Positivus festival: review of the Baltic bands

Positivus festival, July 15-16, 2011
Salacgrīva, Latvia

Positivus as the largest music and arts festival in Baltics is a perfect venue for the local Baltic bands to show their music and gain new fans. This year Positivus festival hosted very well known Baltic music names, like Alina Orlova (LT), Ewert and The Two Dragons (EST), Gustavo (LV) and others, as well as the new or not so well known bands could have a space to show themselves mostly on I love you Stage and Red Bull Music Academy stage. Moreover, thanks to a close cooperation with Estonian musicians the festival this year opened Tallinn Music Week stage for the new Estonian bands.  

ZRYA (LV)

Zrya is a recently born project from Latvia coming together already very experienced musicians. Ksenija Sundejeva was a lead singer of well known band Tribes of the City while Gatis Zaķis is still active with his band The Mundane (also performing in this festival). The band opens the dark I Love You stage (tent stage) on the first day of the festival. Because this is one of the duo’s first performances, they gather quite a big local audience who are curious to taste the fresh artwork. They play something experimental. The music is so loud, deep and overwhelming that it’s almost impossible to hear and understand the lyrics and often even the language in which they sing. Luckily, we know it. They sing in English and Russian. 

Alina Orlova (LT)

Alina Orlova is singer-songwriter, painter and photographer from Lithuania. She is only 23 years young, but her talent has been heard and appreciated all around Baltics and even beyond. Alina sings in three languages – native Lithuanian, English and Russian. However, she is worth listening even if you don’t understand a word. Her music characterized as „exhilaratingly dark, Baltic folk pop” in combination with the singer’s high-trilling voice sounds joyful and doleful in the same time. It could be described exactly as it’s said on her Myspace profile – „someone’s crying behind a wall”. Alina comes on a stage with three other musicians who assist her. She herself plays the piano. Shy, warm and childish the orange-haired girl takes you in her fairytale and you naturally want to linger at her performance next to many other supporters who don’t save their applauses for Alina. Her music smiles at you, the same as the singer, even while singing. 

Das Sonntags Legion (LV)

Concertnews.be stops for a while at I love You stage to see the musicians from Das Sonntags Legion. This psychedelic rock/post rock/folk band from Riga is equipped with many instruments (guitars, violin, drums, cello and others) and are actually musicians that have previously played in other well known Latvian bands. As they have announced before they have specially prepared for this years Positivus to play compositions about anxiety, dreams and searches for power. The tent is pretty full of band’s supporters enjoying the melodies from the band’s only studio album „Acid Rain Will Eat Our Future”.

Gustavo (LV)

Gustavo is very well known Latvian hip hop artist, producer and beat maker. Even if you don’t love hip hop, Gustavo is a must see on the first day of the festival at the main Tele 2 stage. This talented personality will always find new ways to surprise his fans and listeners. Positivus festival wasn’t an exception. Before the show there were leaflets going around and saying that after certain words in his last song, everyone should sit down in silence for 90 seconds and then jump as he counts 1,2,3. Believe it or not, but that was really done. He sings in Latvian, and on Positivus stage performs mainly the songs from his latest album „Trešā elpa”/”The Third Breath”. He performs with fellow musicians and backing vocalists on a stage thus resulting his performance melodic and rhythmical. It’s enjoyable even if you don’t like hip-hop or don’t understand Latvian. Between the songs he tells a lot of stories and jokes thus creating friendly and positive atmosphere. In the end he gets almost the whole crowd ready to go for a bike tour with him. 

Auļi (LV)

Auļi starts the second day of Positivus and is a perfect band for waking up as their main music instruments – bagpipe and drums – rumble far from Cēsu Alus Stage. They are 10 people in the band – 9 Latvian guys and 1 girl from Estonia. The audience seems to enjoy them a lot as the supporters crowd dancing along with their powerful energetic music becomes bigger and bigger. They contribute to Latvian folk music scene and have gained recognition in all around Baltics. They also won The Best Folk Music Album at the Latvian Music Awards 2010. 

Iiris (EST)

She is one of the current favorite music names in Estonia, and on the way to become famous everywhere with her innovative music sounds, unique vocals and mysterious and attractive visual personality. You never know how she will surprise you in each show, but definitely she will. Iiris comes on a stage with her band and leaves an image of darkness and mystery as she wears a lot of black. Don’t be afraid! The cute Estonian girl is actually cheerful, friendly, positive and very natural. Sometimes she reminds us of a little bit naughty kid who wants to play with you – and you never know what’s on her mind. Her image and facial expressions keep changing together with her songs. Here she is a zombie, then she turns into a gummybear, astronaut or merman. She truly lives in her songs. She can be powerful and evil too. Despite her childishness, this girl seems serious, strong, hard-working and enthusiastic about what she does. There are also high expectations about her in Estonia. Iiris has been writing songs since she is 12, but on the day when she performs at Positivus, everyone becomes a guest on her 20th birthday party. The coinciding event makes her performance even more surprising as her band members have prepared a huge yellow banana as a present for her. This is the moment she hasn’t expected and therefore, „she loves the whole world tonight”.

Starmetis (LV)

This four-piece is quite new in Latvian music scene, however they know how to surprise with fresh sounds. As they have said themselves, the band loves experiments with electronica and other instruments and set no stylistic borders. They gather quite a big supporters’ crowd in the intimate I Love You stage. Their song „Natural desire” is something that surprises most – you could be interested to hear it more than one time.

Ewert and The Two Dragons (EST)

This is another Estonian band to be remembered in the current Estonian music scene. They are four professional musicians who all have gained recognition in their homecountry and after releasing their debut album „The Hills Behind The Hills” (2009) they have played sold out gigs in Tallinn and Tartu (Estonia). They have also toured the Baltic states. Moreover, last year this indie rock band made a great debut at Positivus festival. Therefore, the crowds waiting for them this year seem well deserved. In the beginning of their performance they play the well known and catchy single – „(In the End) There’s Only Love”. Perhaps, this is actually the most popular song from their second album „Good Man Down” released this year. The band seems to enjoy their presence in the festival which they suddenly call „the best festival in the world”, and so does the audience – they enjoy the happy and sometimes nostalgic indie-rock. The last song they play is „Jolene” (also from the latest album) which to our mind is their most beautiful song. But wait! Requested by the crowd here they come again for the second time and play one more song.