Skaņu Mežs 2025: first evening
Skaņu Mežs 2025 will happen on October 3-4 at Hanzas Perons (16A Hanzas Street). The evening of
October 3 is headlined by hyperpop singer and producer
Sega Bodega, leading British free improvisation saxophonist
John Butcher, industrial techno producer
Kilbourne and avant-garde rapper
Fatboi Sharif. Two-day tickets cost 55 EUR, and single-day tickets cost 35 EUR. Both are available at
www.bilesuserviss.lv.
Twice now - in 2022 and in 2024 - “The Wire Magazine” has described Skaņu Mežs as the main experimental music festival in the Baltics.
Characterized by “Primavera Sound” as “a glimpse into the future of pop”, Chilean-Irish hyperpop singer and producer Sega Bodega will showcase his viscose and surreal songwriting with the new audiovisual show “Adulter8”.
Leading British free improvisation saxophonist John Butcher will give one of his legendary solo performances, working both with amplification, and also acoustically - emphasizing interaction with the specifics of Hanzas Perons as a space. “English saxophonist John Butcher may be among the world's most influential musicians, operating at the cutting-edge of improvisatory practice since the '80s” writes “New York City Jazz Record”.
Skaņu Mežs will continue its exploration of forward-thinking hip-hop via the performance of eccentric rapper Fatboi Sharif. Of his music, Rolling Stone wrote the following: “There are plenty of rappers who fans claim 'no one else is rapping like,' but this dignification is actually true of Sharif.”
Purveyor of heavy industrial dance music, Kilbourne will close the first evening of the festival with an extended set, hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed new album “If Not To Give A Fantasy”. The Wire Magazine’s Misha Farrant writes thus: “Relentlessly punishing dance music often feels so satisfying because it emulates a form of cathartic sonic self-harm or kink, pounding against the body and overwhelming it. [..] Kilbourne’s new album nods to the ability of hard dance, gabber and industrial techno to sonify such fantasies.”
Full and visceral, high-voltage sound will be delivered by violinist and vocalist Laura Ortman, while the Latvian experimental music scene will be represented by Evija Ābrama’s noise music project “R3YWYA”.
Premieres and commissioned works
Two commissioned works will be presented in collaboration with sound art project “tekhnē”: “Phytomorphic Topographies”, a suite of audiovisual works exploring the delicate ecosystems of Latvia’s wilderness by artists Matthew Biederman and Pierce Warnecke, and “Balss lūzums” – a piece created by a supergroup of Latvian experimental musicians Kārlis Tone, Sarma Gabrēna, and Uģis Jansons-Krastiņš with mixed choir Dziesmuvara.
After these performances, the two works will be exhibited as installations at Hanzas Perons for the duration of the festival.
The festival is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga municipality, Goethe-Institut Riga, Kulturkontakt Nord, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and “Valmiermuiža”. Skaņu Mežs is part of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art and sound art project tekhnē, both supported by the European Union and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. SHAPE+ is also supported by Pro Helvetia. The festival is also part of the NERDS network, co-funded by the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.