An up-and-coming band on the Latvian rock scene is S.I.L.S., which released its debut album, Stāsti patiesi un izdomāti, in 2008. The group was founded way back in 1999 and has had songs included on various Priekšnams alternative music collections, as well as performing at several of the Bildes festival concerts in Rīga.

The album’s distributor, Platforma Records, describes the band as “post grunge.” Although this is a vague label for music, it usually involves taking the distorted and fuzzy guitar of grunge music, as well as the often angst-filled lyrics, and adding more melodic elements. On its Web site, the band’s music is described as always having been “about pain, love and unfulfilled dreams.”

The name of S.I.L.S., though seeming to be an acronym, is cryptically described on the Web site as being related to viewing the approach of evening through a window in the Ķengarags region of Rīga.

The members of the band are Ģirts Strumpmanis on vocals and guitar, Kaspars Lastovskis on bass and Māris Ozoliņš on drums, with guest appearances by Ronalds Seleckis on guitar. Almost all of the music is written by Strumpmanis, and Strumpmanis and Seleckis wrote most of the lyrics.

The album begins with “Izpratne par skaistumu,” which alternates between melodic verses, with a cleaner guitar sound, and a more distorted chorus. I think the band is more effective when it focuses more on the melodic aspects in its song writing, such as on “Pavasaris,” which is probably my favourite song on the album. Another favorite is “Beigu dziesma,” another one of the band’s more melodic songs. Four songs on the album are in English: “Morning,” “Carousel,” “Trust” and the final “hidden track,” which on the S.I.L.S. Web site is called “DLS2.”

The music and lyrics are, overall, a bit on the dreary side, certainly bringing forward the angst that is heard in other such bands influenced by the grunge style. The main problem I have with the album is that many of the songs are very similar—particularly the alternation between the clean guitar sound and the distorted guitar sound.

The album was mixed and mastered by Gints Sola of Jauns mēness and Mielavs un pārcēlāji. The album art was provided by Otto Zitmanis, who worked on the cover for Prāta vētra’s latest album, Tur kaut kam ir jābūt.

On its Web site, the group has indicated that with the release of this album, band members will take 2009 off to concentrate on their side projects. Certainly S.I.L.S. has presented an accomplished debut album, exhibiting both musical and lyrical talents. Fans of grunge and post-grunge should take a listen.

For more on S.I.L.S., visit the band’s official Web site, www.grupasils.lv, its MySpace page or its page on the social network draugiem.lv.

One of the most ambitious artistic projects in the dying days of Soviet Latvia was “Viena diena Latvijā” (One Day in Latvia), held on Aug. 31, 1987, and organized by photographers Jānis Krūmiņš, Ints Kalniņš and Gunārs Janaitis. Seventy-four photographers from many different countries were sent out all over Latvia, simply to take pictures of things that were happening on that day.

The project resulted in more than 34,000 negatives—a staggering number. Unfortunately, because of a lack of hard currency, the pictures were never published. For 20 years, the pictures were stored at the Rīga Museum of History and Shipping. Though the pictures did not get published, the event was a milestone, as some of the photographers come from outside of the Soviet-influenced world (from countries such as Finland and West Germany), and even were allowed to photograph in places that normally would be well off limits to foreigners.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the event, the project was repeated on Aug. 31, 2007, this time with 55 professional photographers (31 from Latvia and 24 international), as well as 120 guest photographers, and every Latvian was even invited to submit pictures, resulting in half a million images.

Highlights of both days are collected in the coffee table book Viena diena Latvijā. 1987-2007 (One Day in Latvia, 1987-2007), a mammoth collection that gathers just a small fraction of all the photographs taken.

About 25 percent of the book is pictures from 1987, the rest from 2007. Most all of the pictures from 1987 are in black-and-white, while the 2007 collection is mainly in color.

Most of the pictures are candid snapshots of a way of life or of a moment in time. Highlights from the 1987 collection include a picture by Estonian photographer Viktors Rudjko of passengers on a bus in Valka (a border town on the Estonian border), in which we see people reading four different newspapers: a Russian-language paper about Estonia, the Latvian papers Cīņa and Padomju Jaunatne, and Pravda. In a picture by Irina and Viktors Kolpakovs, postal worker Anna Liepiņa of Preiļi seems to be sharing a newspaper with her horse. There are also historically significant photos of a period that seems to be a lifetime away, such as the shot by Vilhems Mihailovskis of a long line of people at a grocery store in Daugavpils. A picture by Leons Balodis shows Krišjāņa Barona Street in Rīga, which in many ways is unrecognizable compared to the street today.

Favorites from the 2007 event include the picture by Varis Sants of Imants Albrehts and Vilma Feldmane, both legless residents at the Rokaiži Social Care Center in Liepāja. Ainārs Šlesers, then the transport minister, appears in a photo by Andris Eglītis with a rather surprised look on his face. Ilmārs Znotiņš photographed the meat inspection room in the Rīga Central Market, with a line of pig snouts awaiting review. A picture by Oļegs Zernovs of the Latgale liberation monument “Latgales Māra” in Rēzekne captures the statue in profile and under a nearly full moon.

These are just a few of the thousands of photographs in this impressive collection. Even more pictures may be viewed on the project’s official Web site, www.vienadiena.lv.

Not all pictures were taken in Latvia. For example, a picture by Oskars Lejnieks shows the Latvian unit located in Afghanistan. Another photo shows rock group Prāta vētra on the road to St. Petersburg.

All photos are captioned in Latvian and in English, and there are statements from the main organizers that are also translated into English.

This hefty book (with a hefty price tag of LVL 49.99) provides a fascinating look through Latvia in the final years of Soviet occupation, as well as almost 20 years after regaining its freedom. The differences in certain ways are striking, but in certain ways many things have not changed at all. The book provides endless hours of browsing. Many of the pictures have a depth to them, relating a detailed story of some kind. It is truly an inspiring project, offering an intriguing travel back in time to 1987 and what Latvia was like then, as well as a kaleidoscope of the varied facets of the country in 2007.

Guitarist Kristaps Grasis has teamed up with flutist Liene Sējāne to record an album of contemporary chamber music, appropriately titled Modern Chamber Music. Classically, the term “chamber music” applies to works for smaller ensembles, so that it could be performed in a smaller “chamber.” Usually this refers to works like piano duets, string quartets and chamber choir pieces.

As a “modern” twist to this, Grasis and Sējāne, together with Wendel Biskup on bass and Mike Haarman on percussion, composed their own chamber music works and recorded them on this compact disc, released last year in Germany by ZYX Music.

Sējāne and Grasis have a long history together. Grasis, himself from Sweden and son of Latvian folk singer Austris Grasis, studied at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, both in Stockholm. On one of his first visits to Latvia in the 1980s, he met up with members of the Latvian rock group Pērkons, including keyboardist and principal composer Juris Kulakovs, and brothers Leons and Juris Sējāns. Grasis has released two albums, his debut Nangilima (1994) and Naktis/Nights (1996). He also collaborates with Latvian poet Juris Kronbergs on the album Vilks vienacis, which also features the One-Eye Wolf Band.

Liene Sējāne, originally from Latvia and the daughter of Pērkons guitarist Leons Sējāns, studied flute at the Latvian Academy of Music. Via Grasis’ collaborations with the members of Pērkons, she began working together with him and they released their first album, Parallels, in 2004. The album was published by Musica Baltica in Latvia and featured works by Béla Bartók, Astor Piazzolla and original material by Grasis.

The CD begins with the Sējāne-composed “Elve’s Song”, an almost Renaissance-like work, particularly with her flute work. In fact, it almost seems that the apostrophe is in the wrong place—and maybe it was meant to be “Elves’ Song”—since the work would fit quite nicely in any of the Lord of the Rings films. Or perhaps the song simply is about someone named Elve.

Following on that is the more modern “Fantasie: The Wolf and the Garden” by Grasis, with a more jazz-like influence and a more modern sound to it. “Night Turns to Day,” also by Grasis, features him on classical guitar in the introduction, joined later by the flute of Sējāne. The track presents the sounds of daybreak, as well as its calmness and periodic tension (perhaps from birds who are just beginning to awake).

The CD also features “The Traveller’s Suite”, a work by Grasis made up of the movements “The City,” “Promenade,” “At the Airport,” “Trainride” and “By the Sea.” “The City” features a minor key melody, performed by Sējāne, slightly reminding the listener of English folk songs. “Trainride” is also far more soothing than an actual train ride usually is, but otherwise the movement is a very tender work.

The packaging of the CD is very minimal, with no biographical information or any additional information about the works. However, one can visit the artists’ Web site for further information. Unfortunately, neither the packaging nor the Web site offer any further information on the works on the CD. It would have been interesting to read about what inspired the works and what the intended meaning is, but the listeners are left to guess about what the artists’ intentions were (which, perhaps, was the idea all along).

To give the CD the simple title of Modern Chamber Music is very ambitious, almost implying that this could be a new standard against which further chamber music works are judged against. The musicians are clearly talented and the CD is pleasant enough to listen to and well produced, but perhaps it still lacks something that would make it stand out among other such releases of modern instrumental works. Though certainly no expert on classical music myself, I probably would not call this “chamber music,” more simply instrumental music. More often than not, it reminds me of the progressive rock of the 1960s or 1970s, with the flute in particular recalling Jethro Tull (and maybe even early King Crimson). The music is all very soothing and probably would fit very well on a “smooth jazz” radio station. Certainly the guitar and flute combination is one that is rarely heard, so that itself is one reason the talented duo of Grasis and Sējāne is worth keeping an eye on.