In the year of its 40th birthday and in the month of Latvia’s birthday, the group “Iļģi” releases an opus – the longest song in Latvian folklore – “Mes nine baleliņi”. The first news from the digital album is the radio single “Will you come with us?”
There is a unique song in Latvian folklore, in fact – a lot of variants of this song in terms of both lyrics and music. Its origins refer to the longest layers of management songs. But the main thing – it is the longest song in Latvian folklore – 65 verses.
The work on creating and recording the opus in the studio has been going on for almost two years. Together with the group “Iļģi”, several guest artists also took part in the recording, including Irīna Mihailovska, Uģis Prauliņš and Ivars Cinkuss, with whom “Iļģi” has collaborated creatively several times.
The author of the album cover is Tom Buran, who continues to work on animated music videos.
“Iļģi” is the best-known post-folklore group in Latvia, which, drawing inspiration from Latvian folklore, creates its own, original music. The responsiveness of local listeners and the wide range of listeners of different age groups, as well as the fact that people who are not particularly interested in folklore also listen to “Iļģis” are important for “Iļģi”.
The group has 17 released albums, received recognitions and several awards, including the Grand Music Award and five times “Iļģi” has received the Latvian Music Record of the Year Award for the best contemporary folk music album.
“Iļģi” today: Ilga Reizniece – voice, violin; Māris Muktupāvels – voice, kokles, bagpipes, accordion, stabule; Gatis Gaujenieks – voice, bass guitar, guitar, giga, mandolin; Egons Kronbergs – bass guitar, guitar; Mārtiņš Linde – percussion instruments.
– .
