Viegli, an album of 10 original songs with lyrics drawn from the work of Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis, has been released by a group of young musicians.

The album—featuring performances by Renārs Kaupers, Kārlis Kazāks, Jānis Strapcāns, Jānis Holšteins–Upmanis (Goran Gora), Māra Upmane-Holšteine, Raimonds Gusarevs (El Mars) and other musicians—is one of several projects of a foundation by the same name.

The foundation draws its inspiration from Ziedonis, who has said that Latvia is a wonderfully beautiful land, but that beauty needs help to emerge (“Latvija ir brīnumskaista zeme, bet skaistajam jāpalīdz parādīties”).

The compact disc for Viegli was released May 1 during a concert in the National Library of Latvia under construction in Rīga, according to the Delfi portal.

The album includes 10 acoustic tracks, all recorded last summer during a weeklong creative camp at Ziedonis’s summer home Dzirnakmeņi in Murjāņi:

• “Ne citu rīt,” performed by Renārs Kaupers.
• “Varenā tumsa,” performed by Raimonds Gusarevs with Māra Upmane-Holšteine.
• “Ceļi,” performed by Jānis Holšteins–Upmanis.
• “Mazā bilžu rāmītī,” performed by Renārs Kaupers.
• “Tik tikko,” performed by Māra Upmane–Holšteine.
• “Es Tevi pamīlētu tā,” performed by Kārlis Kazāks.
• “Nepārtraukti, nenorimti,” performed by Raimonds Gusarevs and Māra Upmane–Holšteine.
• “Lakstīgalas,” performed by Māra Upmane-Holšteine.
• “Drīz, drīz,” performed by Jānis Strapcāns.
• “Es atkal neatvados,” perfromed by Renārs Kaupers.

Besides the album, the foundation seeks to turn Dzirnakmeņi into a museum honoring Ziedonis and to create a digital exhibit of his work.

The cover of the CD was designed by Līga Kitchen, an artist from Latvia who now lives in London with her family. See more of her work on her blog, ligakitchen.blogspot.com.

Viegli may be downloaded from the fund’s website, fondsviegli.lv, for a donation ranging from LVL 1 to LVL 150.

While the census underway in Latvia aims to figure how many people are left in the country, it appears fewer are leaving for Ireland these days.

Data on Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSNs), which people use when seeking government services in Ireland, show that just 503 citizens of Latvia sought the identifiers during the first three months of this year. That’s a 41 percent drop from the 856 who received PPSNs during the same period last year.

In all, 3,134 persons from Latvia got PPSNs in 2010, a decline from the 3,916 recorded in 2009, according to statistics gathered by Ireland’s Department of Social Protection.

Since 2000, more than 46,000 persons from Latvia have received PPSNs, the greatest number—9,328—coming in 2005, or the year after Latvia joined the European Union.

While not an accurate gauge of the Latvian population in Ireland, the number of PPSNs is used as a measure of migration to Ireland. The island nation, once a hotbed of economic activity that drew tens of thousands of laborers, has seen a decrease in immigration as its financial fortunes have slipped.

Meanwhile, in Latvia the census continues. After giving residents of the country a couple of weeks to count themselves online, census workers now have fanned out across Latvia. They are scheduled to continue their work until May 31.

As of April 12, more than 780,000 Latvian residents have been counted, according to Aldis Brokāns, press secretary of the Central Statistical Bureau in Rīga.

Bureau officials have especially commended census workers in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia, where despite especially poor road conditions that in some cases have prevented use of automobiles, the head counters have continued their efforts, Brokāns said in a press release.