Edgars Rubenis is a Latvian guitarist and composer, currently living in The Hague, The Netherlands. With background in experimental rock and new music composition, his latest record Slow Lightning explores the vitality of American acoustic guitar traditions as a source for bold and contemporary music.
Working particularly with the forms of early blues and ragtime, in Slow Lightning Rubenis writes seemingly old yet entirely new music that reveals him as an elaborate guitar player and adventurous, stylistically accurate composer. Risking blunder in search for possible authenticity, this music investigates how various historical materials could meaningfully reemerge at the current point in time.
Rubenis first emerged on the underground scene in mid-2000’s as the member of Riga’s experimental rock band Mona de Bo. Often considered as one of the most vital forces on the Baltic scene of the recent decade, this ensemble released 5 albums spanning psychotic indie garage, collisions of free-improv and noisy drone rock.