This week’s news is the debut masterpiece of the young singer Kristiana Miller, whose presentation concert will take place this Thursday, November 9, in the “Angāra” quarter of Tallinn.
Kristiāna is only 19 years young from Tukum, who is announced as “a breath of fresh air in the Latvian alternative music environment, whose music is best characterized by bright energy, melodic mood and lyrics that make you think.” She started her professional music career in 2021, joining Linda Garanča’s Music Studio, which, working with vocal teacher Linda, gave her the opportunity to improve her skills and gain stage experience. Thanks to the victory in the 2022 competition of young musicians “Saldus Saulīte”, Kristiāna got the right to perform on the stage of Latvia’s oldest rock festival “Saldus Saule 2023” with a full program of her songs – this is currently (so far) the loudest record in the biography of this singer.
“For a very long time I wrote my songs at home, in my room, alone and I was completely sure that I should not show them to anyone, but then I found Linda, and she gave me a sense of security and confidence that my songs can also be played to people,” he recalls Christian. The first single of the debut album “Vēstules” was released in the fall of 2022, followed by almost a year of work on the album, along the way offering listeners two more singles “Satiksimies” and “Problēmas”, as well as their video versions.
Very experienced musicians took part in the recording of the album: Linda Garanča – keys, Rihards Paškauskas – guitar, Ęirts Eglītis – bass and Matīss Bērzs – drums, Kristiana herself playing the acoustic guitar and singing all the voices and accompaniments. Talking about the message of the album, Christiana says: “The album contains songs that emphasize personal growth and development. Finding the right path is not always easy, but with these songs I hope to be able to encourage someone to go in the right direction, not be afraid to make mistakes and achieve their goals.”
“Sunrise” consists of ten compositions in Latvian, but the album is available only on streaming services. “I myself feel close to nature, so it seemed unfair to our planet to produce some kind of plastic that will be thrown somewhere on someone’s shelf, because nowadays everyone listens to music on the Internet,” is how Kristiana explains her decision to release the album only in digital format.
PAR. Ten points for Kristiana’s courage – you really need “liver” to be able to show your creative work to a wider audience! As she rightly said in an interview with LTV’s “Rīta Panorāma”, “for an artist, if he creates something, it makes no sense to keep it only to himself.” In addition, this courage can also be felt in the precise vocal performance, in which there is no shadow of doubt about his skills – this is also commendable. Stylistically, it is mostly “Latvian “The Cranberries””, but with a certain dose of originality. The best song – without a doubt and by a big distance from the other “Commands”, second place could be “Letters”. “Let’s meet” and the lyrical “Tu esi ta” are also nice.
AGAINST. Although the album was played by professional musicians, and Christiana’s 19 years are not quite 12 years old, the mood of “Saules pzplaukums” reminds one of a high school token night or the once popular LTV competition “Ko tu proti?” playable – it’s probably a stone in the producer’s garden. But the biggest bummer is the lyrics. The least is that Christiana excessively often uses the string of sounds “tu” – both as a pronoun and emphasizing it at the end. Lyrics often resemble text read from a book, newspaper clipping, or internet news rather than words used in a song. But the craziest thing is that what the girl mentioned about “dishonesty towards our planet by producing some kind of plastic” has a much deeper meaning, that is, several pieces seem to have been copied from the slogans of Greta Thunberg and fellow runners of similar movements (“When”, “That ant”), while “Problems” could be offered as an anthem for the fanatics of the Istanbul Convention. Of course, that’s obviously her belief, there’s no arguing with that, but… Scary.
2023-11-07 19:01:28
#REVIEW #Kristiana #Miller #Sun #Rises
