybe you know some good music from Lietuva ? You can always contact us here if you want to share !
Until next time.