Goran Gora, a singer-songwriter from Baldone in Latvia, has slowly made a name for himself in Latvia and in selected appearances abroad. Now he has his first full-length album, JetLag, released March 26 by the independent label Rudolph Records.

The 10-track album, according to a press release, includes guest appearances by a number of Latvia’s new music artists, such as Māra Upmane of Astro’n’out and Kaspars Tobis of Dzelzs vilks. Among the tracks is “Kids and Figures,” which has been getting recent airplay with a video, and “Two Hands,” the title track off his 2006 vinyl EP 2 Hands / 4 songs ep.

Goran Gora first appeared in the Latvian club scene in 2000 and since then has performed not only in his homeland, but also in Estonia, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, according to his Web site, www.gorangora.lv. In 2006, he performed in the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

More information on Goran Gora is available on his MySpace page.

Any number of resources for viewing Latvian music videos can be found online, but a relatively new one is the Web site of music television service Latvijas mūzikas kanāls, or LMK. Visitors to the site may view about 30 current videos and vote for their favorites.

Among current videos are clips by Tribes of the City, Prāta Vētra, Jumprava, Morning After and others.

Latvijas mūzikas kanāls began broadcasting in 2006 on the Baltkom cable service and is owned by Rimants Liepiņš, head of Platforma Records. Its stated mission is to showcase music videos from Latvia, no matter in which language.

Interestingly, LMK came on the scene around the same time that music video giant MTV announced its foray into the Baltic market, including starting MTV Latvija. Now, according to a March 24 announcement, MTV Networks Baltic is looking at localized expansion, adding more channels in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

The song getting the most airplay last year on Latvijas Radio 2 was “Putni” by Ēriks Kīns and Edmunds Mednis, a couple of Latvian singer-songwriters based in Chicago and Milwaukee. The pair will perform a live concert on LR2 from 17:00-18:00 hours Latvian time (15:00-16:00 GMT) March 19.

Kīns is well-known among Chicago area Latvians as a member of the now-defunct Minnow Buckets and as one of four members of the Latvian-American band Adam Zahl. Mednis also is a member of Adam Zahl, but before moving to Milwaukee was known in Latvia as a member of the schlager bands Kaimiņi (now known as the country band Sestā Jūdze) and Bumerangs.

More information about the Kīns and Mednis partnership may be found on draugiem.lv, where several of their songs may be heard. Their biography also mentions they have worked on some songs with Artūrs Rūsis of Los Angeles.