Latvian Composer Kulakov’s Struggle for Recognition and Repression Under the Ministry of Culture

Repression was directed against the composer, it was impossible for him to find a job in the system of the Ministry of Culture, he was even advised to emigrate abroad. The LVK did not allow Kulakov to take the state exam, he received a diploma with a statement that he had attended a full theoretical course, and an assignment to work at the Jelgava District Culture House as a concertmaster of a dance ensemble. The musician received his university diploma in 1984, in 1986 he re-enrolled at LVK, where he studied composition for a couple of years under the guidance of Pēteras Plakids.

In 1984, the “Pērkons” ensemble of the Riga district collective farm “Sodomju Latvija” returned to the music life of the republic. At the republican show of self-produced stage ensembles in Liepāja, the group premiered the rock oratorio “Kā jūra, kā zeme, kā debes” with poetry by Māras Čaklā. The authors of the music were Kulakovs, Jānis Sējāns and composer Imants Kalniņš.

As the next tapa program with new songs by Kulakov “Daily song”, “Slidotava”, “Sastregumstunda”, songs from the first years of “Pērkona” activity were also played. In the summer of 1985, after a concert on the stage of Ogre, some aggressive teenagers vandalized two electric train cars on the way back to Riga, the second performance ban followed.

In 1985, the “Pērkona” album “Quiet nature with a perspective” was completed. While maintaining his interest in Melgalva’s works, Kulakovs focused on the poems of Klavs Elsberg, with which the 1987 magnetic album “Labu vakar” was created with the songs “Nesatiksimies”, “Lamps and stars”, “Slidotava”, “From night watchmen’s lives”, “Balletomania” and others .

During the downtime, “Pērkona” soloist Akuratere joined the “K. Remonts” ensemble of the Baldones Culture House. Meanwhile, Kulakovs collaborated with the singing actor Edgars Liepiņas in the folk song arrangement program “Smile, the heart will become bright”, as well as together with Sēņana or Bruno Priekul and ethnomusicologist Valdi Muktupāvela. At concerts, the composer played the piano, the synthesizer.

2024-02-18 21:03:15


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