It’s a bold start for Skaņu Mežs to open its main festival weekend with a concert reworking November, the lost minimalist composition for piano by Dennis Johnson, who abandoned composition for mathematics shortly thereafter. American pianist R Andrew Lee hits simple chords one at a time, holding the spaces between them just beyond the threshold of comfort … Continue reading Skaņu Mežs’2016 review for The Wire
November 12 featuring Supersilent, Russell Haswell, Andy Maddocks, Autechre: October 15 featuring Zebra Katz, Tropic of Cancer, Peder Mannerfelt, M.E.S.H., Black Spirituals, Thomas Lehn + Roger Turner, and Killing Sound: October 14 featuring King Midas Sound + Fennesz, Vatican Shadow, Klara Lewis, Michael Finnissy, Santa Ratniece + ReDo, Charles Gayle + John Edwards + Roger … Continue reading Pictures from all Skaņu Mežs’2016 events
Tonight, the London-based art radio station Resonance 104.4fm as well as its additional platform Resonance Extra will broadcast a special feature on last year’s edition of Skaņu Mežs. You can get into the mood for the upcoming edition by remembering the previous one: the show will feature excerpts of performances by Peter Brötzmann, Squarepusher, Powell, … Continue reading Last year’s edition of Skaņu Mežs reviewed tonight on Resonance FM!
On July 2nd, improviser, composer and trumpet player Nate Wooley performed an outdoor solo concert at the Kalnciems quarter in Riga. Here you can see what that did look like.
It feels like a cliche to describe a female cellist’s performance as graceful, but Okkyung Lee’s playing at the Dailes Theatre early Friday evening was built of grace notes in a precise musical sense. Great gusts of splintered appoggiaturas seemed to anticipate a textural resolution into a fully defined attack that was endlessly deferred, like … Continue reading Skaņu Mežs’2014 review for The Wire
With Blixa Bargeld, Robert Henke, Gas of Latvia, Innode, Andy Stott, Xeno & Oaklander, and Hypnos.
Photographer Arnis Kalniņš captures moments with If Bwana, Okkyung Lee, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Wadada Leo Smith + John Edwards + Mark Sanders, Marissa Nadler, Phil Minton & Audrey Chen, Insect Ark.
Skan II is the second edition of a sound-focused art exhibition organised by Riga’s Skaņu Mežs festival – 2007 was the first. Split into three parts between May and August, it featured a rolling programme of numerous works by Latvian and international artists installed around the University of Latvia’s Botanical Gardens, both outside among the … Continue reading SKAN II review for The Wire
An audio Interview with William Hooker by Frances Morgan (The Wire) which took place during the Skaņu mežs’2013 festival.