“Reinis Jaunais releases 9th album featuring poetry and singer’s style”

The extravagant and communicative guitarist Reinis Jaunais has released his ninth album, which this time is mostly in the singer’s style. In the creation of its 13 songs, poetry created by six contemporary authors is used – in “Vārdos” you can hear lines of poetry by Anna Sintijas Ivanova, Mārs Salējs, Nora Jakovelas, Daiņas DeiijĆels, Jana Egles and Haralds Miller played in Reina’s original music.

“For the first time, no instrumental composition will be included in any of my albums,” emphasizes Reinis. “Before I started writing music for this album, I read a lot of poetry collections. These poets must have created more magnificent word combinations than I could ever write myself! I deliberately chose authors who often undeservedly go unnoticed in the musicians’ environment. With my new album, I also try to break the stereotype that it is difficult to create songs using the words of young poets, because it is said that the poems lack rhythm and rhyme. It was a good motivation for me to start creating new songs.”

The new album was mixed in both stereo and “Dolby Atmos” version by Kaspars Bārbal in the studio “Lauska”. Cellist Erna Daugaviete participated in almost all the songs, “I lost myself” was sung by Katrīna Dimantas, and in “Pārdomās” wind instruments were played by Krists Kazaks from the group “All Day Long” and Kapteinis Reinis. The visual design of the album was created by Laura Zoe. This time, the album was released in physical copies in USB format and is available in both sound formats on music streaming sites.

The album’s presentation concert will take place on July 13 in the “Vagonu zāle” cultural space, and Reini even had to justify himself on social networks that the official presentation concert of the new masterpiece was scheduled only two months after its release. However, the guitarist has planned such a tour that even “Prāta Vētra” could envy him – from May 21 to the end of June, Reinis’ schedule includes a total of 17 concerts in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, so Reinis will be with us… when he can .

A bit of the official biography. Reinis Jaunais is a guitarist, singer and composer from Riga, who since 2013 has released a new album of original music with intense regularity almost once a year. The album “Bērziņš Jaunais Smukais” was also released last year together with two other virtuoso guitarists Jānis Bērziņš and Ginta Smuko. Reinis has performed many concerts in most European countries, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, performing his original music.

PAR. Reinis Jaunais once again offers his suggestive and masterful guitar playing in his own special manner, accentuated by finger taps on the body of the guitar. The audience’s favorite compositions are “Marsa Parks” and “Pārdomas” held in jester tempos, the song “Domu krūbi” is also interesting, while the composition “While the sky is still blue” should be noted thanks to Daugaviete’s elegant cello playing. The song “Loneliness” is almost a rock piece, but it is difficult to agree with myself whether it can be marked with a plus or minus due to its uniqueness, due to the questionable text and the strange structure of the song. Overall, this album is certainly commendable.

AGAINST. When Reinis Jaunais sings in his concerts, it usually seems that there is simply no one else who could perform the piece in question – OK, so be it… But in this case, when he took it upon himself to perform all the sound material included in the album (except for the “Es lost myself”), it seems a rather dubious solution. Although Reinis strongly resembles Goran Gora in terms of timbre, he sounds much weaker in terms of quality.