“Baltic Ballads: Juuk’s New Album ‘Mulka Stabule’ Clashes with Latvia’s Hockey Championship”

The album hit at the same time as hockey

Edgars Šubrovskis, Sniedze Prauliņa, Oskars Jansons & Co. or the group “Juuk” invited to the concert of the presentation of the new album “Muļķa stabule” in the cultural space “Tu jau zini kur” in the Tallinn quarter on the evening of Thursday, May 25, which unfortunately coincided with those times , when almost all of Latvia followed with bated breath the hockey players’ fight against the Swedes in the quarterfinals of the world hockey championship.

Edgars jokingly recalled that at first the master of the album “broke down”, then the design, then both of them with Sniedzi got sick, and other misfortunes followed, but in the end they still managed to make a presentation right during the Latvian game – it was too much… Group member Oskar invited those present to report if our team scores a goal, and, believe it or not, before the song “Harmonic Ballad” was played, it happened today! In the end, the result was positive not only for the hockey players, but also for the musicians of “Juuk”, because quite a lot of people attended the concert, who, moreover, did not come to it, but came to listen to it – it’s not the same thing.

Baltic ballads in the new band

“Juuk” has so far released the studio albums “Indulgence traders” (2019) and “Bats” (2021), as well as the concert album “Two concerts” (2020). The new songs of the album are created with lines of Latvian and Lithuanian poetry, calling them Baltic ballads. “These are retellings and depictions of events, scenes and witticisms. The listener of “Fool’s stable” can go on a journey from the gothic dystopias of Jonin and Radauska to the summer idyll of Town and from observations of the Šubrovsky era to the timeless human dramas of Dragun and Ogriņš,” informs the group’s PR team about the content of the new work.

“We started writing this album already around 2019 – in parallel with the children’s song album “Bats”, but the process was interrupted by the covid epidemic, and the recording started again only last year,” Shubrovskis says. In the meantime, drummer Rinalda Maksimova has been replaced by Kalvis Sležis-Zaļkalns from the band “The Bad Tones”, and Dina Skreituli by Rasa Pole, a member of the Liepāja Symphony and National Opera Orchestra. This year, the guitarist of “Podruga” Ricards Daukst has joined the lineup, who will not only support “Juuk” in the upcoming concerts, but has already managed to give his voice in the recording of two songs of the new album.

“Fool’s stable” as the next step in development

As for the stylistics, the sound of “Mułčsa Stabule” is said to have been influenced by domestic, European and American folk music, rock, dream pop, early music and, of course, ballads. After listening to the album, you have to admit that this list is true. If I were to recommend something special, it could be the divine song “Poet” performed by Sniedza in the style of Lana del Ray, in which the features of dream pop are clearly visible. Also – the already mentioned “Harmonic ballads” sung by Šubrovskis, while “Dies dos” performed by Oskars Jansons was liked at the concert. It should be noted that the mentioned three soloists are also the group’s songwriters.

It should be assumed that the listeners will like the whole album, and it cannot be otherwise, because everything that Edgars Šubrovskis (and Sniedze too) tries to do, always succeeds. It should be reminded that in the early 1990s he sang in the Panczyk finned band “M. Gvarde”, then joined the cult group “Kartāga” (together with Anđoni, Uldi Kairi and Uldi Zariņu), at the turn of the century laid the foundation for the group “Hospitalļu iela”, later created the group “Manta” (existed from 2012 to 2017), but then gathered the “dark folk” association “Juuk”. He also composed music for films, short films, animated films, commercials, etc., and everything turned out very well. Talent, what will you do to him!

In the order of the queue – “Yards full of pigeons”

If someone feels nostalgic for the greats of the alternative music of those times under the influence of Shubrovski’s new album “Juuk”, then you don’t have to wait long for the next release of the “underground” legends – a new album “No! A known reason” is published by the group “Paložu pilni pagalmi”, which invites you to its opening concerts on June 1 and 2, respectively, in Riga’s “Vagonu zahle” and in Cēsi cultural space “Mala”.

“Courtyards full of pigeons” is one of the golden fund values ​​of Latvian independent music, which has continued to be faithful to itself and its listeners for almost 30 years (the anniversary will be celebrated next year) through the times and changing lineups. The core of the group is still Māris Šterns and Uldis Gedra, as well as Klāvs Lauls. “No! A known reason” is the thirteenth album of “pigeons”. The first of them was released way back in 1995, and by this time many of the band’s songs have become hits of their generation – “Letters”, “My big desk”, “My horse”, “Your house” etc. If about the popularity of “pigeons” if you ask a reviewer about the phenomenon, you would have to shrug your shoulders in honest confusion, because Schwern’s vocals are unbearable for the listener in a clear (and also unclear) mind, but fortunately, no one asks…

The new album contains a total of a dozen compositions – eight with texts by Švern, one each with the words of Latvian poets Madaras Gruntmanes and Tom Treiberg, as well as two texts by Turkish poet Nāzim Hikmet Rana in Pēter Brūver’s retelling of the collection of Turkish contemporary poetry published in Riga in 1988 “Balozhu pilni pagalmi” “.

The group’s songwriter Māris Šverns introduces the album this time in poetry:

“Your NO! is not a black hole

but an open window to the Milky Way

that bee sting, split core

not the magnet that draws in darkness

is His truth in you

and the starry sky above your head

milk and honey under my tongue

branches full of grapes for you stars.”

Here. These lines by Schwern are a testament to the usual form of the “Doveyards” group. Listeners can prepare to learn the known cause of the unknown.